Don't Believe The Hype
When Alphabet ( GOOGL 0.00%↑ ), Microsoft ( MSFT 0.00%↑ ), Salesforce ( CRM 0.00%↑ ), Meta ( META 0.00%↑ ) and other large Software / Technology firms say they are holding engineer headcount flat because of AI productivity gains, don’t believe them.
Sure, AI agents can help boost engineer productivity by writing and quality testing blocks of code. However, if AI agents were capable of the work that Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and other CEOs hype on their earnings calls, companies would be cutting engineer headcount by 20-30%.
AI agents are not ready for prime time (meaning replacing engineers at scale). Company CEOs are feeding into the AI hype cycle to drive stock prices higher. That’s what’s going on.