AI evangelists like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang proclaim that English will become the next programming language. JetBrains CEO Kirill Skrygan has a different perspective. Bold claims about AI’s power are often met with polite applause at tech conferences, Skrygan offers a more measured view of where programming is actually headed.
“You cannot do industrial programs in English,” Skrygan says early on in our conversation, directly challenging the notion popularized by Nvidia’s CEO that even the toughest coding tasks can become approachable through natural language alone. This sentiment, that “human” language is the future of programming, captures much of the current AI hype, but Skrygan adds some much-needed nuance.
Kotlin, the programming language built and maintained by JetBrains, was envisioned as readable and approachable long before the AI boom, Skrygan explains. Prior to this current hype wave, this approach (along with low-code and no-code solutions) was considered the primary way to ensure programming remained attainable to more people, not just professional developers. Kotlin, in addition, was designed to stay close to Java to maintain familiarity and compatibility while improving readability. In other words: it was tasked with shaping the future while respecting the past.
AI’s limits
“People are sick of all these bold statements,” the JetBrains CEO opines. He points out that, unlike the biggest AI hype machines, JetBrains is fully privately owned. The company does not need to please shareholders. As Skrygan puts it: “We can’t afford to be hype chasers”. Its replacement for shareholders is the installed base, the developer community (particularly around Android), a particularly critical crowd.
JetBrains is well-positioned to discuss the future of coding in a more meaningful way. If it somehow were to not do that, the deeply technical audience we see at KotlinConf will call it out for failing to do so, or simply pack its bags and move to another solution. After all, the JetBrains IDE is where developers conduct their business day to day; messing with it would be like reorganizing someone’s desk. At the same time, failing to evolve it is the equivalent of never replacing the chair these users sit on. “Some developers are very conservative, and they really love coding. We target those people with static analysis, formal methods, non-AI tools and non-intrusive AI features like local full line completion, for example.” Skrygan highlights these to show that, even with something flashy like AI, you can keep things simple and improve workflows.
An app your (non-technical) mother could make
The JetBrains CEO is in the end also excited about the technology’s possibilities, with AI announcements leading KotlinConf 2025’s treasure trove of updates. In Skrygan’s view, the promise of greater accessibility extends beyond AI alone. “We have millions of apps in the App Store. But my vision is that my mother, who doesn’t know how to program, can create a family hub for her and my father.” The app ideas could be relatively straightforward, like one that keeps track of personalized goals such as eating fish three times a week or learning French. Ideally, the app could run on a device hanging on the kitchen fridge. Even more ideally, they can be created on a whim. Clearly this is a long-term vision beyond Kotlin’s current capabilities.
An intriguing objective to be sure, but JetBrains isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket. “We can’t afford to choose one segment. We target all developer segments because we have 15.6 million active users”, says Skrygan, referring to the sum total of JetBrains’ products. “We nearly control half the market. And this market is diverse. We target all of it.”
The future of programming languages
JetBrains does need to contend with the fact that many of its users are being threatened by AI replacing them, even if he notes that job displacement isn’t happening at anywhere near the rate some have suggested. Products, languages and IT infrastructure can indeed be made redundant too. We may also add that many layoff rounds use AI as an excuse to make cuts that are simply financially motivated. Still, we need to appreciate that AI is indeed changing the overall landscape. Tasks can be automated, and AI is eagerly shoveling up the developer code that’s freely available online.
What about Kotlin specifically? Python currently has a competitive advantage over it in the AI era for one simple reason: it’s pervasive, it’s plentiful, it’s everywhere; in other words, GenAI training models can feast on Python code with abandon. Julia, a programming language that on the surface seems like a far better match for mass-scale GenAI deployment, has failed to capitalize on this opportunity. The reason is pretty simple: it didn’t have the mass appeal and familiarity of Python. Kotlin, for its part, is more entrenched in enterprise development, but it will still need to evolve to survive. How does Skrygan envision Kotlin’s future?
“Here’s my vision. I think programming languages will evolve a lot. I admit that you may not need high level programming languages in the classical sense anymore, but the solution still wouldn’t be English.” Skrygan envisions a middle ground between Kotlin and natural language. Currently, the closest approximation is Kotlin DSL. It’s a design doc that can be compiled as code. Ultimately, like anything digital, it converts into binary at the lowest level. The JetBrains CEO highlights how this is merely a repeat of what we’ve already seen: “People were writing in bytecode and assembler 40 years ago. Now, nobody cares about it anymore. It’s secondary.”
Kotlin 3?
Skrygan’s strategic vision for Kotlin isn’t just about 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4, which were the focal point for this year’s KotlinConf. A shape for Kotlin 3.0 has already formed. The idea, Skrygan says, is to build a “perfect language to describe the architecture, the essence of your program, in a design doc, which will then be transferred to real code. “Of course we support Python as well”, JetBrains’ CEO hastens to add. Again, the balance needed is one between future-facing and appealing to today’s sensibilities.
When it comes to future features, the company needs to have its ears on the ground as well. Consider the rather sudden acceptance of MCP as the de facto standard for letting GenAI enact change inside apps, systems and the real world. Beyond that, though, we’ve seen a challenge emerge from AI-first IDEs or even alleged AI software engineers, like Devin. Some have failed to truly cause change, some, like Windsurf, have sold their venture to foster OpenAI’s efforts. Skrygan is deeply positive about the various AI code editors that have come to the fore in recent years. One of those editors is Cursor, which he labels “product-led”. Similarly, Skrygan lauds Windsurf’s efforts, which have propelled it to a 3 billion dollar acquisition by OpenAI. “Wonderful people. They’re passionate engineers and care about delivering the best product value.” The JetBrains CEO speaks with “all of them”, referring to the new wave of AI coding builders. “It’s a competitive but fun stage of advancement.”
When it comes to competing with the likes of OpenAI and Google, Skrygan states that his company is well-positioned, too. “[The competition] is not tough, it’s fun and interesting and we have our own leverage and we believe in our leverage.” According to him, OpenAI’s acquisition of Windsurf shows that ChatGPT isn’t about to full AGI. “About a year ago, there was a sentiment that you wouldn’t need dev tools like IDEs anymore. You do, and you need distribution.” Skrygan reiterates: as it stands, JetBrains controls about half the market when it comes to distribution and dev tooling.
Conclusion: JetBrains is well-positioned
We once again touch upon the fact JetBrains is privately held. Despite having no VC investments, it has built its own LLMs to allow for local AI. These are smaller models (4-11 billion parameters), and will therefore not match up to the Claude 4s and o3s of this world. However, for simple code completion, these models offer a low-latency option. Once more, Skrygan speaks of leverage: JetBrains has enough funds to do what it must, a clear, proactive vision for the future of its own and the wherewithal to react when needed. “This is why I think JetBrains is the greatest place to do AI right now for dev tooling.”