AI and globalisation are shaking up software developers’ world
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Two big shifts are under way in the world of software development. Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, bosses have been falling over themselves to try to find ways to Github, a popular platform for storing and sharing code, living in poorer countries surpassed those from the rich world.
On the same measure, in the next few years India is expected to overtake America to become the world’s biggest pool of programming talent (see chart 1). These shifts matter because software talent is treasured. Salaries are high (see chart 2).
The median wage of a developer in America sits in the top 5% of all occupations, meaning that coders earn more than nuclear engineers. Tech giants need them to make their platforms more attractive; non-tech company bosses want ever more coders to aid the digitisation efforts that, they hope, will improve productivity and appeal to consumers. The two shifts are therefore welcome news.
The future looks to be one with more, and more productive, coders—and cheaper software. New technologies have often aided developers. The internet, for instance, ended the time-consuming task of answering questions using textbooks.
Generative ai looks like a bigger leap forward still. One reason why it can be especially useful for developers is the availability of data. Online forums, such as Stack Overflow, hold enormous archives of questions asked and answered by coders.
The answers are often rated, which helps ai models learn what is helpful and what is not. Coding is also full of feedback loops and tests that check if software works properly, notes Nathan Benaich, of Air Street Capital, a venture-capital (VC) firm. ai models can use this feedback to learn and improve.
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