Why Spotify's Co-CEO Says Top Engineers No Longer Code

Spotify's co-CEO Gustav Söderström has revealed a shift inside the company: its most senior developers are no longer writing code themselves.

A coder who doesn't code might be seen as underperformance traditionally. But at Spotify, it now signals the opposite - peak productivity powered by AI.

Speaking during the company's fourth quarter earnings call, Gustav said that some of Spotify's top engineers have effectively stepped away from manual coding and now rely on AI systems to generate it for them.

Their role, he explained, is to guide, prompt and oversee the output rather than type it line by line.

"When I speak to my most senior engineers - the best developers we have - they actually say that they haven't written a single line of code since December," Gustav said. "They actually only generate code and supervise it."

He described the Christmas period as a turning point for AI-assisted development, calling it "a singular even in terms of AI productivity". Over the holiday, he said, new tools and model updates dramatically improved performance, adding that "we crossed the threshold where things just started working".

AI transformation at the centre of strategy 

The remarks were made in the context of Spotify's Q4 2025 earnings discussion, where executives outlined both financial results and the company's broader technological direction.

Gustav made clear that the adoption of AI-driven development is central to remaining competitive. He said: "There is going to have to be a lot of change in these tech companies if you want to stay competitive, and we are absolutely hell-bent on leading that change.

"It will be painful for many companies, because engineering practices, product practices and design practices will change."

He cautioned the industry is still mid-transition, saying: "The tricky thing is that we're in the middle of the change, so you also have to be very agile. The things you build now may be useless in a month."

While some engineers elsewhere have raised concerns about reviewing large volumes of AI generates code, Gustav emphasised the upside in output and speed. 

"That is the opportunity we see in front of us," he said. "Companies such as us are simply going to produce massively more software. Up until our limiting factor is actually the amount of change that consumers are comfortable with."

Strong financial performance in Q4

The AI discussion accompanied a robust financial update from Spotify. In its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings release, the company reported that Premium subscribers increased 10% year-over-year to 290 million, while Monthly Active Users rose 11% to 751 million. 

Total revenue grew 13% year-over-year on a constant currently basis to €4.5bn (US$5.3bn). Gross margin improved to 33.1%, and operating income reached €701m (US$829).

Founder and Executive Chairman Daniel Ek linked AI to broader shifts in media and technology. "The next wave of technology shifts - AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content - these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media," he said in a company statement.

Co-CEO Alex Norström signalled that the company intends to accelerate further in 2026. "We're framing 2026 as the Year of Raising Ambition," he said, after describing 2025 as the "Year of Accelerated Execution".

Gustav added: "We consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry. Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential.

"The entire industry stands to benefit from this [AI] paradigm shift but we believe those who embrace this change and move fast, will benefit the most."