Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has revealed that 20% to 30% of the company’s code is now machine-generated, signaling a new era of close collaboration between humans and AI in software development.
Satya made this disclosure at the recently held Meta LlamaCon conference, during a fireside chat with Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He noted that AI-generated code goes beyond efficiency while emphasizing that it reshapes what’s built, who builds it, and how much control engineers retain.
The Microsoft CEO noted that Python adapts well to machine-written code, while C++ lags due to its complexity, highlighting the uneven impact of AI across programming languages. When pressed, Zuckerberg admitted he didn’t know Meta’s current machine-generated code percentage but predicted AI could soon handle half of Meta’s coding workload, underscoring heavy investment in automation.
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Also, Google’s Sundar Pichai recently claimed over 30% of Google’s code is machine-generated, yet ambiguity persists across the industry about what “generated” means, autocomplete suggestions, or fully functional modules.
AI tools, now integral to Microsoft’s workflow, don’t just write code, they catch bugs and ensure quality. Recall that Microsoft subsidiary GitHub also collaborated with OpenAI to integrate Codex into GitHub Copilot, a downloadable extension for software development programs such as Visual Studio Code. The tool uses Codex to draw context from a developer’s existing code to suggest additional lines of code and functions.
GitHub’s Copilot can do a lot more, including answering engineers’ questions and converting code from one programming language to another. As a result, the assistant is responsible for an increasingly significant percentage of the software being written and is even being used to program corporations’ critical systems.
Notably, Copilot is gradually revolutionizing the working lives of software engineers, the first professional cohort to use generative AI en masse. Microsoft says Copilot has attracted 1.3 million customers so far, including 50,000 businesses ranging from small startups to corporations like Goldman Sachs, Ford and Ernst & Young. Engineers disclosed that Copilot saves them hundreds of hours a month by handling tedious and repetitive tasks, affording them time to focus on knottier challenges.
Today, AI-powered software development tools are allowing people to build software solutions. These AI-powered tools translate natural language into the programming languages that computers understand.
The future of computer programming is already facing a seismic shift driven by advances in artificial intelligence. Industry leaders have contrasting perspectives on how AI will reshape software development, with predictions ranging from transformative to cautious. One Microsoft executive has a more optimistic outlook, forecasting AI’s dominance in coding within the next five years.
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott predicted that 95 percent of programming code will be AI-generated by 2030. However, he quickly clarified that this does not signal the end of human involvement in software engineering.
He still believes that AI will not replace developers, but will fundamentally change their workflows. Instead of painstakingly writing every line of code, engineers will increasingly rely on AI tools to generate code based on prompts and instructions. In this new paradigm, developers will focus on guiding AI systems rather than programming computers manually.
However, adoption isn’t universal, as some languages and teams resist, and the lack of a clear definition for “AI-generated” fuels skepticism. As AI code generation is revolutionizing software development by automating repetitive tasks and allowing developers to focus on problem-solvin, the industry grapples with trust, control, and readiness for this transformative shift.