AI is certainly not killing the software developer, Bessen said in a recent analysis. AI is taking over software development tasks and boosting productivity and output, but that is not translating into lost jobs, he argued. Instead, the types of software skills sought by companies are changing.

"Surprisingly, however, after three years of AI use, software developer jobs have continued to grow robustly, reaching record levels of employment -- 2.5 million in February," Bessen said in the report, citing data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of software developers in the US has grown by over 400,000, or 19%, since ChatGPT was introduced in 2022. At that time, the employed software developer population was just under 2.1 million.

Also: This AI expert says the job apocalypse isn't coming, even if you're a coder - here's why

Worldwide, the number of individuals identifying themselves as software developers was estimated at about 20.8 million, up from 17.3 million in 2022, for a 20% increase, according to data from JetBrains. Other estimates go even higher: As of early 2025, Kostas Korakitis, director of research for SlashData, estimated the global developer population at just over 47 million -- an increase of about 50% from Q1 2022, when the number was just over 31 million. Of course, this includes the range of people who are involved in some form of development, which could range from working in large companies to home-based projects.