Scott Wu, the CEO of Cognition, made waves this week when his young AI coding firm secured $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. The company is known for Devin, one of the pioneering AI coding agents, which Wu claims “naturally owns tasks end to end.”
In a blog post detailing this funding round, Cognition shared its vision of transitioning towards a future dominated by “self-driving software development.”
So, does that mean Devin could potentially take over the role of mid-level L4 programmers? Wu offered a nuanced response to ToolsMixAi: “We’ve never thought about it as replacing humans. It has never been our view.”
In today’s turbulent landscape of 2026, where tech CEOs are frequently announcing layoffs in the pursuit of automation, Wu is committed to preserving programming jobs. “We are all programmers ourselves,” he emphasized. “I started coding when I was nine.”
A recent profile in Colossus touted Wu as one of the most talented young competitive programmers ever. As a second grader, he clinched a national math contest aimed at seventh graders, sparking a childhood filled with accolades in math and coding competitions. This experience connected him with peers, some of whom later founded their own AI tech ventures, such as Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang.
Wu reiterated to ToolsMixAi that creating obsolescence for human programmers was never the intention.
“When we started building Devin, it’s kind of a funny thing,” he reflected. “We really just thought of it as: this is your buddy who helps you build more.” He even keeps a little stuffed animal resembling Devin on his desk, symbolizing the supportive nature of the AI tool: “This is my buddy that helps you build more.”
Wu aims to ensure that the pleasure of programming remains intact.
“It’s not a secret; most software engineers love building software, right?” he remarked. “If you ask them why, they’ll often say, ‘I get to create things from nothing. I can transform my ideas into products and experiences.’”
He views agents like Devin as another layer of abstraction in software creation, similar to how visual development environments have simplified software building away from raw machine instructions.
Cognition reports that Devin currently handles nearly all software production within the company. An impressive 89% of code contributions from engineers are completed by Devin, with the remaining portion attributed to local agents developed by Windsurf, the AI coding firm Cognition acquired last year.
According to Wu, Devin primarily manages the less appealing maintenance tasks that many programmers prefer to avoid: updating legacy software and migrating applications across platforms. Agents aim to relieve coders of tedious work, allowing them to focus more on creative initiatives.
Thus, Wu dismisses the notion that Devin could simply “replace” human coders. While it can operate autonomously, he believes it functions at a skill level akin to that of a junior to mid-level engineer, depending on the task.
Concerning the future of self-driving software, where agents evolve and enhance their capabilities, Wu remarked, “I think we are in for a wild ride.”
He anticipates that similar AI-driven agents will emerge in various sectors, learning to manage tasks in fields such as customer service and healthcare, but hopes they will complement human workers rather than displace them.
“Code and software is just the beginning; we’ll see this unfold in many industries,” he predicted. “One principle has been clear from the start: humans should retain control over what needs to be done… this applies to software engineering and other professions as well.”
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