Rise of the In-House Developer

By Calvin McGrath

I've started to notice something interesting happening in this AI revolution. I've seen a number of announcements and job postings from non-technical fields and companies that wouldn't have hired developers years ago, and now they're looking for technical people to join their teams.

For example, a few weeks ago I saw a large tech company hire a developer for its accounting department. This developer doesn't work on the product or with other developers. They work solely for the accounting department, building internal tools to help the accountants do their jobs. When I saw this, my first thought was, “Shouldn't this be the other way around?” With AI giving everybody the ability to code, shouldn't the accountants be the ones building their own internal tools?

Then I started thinking: when something gets cheaper or more accessible, people often use far more of it. I believe that's what we're seeing with software developers right now. Months ago, everybody told us software development would be dead. It has changed, yes, but it has also become cheaper, which lets more and more companies hire more developers and increase their output.

I think we're seeing something similar with non-technical departments and companies hiring developers. A developer can now do far more work and build more internal tools than ever before. Demand has exploded, and that demand needs a technical professional to oversee the building and deployment process.

Honestly, I think this is pretty exciting. As someone who loves to learn, it makes me excited for my future career!

For example, I'm currently taking a venture capital class at BYU. I was somewhat familiar with VC before the class, but I've learned so much since the start of the semester, and I find it incredibly fascinating.

I wonder if we'll see a world where venture capital firms, accounting firms, law firms, insurance agencies, and service companies (businesses you wouldn't expect to hire a developer or product manager) hire these people for the solutions they can build in-house. Frankly, I think it would be incredible to work at a venture capital firm as a technical person, building tools and processes that the whole team uses.