343: Can AI make anyone a developer? The changing role of coders with Kyle Daigle, GitHub COO

Kyle Daigle is the Chief Operating Officer at GitHub, the world’s largest host of source code with more than 100 million developers and 420 million repositories. He joined GitHub in 2013 and later served as VP of Strategy and Chief of Staff to the CEO, playing a key role in the company’s 2018 acquisition by Microsoft. Kyle is also the public face of GitHub Copilot, the AI coding assistant launched in 2021 that now helps over 15 million users. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at Digitalworkbox and VP of Product Development at Geezeo.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Kyle’s journey from studying fine arts to leading operations at the world’s largest code platform
• Why GitHub Copilot is about freeing developers to focus on creativity and solving meaningful problems
• What it means to bring pragmatism into AI development and why usefulness always wins over hype
• How AI is lowering the barriers to software creation while keeping humans at the center of accountability
• The responsibility of platforms like GitHub to protect users from flawed code and teach safe coding by design
• Kyle’s vision for “ambient AI” and why the future should feel personal, context-aware, and privacy-conscious

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Discuss Regulation for LLMs and Legal Advice for Entrepreneurs
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation: [With Patty Hatter, tech exec/board member/advisor] - On the best advice for women in technology