a16z
Marc Andreessen
The phenomenon we're observing is very clear... programmers are becoming what we now call 'AI vampires'.
Individual programmers' productivity has significantly increased. After using AI coding tools like Codex, Cursor, and Claude, they are working harder and longer hours.
They are sleeping less... when you talk to them, you see their eyes are puffy, with heavy dark circles, and they look exhausted, but at the same time, they are extremely excited, overjoyed, as if they are having the best time of their lives.
Even many friends we know, who had stopped coding, are now furiously writing software again.
Our firm even has a few partners who had never coded before, but now they've also become 'vampires,' furiously producing software with AI (I won't name names; let them tell their own stories).
One of these partners used AI to build an entire working system for himself; he loves this AI partner and doesn't even look at the code. But he is incredibly productive now!
This perfectly aligns with classical economic predictions: when workers' marginal productivity increases, it doesn't lead to fewer jobs; instead, it causes them to work more and earn higher salaries.
Within companies, these individuals are now in greater demand and command higher salaries.
Leading companies estimate that programmers' productivity has increased 20-fold compared to a year ago — this is the most dramatic growth in history.