Rajeev Rajan on AI and jobs
From Gen AI Series: Developer Joy through Generative AI. Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian · · From Startup to Exit Podcast
“I don't think AI is going to take away jobs — it's going to help human beings be more productive, create more jobs, and allow people to move up the value chain by freeing brain cycles for higher‑value, creative work.”
On , Rajeev Rajan, Chief Technology Officer at Atlassian, spoke about AI and jobs during Gen AI Series: Developer Joy through Generative AI. Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian on From Startup to Exit Podcast.
About Rajeev Rajan
Rajeev Rajan, Chief Technology Officer at Atlassian, has spoken in multiple interviews about his focus on "developer joy" as a guiding metric for engineering teams, which he described as prioritizing the removal of blockers and fostering a positive coding experience over traditional productivity goals. He stated that Atlassian sends a quarterly survey to engineers asking about their productivity in the codebase and has created an internal "AI school" modeled on a Stanford University course to upskill engineers. Rajan also discussed the company's sponsorship of the Williams Formula 1 team, saying it was chosen for its mass appeal and connection to world-class engineering and teamwork. Rajan has emphasized that Atlassian is "betting big on AI" with its Rovo offering, and he described the emergence of large language models as a "profound shift" comparable to the internet and mobile revolutions. He stated that the company uses AI across departments including engineering, finance, HR, and legal, and that customer data is not used for training without explicit permission. Rajan also noted that coding assistants can save one to two hours per week per engineer and expressed the view that AI will not eliminate jobs but will help people "move up the value chain."