# Coding-agent adoption could reach far beyond software engineers

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agent-adoption-could-reach-far-beyond-software/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/) · Scott Wu is cofounder and CEO of Cognition. · Co-founded Cognition, the company behind Devin, an autonomous software engineer; three-time IOI gold medalist.
- Host: [Molly O'Shea](https://realalpha.app/people/molly-oshea/) · Founder, Sourcery · Ex-Upfront Ventures investor; has interviewed Alex Karp and Palmer Luckey.
- Show: Sourcery
- Episode: [Inside the Fastest-Growing Category in AI: Scott Wu, CEO of $26B Cognition](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/), Jul 27, 2026
- Moment: 4:13 to 7:48 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/coding-agent-adoption-could-reach-far-beyond-software/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=253

## Quote

> “the rough answer a year ago was roughly zero and the rough answer for you know two three years from now is **roughly every software engineer** in the world”
> — [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/) at [5:13](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=313) · Sourcery

## Takeaways

1. Customers' Devin usage grew 11–12x over six months.
2. Wu sees adoption moving from near zero to nearly every engineer.
3. He expects people beyond software engineers to build products.

## About this segment

Scott Wu contrasts near-zero coding-agent use a year earlier with potential adoption by nearly every software engineer within a few years. He expects people beyond engineers to build products, helping explain the category's growth.

From “Inside the Fastest-Growing Category in AI: Scott Wu, CEO of $26B Cognition”, Jul 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[4:18](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=258) Did you ever think you'd be growing this fast? It's a good question. so what i always think about with this is i think on the one hand i think relative to businesses and by the way it's it's it's not just us it's like our customers have seen this where similarly our customers in the last six months or so have also grown their usage something in the range of like 11 to 12 acts and um um of devin um and um the way i'd say it is yeah on the one hand i think you you just like think about businesses in the past you think about growth of all these tech companies in history and obviously it's pretty crazy um on the other hand you know when i kind of asked the the question um like the first principle of the question of okay how many people are using coding agents now how much are they using it for how much are they

[5:05](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=305) getting out of it versus like what do we think they're going to be using and how much of it are they going to be using in you know three years or something i think the rough answer especially if you look you know if we rewind a bit like a year ago the rough answer a year ago was roughly zero and the rough answer for you know two three years from now is roughly every software engineer in the world and probably a lot more than all the just the software engineers because i think a lot more people will be able to produce code and produce products and so on right um and so then when you when you take those two points on the curve and you just extrapolate out what has to happen you know it's i i think there has to be massive adoption massive growth i think what that looks like in practice often is like um of course you know there's there's the virality itself there's

[5:50](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=350) like you know there's there's a ton of great content that i think a lot of different folks are putting out in terms of like educating people and and showing people how to use the tools effectively and then there's you know real organizational change that has to happen all these companies to make that happen but it's insane like of all the categories there was an interview i did way back when with naveen from mayfield and he laid out the three fastest growing categories and i know it's like it's really obviously it's it's quite easy to kind of forget about these things when you're in it and like when the whole market is moving with it yeah but it's insane how fast this new category in less than three years you got to 500 million in revenue that's crazy half a billion in revenue in less than three years yeah that's insane yeah no it's

[6:34](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=394) i mean it's i think we're very fortunate and i think that the like obviously i mean ai as a whole has moved like crazy in the last few years but like the way that we think about it is like we have to move this fast you know it's it's like if if we frankly if we only 3x year over year or whatever it is you know we'd be we'd be lagging the market right in terms of how fast all this adoption is happening and i think it's i would say it's more a reflection of just how meaningful the technology is you know it's like everybody in enterprise or you know just building products in general like the hardest part about building any product selling a product all that it's just like explaining to people why they should care you know it's like hey i've got this like you know payroll optimization thing i've got this usage-based building thing i've got whatever

[7:21](https://realalpha.app/v/y1XxtvYll4s/?t=441) but like here's why this is like you know really meaningful and here's why you should be thinking about this right the nice thing about this with with you know ai that can write code by itself and build self-driving products for you is you know it's it's i think it's kind of obvious why you should care right and so a lot of it is is just like figuring out how you solve all the practical problems of like getting the technology there and then getting it out to to people you're