Cohen: Studies show AI does not make software engineers 10x more productive
Jason Cohen · Episode 817 | Bootstrapping in the Age of AI with Jason Cohen · Jan 27, 2026 · at 47:26
WP Engine founder Jason Cohen discusses the reality versus marketing hype surrounding AI coding productivity.
0:00 / 0:15exact quote · 15.9s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Like in coding, it's not, right? Like all the studies in, in real engineering departments is not that AI makes them 10 times better. The only people who claim that are the people selling AI products, the users of it. You know, there might be individuals claiming that on Twitter, cause it's something to say, but all the studies show that's not true.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jason Cohen
Cohen: Hyper-narrow ICP positioning attracts a 100x larger adjacent market
“If I'm very specific about what I am, then my ideal customer will definitely buy, which is already a reason to do it, but like a hundred times larger market than that. We'll see that specificity as a reason to buy your set of trade-offs, even though they're no…”
Cohen: VC-backed companies refuse human support due to gross margin compression
“So the fact that we had great human support is something like no VC wants you to have that because that's expensive and it comes out of your gross margin. Maybe it means you're not, you're quote unquote, not a software company because your gross margin is less…”
Cohen: Raising capital is usually the wrong fix for lagging growth
“So if the feeling is, man, I'm not growing as fast as I want, or I'm not as profitable as I want, or I'm not getting this or that goal that I want. Usually the answer is not, oh, I gotta go raise a bunch of money, right? Like almost always we, even if you have…”
Cohen: Linear is beating Jira by focusing on users over buyers
“Linear is a great product. It's starting to beat Jira in a lot of ways because of their design decisions and their focus on an ICP, by the way, laser focus on that. And it's the user, not the buyer, which is super interesting.”
Cohen: Strategy failures stem from misjudging importance, not ignorance
“A lot of times what's wrong with a strategy is not that we didn't know something, it's that we didn't realize how important that thing was.”
Cohen: Technical founders building product first fails to de-risk customer acquisition
“The typical thing an engineer does is, is go work on the product because it's fun and you know how, and it's kind of why you're doing this in the first place and all that. It's exactly the wrong thing to do because the limiting factor here is, can you find cus…”