Emergent CEO: AI Makes Developers More Valuable, Not Less

That expectation shapes who Jha hires. He said he looks for candidates who are "really, really curious about problem solving" and who are "hard-charging, hungry, and looking for impact." Traditional role boundaries don't apply at Emergent. "Our designers actually write code; our engineers now do designing; our PMs are able to ship a feature themselves," said Jha.

For aspiring developers, Jha's advice was direct: "Use AI as much as possible." He said workers who use the tools well have expanded their capabilities tenfold. He also cautioned against treating AI as a substitute for foundational skills. Problem-solving and collaboration still matter, he said, and colleges remain a good place to learn them.

Jha pointed to his own path – he started coding at 12 with his twin cofounder and later dropped out of a PhD program – as evidence that the technical discipline itself matters more than the specific engineering track. "We are barely scratching the surface of what is going to happen with AI," he said.

The funding round and Jha's comments land as the broader tech industry debates whether AI coding tools will shrink or expand the developer workforce. Many executives have told Business Insider that AI is changing the skills they prioritize in employees. Jha's bet is that the total addressable market for software grows fast enough to absorb both the productivity gains and the new builders.