The floodgates of AI adoption will swing wide open, democratising development for all

AI will transform how ideas become reality, sparking a wave of creativity in Australia. To drive this forward, GitHub is empowering all developers with GitHub Copilot Free in VS Code, putting AI-powered software development at the fingertips of everyone who wants it. With over 1.7 million developers on GitHub in Australia at the end of 2024, the potential for innovation and rapid progress is set to soar.

AI innovations will also break down traditional barriers to entry, enabling anyone—beyond ‘traditional developers’—to bring their ideas to life. With tools like GitHub Spark, people can create “micro applications” using natural language on their mobile or laptop, making software development accessible to all skill levels. This ease of use empowers everyday individuals to experiment and learn, transforming curiosity into action. And more AI use means transformation will happen faster than ever.

We’ll also enter an agentic future as AI agents continue to generate excitement. As these agents grow more capable, companies will adopt them for complex tasks, minimising the need for heavy prompt engineering. For developers, this means more time to tackle high-impact work, driving strategic problem-solving and productivity to levels that far surpass the early gains of generative AI.

AI will help solve specific industry challenges

AI is already helping businesses tackle productivity challenges. For example, CBA, an early GitHub Copilot adopter, found 75% of its engineers deemed it "very helpful", with 80,000 lines of AI-suggested code accepted. Meanwhile, GitHub Copilot has accelerated task completion by 42% for ANZ Bank’s engineering team.

But tools like GitHub Copilot are also uniquely positioned to help solve specific industry challenges, such as the need to modernise legacy code.

Today, Australia’s government remains reliant on outdated code, which hampers its ability to deliver improved services to citizens. Similarly, the finance sector still depends on an ancient computer code, Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL). It houses huge quantities of data, including sensitive customer information and mission-critical programs, in messy, old-fashioned mainframe systems. Banks are understandably reluctant to touch it–the cost of migrating this data to the cloud is a significant financial and time investment.

This code places organisations on the precipice of a ‘digital cliff’. Those with the historic knowledge on how to maintain COBOL are quickly heading for retirement, and it’s also more vulnerable to attacks than modern code. Regulated industries also face continuous changes in compliance standards, and navigating old, complex code to meet these evolving regulatory requirements is becoming increasingly gruelling.

Thankfully, generative AI offers a solution. Today, AI can analyse entire mainframe codebases and handle up to 80% of the code and manual tasks required for modernisation. In 2025, industries like banking and government must prioritise deploying AI to address these pressing and specific challenges.

AI will help Australian businesses tackle security risks, if they can overcome the fear of the unknown

Developers are shipping software faster than previously imaginable, releasing new features early and often. Yet, despite their best efforts to code securely, software vulnerabilities inadvertently make their way into production. At the same time, adversaries are also using AI, increasing the cadence at which vulnerabilities are found and exploited, and therefore, the rate of attacks. Compounding this issue, experienced security talent is in short supply. To address this, 2025 will be the era of the AI engineer, and we’ll see the composition of security teams start to alter.

With AI by a developer’s side, they can benefit from security expertise whenever they need it. This will fundamentally minimise risk across an organisation while also reducing the burden placed on developers, freeing them up to drive innovation.

Those who lean in and employ AI engineering for better security outcomes will see a scaled advantage, operating as if they’re a team of 10 versus 1. Addressing security vulnerabilities during development, rather than remediating them later, empowers developers to enhance code security and quality in real time, which also accelerates productivity across the entire software lifecycle. And fixing issues before they reach production is far more cost-effective, saving time and resources by orders of magnitude.Australia should focus on building our AI workforce.

Australia’s ability to harness AI’s potential hinges on our workforce’s readiness. Unfortunately, recent assessments indicate we lag behind international peers on AI education. We should learn from countries incorporating AI into education and investing in digital infrastructure.

For example, India's 2020 National Education Policy mandates coding and AI in school curriculums, and South Korea invests heavily in AI-powered digital education tools. Australia has made small steps in allowing AI in schools, but more is needed. AI tools can transform education and train our AI workforce, helping us compete with digital-first economies.

To prepare students, Australia must instill basic software literacy early, using AI tools like GitHub Copilot—akin to a modern calculator. By adopting these tools, we can teach fundamental programming skills and ensure students are future-ready.

The path is clear: Australia must act decisively to reform education, teaching all students software basics, programming, and how to harness the power of the large language models behind AI. This will enable children to foster new ideas and mature them into reality as fast as their creativity allows.

By equipping the future workforce with essential tech skills, Australia can achieve significant economic and societal gains.

Sharryn Napier, Vice President, APAC, at GitHub