DoorDash's CEO says AI coding is not enough to make engineers more productive
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu argues that while AI is highly effective at generating code, it is not a complete solution for engineering productivity. He emphasizes that engineers spend significant time on design, product reviews, and cross-departmental alignment, which also require AI integration to be truly effective.
Why it matters
This perspective highlights the limitations of current AI coding tools and suggests that the next phase of corporate productivity will focus on AI-native operational workflows rather than just software development.
Xu said that coding is only a small part of an engineer's day. Bloomberg/Getty Images Tony Xu says AI only partly helps DoorDash engineers. Xu said he wants to see AI integration across all departments, not just engineering. AI has boosted DoorDash's productivity, with two-thirds of code now generated by models. Vibe coding is just one small part of the engineering puzzle, says DoorDash's CEO . "Only certain parts of a software engineer's day are writing code, and it's great that we have models today to write the code for us," Tony Xu said on an episode of the "Uncapped" podcast released Tuesday. "That helps maybe the whatever 25%, 30%, 50% of our time that's actually shipping code." Xu cofounded the food and grocery delivery giant in 2013. DoorDash went public in 2020, one of the year's biggest tech IPOs.
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