If AI writes 100 per cent code at Anthropic, what will engineers do? Claude code chief responds

Anthropic says nearly 100 per cent of its code is now generated by AI, so what are software engineers doing? According to Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, while AI is handling most of the coding, humans have taken on new responsibilities, including guiding the systems, reviewing outputs and deciding what should be built next.

Anthropic is currently one of the hottest AI companies, with its agentic AI model Claude Code helping firms write and automate software development. The tool is said to be so effective that inside Anthropic itself, the company has revealed its agentic AI models now generate nearly 100 per cent of the internal code used across teams. With this level of automation, many are asking: if AI is writing almost all the code at Anthropic, what exactly are engineers doing? The company says engineers are now guiding the AI on what to build and managing the tools that handle implementation.

Earlier, speaking at the 2026 Cisco AI Summit, Anthropic’s chief product officer Mike Krieger revealed that the company’s internal AI systems, powered by Claude, now generate almost all of its code, so much so that Claude is effectively helping to build Claude. The update follows earlier predictions by CEO Dario Amodei, who had said AI would soon handle most of the company’s coding work.

While the revelation highlighted the scale of automation taking place inside the company, it has also raised questions about the role of human engineers. Does it mean AI is replacing them? A user on X raised a similar question, writing: “Claude Code is writing 100% of Claude code now. But Anthropic has 100+ open dev positions on their jobs page?”

Responding to the post, Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, said coding is only one part of the job. He explained that engineers are responsible for prompting AI systems, speaking with customers, coordinating with other teams and deciding what should be built next.

“Someone has to prompt the Claudes, talk to customers, coordinate with other teams, decide what to build next. Engineering is changing and great engineers are more important than ever,” Cherny wrote in his reply.

Antropic’s senior executives have revealed that inside Anthropic, AI tools backed by Claude are capable of generating large pull requests that run into thousands of lines of code. These systems can draft features, refactor components and produce documentation. However, the company says human engineers review and validate the output before it is merged or deployed. Guardrails and internal workflows have been put in place to ensure quality and reliability.