Why AI is key to hiring and retaining developers
By
Bryan
Kirschner,
Vice
President,
Strategy
at
DataStax
It’s
high
time
to
treat
HR
as
every
bit
as
important
to
your
company’s
artificial
intelligence
strategy
as
IT.
By
Bryan
Kirschner,
Vice
President,
Strategy
at
DataStax
It’s
high
time
to
treat
HR
as
every
bit
as
important
to
your
company’s
artificial
intelligence
strategy
as
IT.
Alongside
all
the
evidence
that
getting
your
developers
working
on
AI
is
good
for
your
business,
there’s
mounting
proof
that
even
providing
the
opportunity
to
work
on—and
work
with—AI
has
a
positive
effect
on
job
satisfaction,
recruitment,
and
retention.
Getting
this
right
matters
a
lot
today.
In
2022,
McKinsey’s
State
of
AI
Report
notes
that
“[s]oftware
engineers
emerged
as
the
AI
role
that
survey
responses
show
organizations
hired
most
often
in
the
past
year,
more
often
than
data
engineers
and
AI
data
scientists
…
another
clear
sign
that
many
organizations
have
largely
shifted
from
experimenting
with
AI
to
actively
embedding
it
in
enterprise
applications.”
And
the
stakes
are
high.
In
the
data
gathered
for
the
latest
State
of
the
Data
Race
report,
the
developers
most
tapped
into
next-generation
technologies
(these
are
developers
who
describe
themselves
as
“the
first
in
their
organization
to
learn
about
new
tools
and
technologies”
and
those
upon
whom
others
rely
on
for
answers
about
new
tech)
describe
interacting
with
real-time
data
and
building
AI
and
ML-powered
apps
as
the
most
important
factors
in
deciding
where
to
work.
Overall,
developers
in
organizations
with
both
AI
and
ML
widely
deployed
were
15
percentage
points
more
likely
than
those
in
organizations
where
AI
and
ML
are
in
“the
early
days”
of
deployment
to
say
that
“tech
is
more
exciting
than
ever.”
Similarly,
they
were
18
points
more
likely
to
say
they
felt
“energized”
about
their
jobs.
AI:
An
opportunity
for
your
developers
to
make
an
impact
It
isn’t
hard
to
grasp
why.
Developers
have
always
leaned
into
technologies
that
enabled
them
to
increase
their
impact
and
keep
their
skills
up
to
date.
(In
State
of
the
Data
Race
data,
for
example,
about
three
quarters
rate
opportunities
to
learn
and
to
use
the
latest
technologies
as
important
in
their
work.)
And
now,
with
many
CIOs
feeling
pressure
from
corporate
teams
to
create
AI
apps
that
could
quickly
cut
costs,
AI
offers
the
prospect
of
helping
to
recession-proof
their
jobs.
So
it’s
vital
that
your
people
strategy
keeps
up
with
the
pace
at
which
your
competitors
are
pushing
their
developers
to
produce,
but
also
the
ways
rivals
equip
them
to
not
only
be
happier,
but
also
more
productive.
AI:
A
way
to
help
your
developers
be
more
productive
AI
has
a
role
to
play
in
this,
too.
New
research
that
details
GitHub
Copilot’s
impact
on
developer
productivity
and
happiness
really
hammers
this
home.
Nearly
nine
out
of
10
(88
percent)
of
2,000
developers
surveyed
said
that
using
Copilot,
a
real-time
AI
assistant
that
offers
code
suggestions,
made
them
more
productive.
Sixty
percent
said
they
felt
more
fulfilled
with
their
job.
The
words
of
one
software
engineer
illustrate
why:
“(With
Copilot,)
I
have
to
think
less,
and
when
I
have
to
think
it’s
the
fun
stuff.
It
sets
off
a
little
spark
that
makes
coding
more
fun
and
more
efficient.”
But
it’s
arguably
the
perspective
of
one
chief
technology
officer
that
tees
up
the
call
to
action
best:
“The
engineers’
satisfaction
with
doing
edgy
things
and
us
giving
them
edgy
tools
is
a
factor
for
me.
Copilot
makes
things
more
exciting.”
You
already
know
that
the
apps
that
will
most
delight
your
customers
and
win
you
market
share
or
margin
going
forward
will
be
AI-driven.
Developers
who
already
work
for
you
today—and
those
you
might
be
keen
to
hire—are
eager
to
get
to
work
on
them,
and
to
use
AI
tools
themselves.
That’s
a
clear
North
Star
for
your
business,
people,
and
IT
strategy
to
align
toward,
ASAP.
Learn
how
DataStax
enables
real-time
AI
here.
About
Bryan
Kirschner:
Bryan
is
Vice
President,
Strategy
at
DataStax.
For
more
than
20
years
he
has
helped
large
organizations
build
and
execute
strategy
when
they
are
seeking
new
ways
forward
and
a
future
materially
different
from
their
past.
He
specializes
in
removing
fear,
uncertainty,
and
doubt
from
strategic
decision-making
through
empirical
data
and
market
sensing.
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