After Cognition raised $1 billion, external attention has once again turned to whether AI programming agents will replace engineers. As the developer of Devin, the company introduced a vision of "autonomous software development" in its funding announcement, but CEO Scott Wu offered a more cautious perspective on this.
Wu told TechCrunch that from the outset, Cognition never intended Devin to be a tool for replacing human programmers. In his view, such agents are more like collaborative partners for developers, aimed at helping teams build software faster, rather than removing engineers from the development process.
Devin is positioned as a development assistant.
Wu said that many software engineers truly enjoy the process of turning ideas into products. The role of AI agents is to take over repetitive, time-consuming, and mechanical tasks, allowing engineers to refocus their time on design, creation, and product realization.
He compared this change to another level of abstraction in the history of software development. In the past, development environments had already freed programmers from lower-level machine instructions; now, agents further shorten the gap between “having an idea” and “producing software.”
Devin has been widely adopted within the company.
Although Wu disagrees with the term "replacement programmer," Cognition has disclosed that Devin has already taken on the majority of software delivery tasks within the company. The company states that 89% of the code submitted by engineers was completed by Devin, with the remainder primarily coming from local agent tools, including products related to Windsurf, which the company acquired last year.
Wu explained that Devin is currently better suited to handle tail-end tasks that many engineers are unwilling to commit to long-term, such as upgrading legacy software, migrating applications, and other maintenance tasks. These tasks are typically lengthy and repetitive but must still be completed.
- The company completed a $1 billion funding round this week.
- The latest valuation has reached $26 billion.
- Devin accounts for 89% of internal code submissions.
Skills are still in the junior to mid-level engineer range.
Regarding the current limits of Devin’s capabilities, Wu stated that it can independently complete certain tasks, but its overall proficiency still roughly falls between that of a junior and mid-level engineer, depending on the type of task.
This means that AI programming agents are already capable of handling a significant portion of development work, but they are still far from fully taking over complex software engineering processes. Wu also acknowledges that as these agents continue to learn and improve, software development will enter a phase of even faster change.
The goal is to expand into more industries.
Wu believes that software and code are merely the first areas where AI agents will be deployed; in the future, similar tools will enter industries such as customer service and healthcare. However, he emphasizes that final decision-making authority should remain in human hands, and AI is better suited as an augmentation tool rather than a direct replacement for professional roles.
From this statement, Cognition is simultaneously advancing more automated software development and seeking to downplay the narrative that AI is taking away programmers’ jobs, positioning Devin as a collaborative system that enhances productivity rather than a tool for layoffs.