GitHub CEO Warns: AI Can Launch Startups, But Human Expertise Still Essential to Scale

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the way tech entrepreneurs bring ideas to life, but GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has issued a word of caution: while AI can help you start a company, it won’t help you scale it — not without the vital ingredient of human expertise.

Speaking at Station F during the VivaTech conference in Paris, Dohmke shared his thoughts on the growing role of AI in entrepreneurship. With tools like GitHub Copilot — the AI coding assistant developed by GitHub — developers and even non-technical founders can now build apps and businesses faster than ever before. But Dohmke believes that this convenience comes with a caveat.

"AI coding assistants are now enabling non-technical founders to build businesses with small teams and no external funding," he explained. Yet he warned that this ease of creation, often referred to as "vibe coding" — where people describe what they want in prompts instead of writing traditional code — is not a silver bullet for long-term success.

“If I figure out how to write a prompt for something I can do myself, it’s a waste of time,” Dohmke remarked. “It’s about the prompting skills, but also knowing when not to use the prompt.”

Dohmke has observed a marked change in the tech community's approach to AI over the past two years. "There’s a lot of FOMO in the market now," he said, referring to the current enthusiasm and rush to adopt AI tools. Just a short while ago, companies had to be convinced to explore AI. Today, they're scrambling not to fall behind.

But despite the AI boom, he stressed that investor confidence in AI-only ventures is not guaranteed. According to Dohmke, startups built primarily through AI tools — especially those that are bootstrapped without deep technical foundations — may struggle to stand out. “The investors would ask, ‘Why would I invest in you instead of the 10 other people?’” he said, pointing out that an oversaturated market of similarly built products lowers perceived value.

He further elaborated: “A non-technical founder will find it difficult to build a startup at scale without developers, because they can't build a complex system to justify the next round.”

“The value of your startup isn't defined by what you can develop using cheap measures,” he added. Scaling a company requires more than just functioning code — it demands robust systems, strategic thinking, and technical depth, all of which go beyond what AI currently offers.

GitHub, which now serves over 150 million users worldwide, was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $7.5 billion. While its Copilot tool is one of the leading AI-powered developer assistants on the market, even its own CEO remains grounded in the belief that AI is a tool — not a replacement — for skilled developers.

As AI continues to evolve, Dohmke’s message is clear: leverage AI to move faster, but don’t sideline the human expertise that builds enduring success.