Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub: At Microsoft and GitHub, we’re not worried about AI taking away 50% of engineering jobs, we’re much more worried about the skills future engineers will need

Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub

GitHubthe Microsoft-owned software development platform, has revised its forecast of when India will overtake the US as the world’s largest developer community. Originally expected for 2027, the milestone is now forecast for 2028. The adjustment takes into account global economic trends and the rapid expansion of the US developer market, driven by significant advances in artificial intelligence.

What could “slow down” India’s growth in 2025?

In an interaction with Economic Times (ET), GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke said: “If India were to slow down next year for some reason… these numbers often also depend on things outside of our control.” Dohmke added: “The overall economic environment, the demand that global system integrators are seeing, the startup Ecosystem, how many students are leaving colleges next year, the year (the students) started in the middle of Covid…”So there are a lot of factors at play in these models.”Dohmke visited India twice this year.
While India’s developer base continues to grow significantly and will reach 17 million in 2023, the US market remains the largest with 23.8 million developers. GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke expressed optimism about India’s long-term potential, highlighting the country’s strong startup ecosystem, growing number of technology graduates and government support for technology initiatives.

The bigger AI concern than job displacement

When discussing the impact of AI on workplaces, Dohmke highlighted the potential of AI tools like GitHub Copilot to increase productivity and efficiency. “When I look at my own backlog and my workload Microsoft and GitHub we certainly have more work than ever before. And we’re not worried about AI taking away half of engineering jobs. “I think we’re much more concerned that AI has added additional skills and challenges to what a full-stack engineer needs to do today,” said GitHub CEO.
However, he acknowledged concerns about job relocation and the need for developers to adapt to new skills such as: B. Prompt Engineering. Dohmke said: “We need to provide ways to upskill these employees into new career fields that require skills such as announcements, quick craftsmanship, etc. We will see this change.”
To further support the Indian developer community, GitHub plans to expand its presence in the country by opening more centers of excellence in collaboration with Indian companies. These centers will focus on training developers in AI-powered tools and techniques.