Oracle pins hopes on 'Star Wars' productivity jump to lightspeed from AI-assisted engineering
Big Red talks up superhuman coders after shedding 21,000 staff
Oracle's CEO, Mike Sicilia, expects AI-assisted software engineering to deliver productivity gains as groundbreaking as those depicted in the Star Wars franchise. Speaking at Deutsche Bank's Technology Conference, Sicilia stressed that AI will be a net positive for the software industry, despite concerns over a potential "SaaSpocalypse" where coding tools and agents erode value from business application vendors.
The software giant has reduced its workforce by 21,000 in the past year, and Sicilia admitted his disbelief at the initial claims of productivity from AI-assisted engineers, describing them as "Star Wars" level of futuristic. However, he was quick to emphasize that the technology is "super real" and incredibly interesting. Oracle has instructed contributors to its open-source Java project, OpenJDK, not to submit AI-generated code or other material, citing risks related to review workloads, safety, security, and intellectual property.
This stance has been criticized by customers who experienced issues with Oracle's newly launched AI-powered support portal, which they found to be ineffective.
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