GitHub VP Says AI Will Expand Developer Workforce

Martin Woodward, GitHub’s vice president of developer ecosystem, told the Electronic Times in an interview at GitHub Universe 2026, held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on the 28th and 29th local time, that he was not concerned AI would replace developer jobs. He predicted that making coding easier with AI would instead increase both the number of developers and the volume of software development.

Woodward said lower barriers to coding would let existing developers handle more work and allow non-specialists to take part in software development. He said the amount of code and the number of contributors would grow together. South Korea’s GitHub developer community grew by 1 million in one year and surpassed 3.5 million this year. Woodward said Korean-language AI tools are lowering language barriers and broadening developers’ creativity.

Woodward said developers’ roles are also changing. Previously, developers wrote code line by line; now, they convey their intent to AI to create an application’s overall structure, then review and revise the result.

He stressed that people must retain final control even as AI agents become more autonomous. Developers and organizations should set AI’s permissions to access, modify and merge code, and carefully review security-critical changes, he said. He added that defining good software and translating customer needs into code still requires developers’ creativity, judgment and discernment.

Martin Woodward, GitHub’s vice president of developer ecosystem, told the Electronic Times in an interview at GitHub Universe 2026, held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on the 28th and 29th local time, that he was not concerned AI would replace developer jobs. He predicted that making coding easier with AI would instead increase both the number of developers and the volume of software development.

Woodward said lower barriers to coding would let existing developers handle more work and allow non-specialists to take part in software development. He said the amount of code and the number of contributors would grow together. South Korea’s GitHub developer community grew by 1 million in one year and surpassed 3.5 million this year. Woodward said Korean-language AI tools are lowering language barriers and broadening developers’ creativity.

Woodward said developers’ roles are also changing. Previously, developers wrote code line by line; now, they convey their intent to AI to create an application’s overall structure, then review and revise the result.

He stressed that people must retain final control even as AI agents become more autonomous. Developers and organizations should set AI’s permissions to access, modify and merge code, and carefully review security-critical changes, he said. He added that defining good software and translating customer needs into code still requires developers’ creativity, judgment and discernment.