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Indians account for 12%, or 18 million, of the 150 million developers on GitHub, an online platform for collaborative software development, and India is the fastest-growing developer community with a million Indians joining the platform every three months, a top official said. GitHub wants a billion developers, and there's no path to that without India, Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub, told ET in an interview. He said India can play a significant role in AI's future.
There is enormous room for innovation in how we deploy and interact with AI-and India is well-positioned to lead that transformation, he said. Indian developers are now the second-largest contributors to public generative AI projects-up 79% from last year. They're eager to move faster and just need the right support, Daigle said.
For this to happen, the Indian software education ecosystem, which produces hundreds of thousands of developers each year, must adopt relevant curriculum that can then build an AI-ready workforce, he said. Learning to code won't become obsolete; that misses the point, he said. Software is fundamentally about problem-solving.
AI will help us move faster, but three human skills will remain essential: strong problem-solving abilities, clear communication with both humans and AI, and above all, a growth mindset-the willingness to constantly learn, adapt, and embrace what's new. That's what will set successful developers and students apart in this AI-driven era. Daigle said current AI models are largely used in repetitive, chat-based scenarios, limiting their potential.
We've gone from big AI leaps to smaller, steady improvements, but models like DeepSeek show breakthroughs are still possible, Daigle said, citing the Chinese AI company that shook up the world of technology by offering models that compete with US Big Tech at a fraction of the cost. Surprises can come from anywhere. If we want real progress, we need novel ideas-not just reusing the same models in the same ways, he said.
As the AI wave rages on, a major debate is about the threat of 'AI monocultures', in which a few dominant models, such as the GPT family, Google Gemini, Anthropic, and Meta, become the building blocks for most AI applications-and, hence, all pervasive.Daigle said he no longer believed the industry was headed for a single-model future. Two years ago, there were only a few significant players; now there are many, along with numerous lesser ones, he said.
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