Inside Devin: The world’s first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company’s code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition) · Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth summary

Key takeaways

Devon currently generates around 25% of Cognition's pull requests, expected to rise to over 50% by year-end.
Engineers at Cognition manage multiple Devons to enhance productivity and scale their coding efforts.
The integration of AI in engineering workflows is reshaping the role of software engineers from coders to architects.
Cultural shifts are necessary when adopting AI tools, emphasizing effective communication and training.
Hiring top talent is crucial for startup success, with a strong emphasis on persistence and understanding team dynamics.

Summary

The Evolution of AI Engineering

Scott Wu, co-founder and CEO of Cognition, discusses Devon, the world’s first autonomous AI software engineer, which helps teams handle coding tasks. Currently, about 25% of pull requests at Cognition are generated by Devon, with expectations to exceed 50% by year-end. He emphasizes that as AI improves, the role of engineers will shift from coders to architects, focusing more on design and high-level planning.

Working with AI: The New Paradigm

The podcast goes into detail on how engineers on Cognition's team utilize multiple Devons to increase productivity. Each engineer typically manages about five Devons simultaneously, which allows them to multitask and scale their efforts. This method fosters a unique workflow that integrates seamlessly into the development process and leads to faster outputs.

Live Demonstrations of Devon

In a live demo, Scott illustrates Devon's capabilities by showing how it integrates with existing tools like Slack and GitHub to tackle real coding tasks. Viewers see Devon making pull requests, updating code bases, and even facilitating bug fixes, demonstrating the AI's current functionality and its rapid evolution over just one year.

The Future of Software Engineering

Scott shares thoughts on what lies ahead for software engineering as AI technology becomes more prevalent. He believes that programming will continue to grow in importance, with more engineers needed to devise solutions and interact with advanced AI. The discussion ties into how AI can enhance productivity and create more jobs in the engineering sector.

Cultural Shifts Required for AI Adoption

As companies integrate AI like Devon, cultural shifts must occur to accommodate this change. Scott explains the importance of teaching teams how to communicate effectively with AI tools, much like managing junior engineers. This involves training, experimenting with processes, and iterating on workflows to ensure successful adoption.

Insights on Hiring and Building Teams

In the latter part of the conversation, Scott provides insights on the startup experience, elaborating on the importance of hiring the best talent. He recounts experiences during the hiring process that required insights into team dynamics, emphasizing persistence in finding the right fit, which ultimately brings immense value to their teams.

Show notes

Scott Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Cognition, the company behind Devin—the world’s first autonomous AI software engineer. Unlike other AI coding tools, Devin works like an autonomous engineer that you can interact with through Slack, Linear, and GitHub, just like with a remote engineer. With Scott’s background in competitive programming and a previous AI-powered startup, Lunchclub, teaching AI to code has become his ultimate passion.What you’ll learn:

1. How a team of “Devins” are already producing 25% of Cognition’s pull requests, and they are on track to hit 50% by year’s end

2. How each engineer on Cognition’s 15-person engineering team works with about five Devins each

3. How Devin has evolved from a “high school CS student” to a “junior engineer” over the past year

4. Why engineering will shift from “bricklayers” to “architects”

5. Why AI tools will lead to more engineering jobs rather than fewer

6. How Devin creates its own wiki to understand and document complex codebases

7. The eight pivots Cognition went through before landing on their current approach

8. The cultural shifts required to successfully adopt AI engineers

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Where to find Scott Wu:

• X: https://x.com/scottwu46

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-wu-8b94ab96/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Scott Wu and Devin

(09:13) Scaling and future prospects

(10:23) Devin's origin story

(17:26) The idea of Devin as a person

(22:19) How a team of “Devins” are already producing 25% of Cognition’s pull requests

(25:17) Important skills in the AI era

(30:21) How Cognition’s engineering team works with Devin's

(34:37) Live demo

(42:20) Devin’s codebase integration

(44:50) Automation with Linear

(46:53) What Devin does best

(52:56) The future of AI in software engineering

(57:13) Moats and stickiness in AI

(01:01:57) The tech that enables Devin

(01:04:14) AI will be the biggest technology shift of our lives

(01:07:25) Adopting Devin in your company

(01:15:13) Startup wisdom and hiring practices

(01:22:32) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• Devin: https://devin.ai/

• GitHub: https://github.com/

• Linear: https://linear.app/

• Waymo: https://waymo.com/

• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• Anysphere: https://anysphere.inc/

• Bolt: https://bolt.new/

• StackBlitz: https://stackblitz.com/

• Cognition: https://cognition.ai/

• v0: https://v0.dev/

• Vercel: https://vercel.com/

• Everyone’s an engineer now: Inside v0’s mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder and CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch

• Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons

• Assembly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language

• Pascal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(programming_language)

• Python: https://www.python.org/

• Jevons paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

• Datadog: https://www.datadoghq.com/

• Bending the universe in your favor | Claire Vo (LaunchDarkly, Color, Optimizely, ChatPRD): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/bending-the-universe-in-your-favor

• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai

• Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad

• Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/

• COBOL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL

• Fortran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran

• Magic the Gathering: https://magic.wizards.com/en

• Aura frames: https://auraframes.com/

• AirPods: https://www.apple.com/airpods/

• Steven Hao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-hao-160b9638/

• Walden Yan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waldenyan/

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Recommended books:

• How to Win Friends & Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034

• The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Law-Venture-Capital-Making/dp/052555999X

• The Great Gatsby: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Gatsby-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0743273567

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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Inside Devin: The world’s first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company’s code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)