fchollet: agents now write ~100% of code, yet corporate bottom lines aren't budging
fchollet · x · 2026-10-18
François Chollet (creator of Keras) shared observations on the "total" automation of software engineering:
- There are more software engineers now than in 2025, and demand keeps growing.
- Engineers have never worked harder.
- They largely don't write code anymore — agents write 100% of it.
- Yet the bottom lines of the companies employing these engineers and agents typically aren't improving from AI adoption.
His takeaway: think in systems. Automating one aspect of a system creates its own friction and moves the bottleneck elsewhere, rather than directly boosting the end result.
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