Will anybody use AI as much as coders?
· Technology · Hindustan Times, The Economist
Software engineers currently lead the adoption of artificial intelligence tools, with four-fifths of developers reporting regular use of AI coding assistants. This high engagement has driven significant revenue growth for startups like Cognition, Cursor, Lovable, and Replit, whose combined annual recurring revenue surged from $800 million in June 2025 to $6 billion today. While AI labs and cloud giants rely on this rapid adoption to justify massive data centre investments, other white-collar sectors have yet to mirror this level of integration. Analysts estimate that global annual revenue from AI must reach $2.5 trillion by the end of the decade to cover current infrastructure costs. Emerging applications in law and finance, such as platforms like Harvey and Rogo, are showing growth, but it remains unclear if these sectors will match the intensity of AI usage seen in software development.
Why it matters
The long-term financial viability of the multi-billion dollar AI infrastructure boom depends on whether the technology can achieve widespread adoption beyond the software engineering sector.
Read the original report — Hindustan Times
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