Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently shared that as much as 30% of code in Microsoft's repos is probably written by software. And it appears Microsoft developers are far from the only people using AI to code.
According to the most recent Microsoft quarterly report, over 15 million people now use GitHub Copilot. That figure marks a 4x increase year-over-year and indicates a strong interest in using AI to optimize development.
During the Microsoft FY25 Q3 earnings conference call, Nadella touched on the success of GitHub Copilot.
"We are evolving GitHub Copilot from pair to peer programmer. With agent mode in VS Code, Copilot can now iterate on code, recognize errors, and fix them automatically," said Nadella.
"All-up, we now have over 15 million GitHub Copilot users, up over 4X year-over-year," the CEO added.
"And both digital natives like Twilio and enterprises like Cisco, HPE, SkyScanner, and Target, continue to choose GitHub Copilot to equip their developers with AI throughout the entire dev lifecycle."
Those remarks came as part of a call filled with good news for Microsoft investors. The company had yet another record quarter and beat expectations. Revenue was up 13% year-over-year to a total of $70.1 billion in the quarter.
Microsoft also saw a surge in the usage of several services. Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure, grew 21% year-over-year. Xbox content and services also grew 8%, which was driven in part by PC Game Pass growing 45% year-over-year.
What is GitHub Copilot?
GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant designed to help developers. The tool allows people to code faster and with less effort, according to Microsoft. The tech giant states that with GitHub Copilot, developers can focus more on fixing issues and working together.
You can use GitHub Copilot in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), in GitHub Mobile, and in Windows Terminal Canary. The tool is also available on the command line and on the GitHub website.
GitHub Copilot can make code suggestions, create descriptions of changes within a pull request, and review code. A GitHub doc outlines all the features of the tool.
AI coding
As AI grows in popularity and usage, many debate its effectiveness and whether automation will replace jobs. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff shared that the company is debating hiring software engineers in 2025 because of the advancements of AI. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously discussed the potential for mid-level AI engineers to claim coding jobs.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said that AI will replace humans for most things, though he specifically said coders, energy specialists, and biologists will be safe from being replaced by AI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is interested in having AI make coders 10 times more efficient.
Microsoft's 2024 Work Trend Index report suggested that many executives would not hire someone without AI aptitude.
As we wait to see to what extent AI will replace human jobs, it's clear that AI tools are being used by developers. At least 15 million of those developers are doing so through GitHub Copilot.
