AI Agents Expand Software Creation to Billions, Redefining Development

Key Quotes

"three years ago our addressable audience was essentially 17 million professional javascript developers and suddenly computers can write code and addressable audience for a tool like ours which is everybody that can use spreadsheets today reaches like 3 billion people a year ago we were sitting at around 3 000 sign ups a day today we're sitting at around 16 000 a day"

Matt Villaman highlights a significant market expansion for developer tools, indicating that the advent of AI has broadened the potential user base from professional developers to a much larger audience capable of using spreadsheet-like tools. This shift suggests a fundamental change in who can create software and interact with development platforms.

"the barrier between i have an idea and i ship working software is collapsing netlify just watched their daily signups drop from 3 000 to 16 000 the twist most of these new users aren't developers they're marketers designers product managers people who six months ago couldn't write a line of code"

Matt Villaman points out that the traditional gap between having an idea and deploying functional software is diminishing, evidenced by Netlify's surge in sign-ups. He notes that a substantial portion of these new users come from non-developer backgrounds, such as marketing and design, underscoring the democratizing effect of AI on software creation.

"the whole definition of a developer is really gonna change right like where where the what defined at developer at its core used to be being able to write code and understand programming languages and understand the syntax and like that layer sort of below the visible substrate of things right like and suddenly that part of being a developer is getting way less important and potentially going to a web what zero importance right like and then the other skill set of being a developer of clarity of thought of understanding what users actually need you to build of systems thinking and system design and so on those elements are suddenly becoming like the main qualifier for like i actually like really strong developer"

Matt Villaman argues that the core definition of a developer is evolving, shifting away from proficiency in coding syntax and programming languages. He suggests that skills like clear thinking, understanding user needs, and system design are becoming the primary differentiators for strong developers in the current landscape.

"i think that the whole framework nonsense is the stuff that we shouldn't like we shouldn't like not worry about yeah and that of course to your point there are things where you don't have to describe so low level as code that you can do a high level and and there's so many aspects that like we've both like been like hard core like our brain has been changed by sitting with stuff like a commodore 64 and like learning memory addresses and just taking for granted that like every little comment i remember folks in b i remember like a lap you're like poking and like independent memory like you're not loading it was like that level right like so we also forget how much of a barrier it is like just when you start right like that like that whole learning curve of like oh i mistyped one character and now nothing works right"

The speaker counters that while AI might abstract away some complexities, the fundamental logic of programming remains crucial. They express that the burden of remembering numerous frameworks and their specific decisions is a form of "wasted knowledge," and AI can help developers focus on core programming logic rather than framework-specific details.

"browsers will evolve really dramatically from this and we'll have much more of like that originally concept of a user agent on the web is getting real right like we're going to have like all of these different ways of of of consuming the web where some looks somewhat like the browser now and some really doesn't a lot of things that's held us like that's made it really challenging to build like very visual or ui driven experience and so on are going to be solved like for example all of the accessibility constraints right like they're they're not really going to matter because like what what would you prefer like trying to access my e commerce through a screen reader or just through chat gpt in a more small grade"

Matt Villaman predicts significant evolution in browsers, bringing the concept of a "user agent" to the forefront. He suggests that this will lead to diverse ways of interacting with the web, potentially simplifying challenges like accessibility constraints by allowing AI agents to interpret and interact with content more fluidly.

"there's that mindset of like building tools that claim to be like we are now your developer and like you don't need developers anymore because like the ai is your developer and that's like you know outsourcing development right like and right like in your outsourced yeah our approach has really been like you on our developer right like well it's to our existing developer base but it's to all of these new people that that come in and and start this journey right like it's really like okay if you want to go on this journey you're now a developer and you have to learn things and you have to understand like what happened like how how software is built right like code is like a little part of it right like but if you want to like talk to a database you have to like yeah yeah yeah understand you know just like some some elements of like what's happening in the world and you have to know that to be able to collaborate with these ai agents"

Matt Villaman distinguishes between two approaches to AI in development: one that aims to replace developers with AI, and another that empowers both existing and new users to become developers by collaborating with AI. He emphasizes Netlify's philosophy of augmenting human capabilities, requiring users to learn and understand software development principles to effectively work with AI agents.