The Builder Revolution: Why We're Shifting to Builder Advocacy

My team has officially changed its name, and it’s one I’ve been excited about for a while.

My team is now Builder Advocacy, and our organization is now Builder Experience (BX). We were previously known as Developer Advocacy and Developer Success, respectively.

On the surface, it might look like a simple rebranding. But it’s not. It’s a recognition of something that’s been happening in our industry for a while and has accelerated dramatically recently with this understanding: the definition of who builds things with technology has fundamentally changed.

The builder revolution is already here

For most of computing history, “developer” meant someone who wrote code; they were someone who knew a language, understood a framework, and could navigate a terminal.

That world has changed.

According to the GitHub Octoverse 2025 report, GitHub now has over 180 million developers, with more than one new developer joining every single second. In 2025 alone, 36 million new developers joined the platform, a 23% year-over-year increase. There are now 4.3 million AI-related repositories on GitHub, nearly double the number in 2023, and monthly contributions to AI projects reached approximately 6 million in August 2025, up 188% year over year. Nearly 80% of new developers on GitHub use GitHub Copilot within their first week.

Meanwhile, the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025 found that 84% of respondents are currently using or plan to use AI tools in their development work, up from 76% just a year earlier. Nearly half of all developers now use AI tools daily.

AI is already part of the workflow for the majority of people building technology.

But here’s the part that really matters: AI hasn’t just made developers more productive. It has dramatically expanded who can build in the first place.

A new kind of builder

Think about who else is building today, beyond traditional developers:

• The product manager who spins up an AI agent to automate their team’s weekly reporting.
• The marketing operations analyst who connects APIs through a workflow tool like Zapier without writing a single line of code.
• The IT admin who builds a customer-facing chatbot using a low-code platform in an afternoon.
• The entrepreneur who vibe-codes their MVP with the help of a large language model (LLM), deploying something that would have taken a full engineering team six months just five years ago.

These people are builders. They may not call themselves developers. They may not have a degree in computer science or formal education in software. But they are creating real, production-level experiences that real users depend on, and they deserve the same quality of advocacy and support that we’ve historically directed at developers.

HubSpot has begun distinguishing “builders” as a specific user persona: those who manage automations, middleware, and integrations, recognizing that the people building on their platform aren’t always traditional developers. AWS has long referred to its community as “builders,” a term that appears throughout their re:Invent programming, documentation, and community initiatives. Salesforce’s legendary Trailblazer community has expanded to embrace AI builders alongside traditional admins and developers as agentic AI becomes central to their platform. Google took this a step further in April 2026 by launching the Builders Hub through their Developer Program, even moving the URL to builders.google. Google is explicitly designed for “vibe coders, AI builders, and professional developers” alike. These are not coincidences. They are signals of a broader industry shift in how we think about the people who build with our platforms.

What builder advocacy means

With this name change, my team is committing — a commitment to showing up for all three types of builders we serve:

• Developers: traditional coders, engineers, and architects who have always been our core audience. They’re not going anywhere, and neither is our dedication to them.
• AI Builders: prompt engineers, LLM integrators, AI agent creators, and machine learning (ML) practitioners who are building the next generation of intelligent systems. This community is growing at a pace we’ve never seen before.
• Automators: no-code and low-code builders who connect systems, design workflows, and create value without traditional programming. They are increasingly building mission-critical infrastructure, and they deserve advocacy, documentation, and tooling that treats them as first-class citizens.

With these name changes — from Developer Success to Builder Experience (BX), and from Developer Advocacy to Builder Advocacy — our team is saying clearly: We see all of you. We are here for all of you.

AI made its impact. It’s not going away

Some name changes are cosmetic. This one isn’t.

The community building with AI isn’t concentrated in a few zip codes anymore. It is global, diverse, and growing in ways that don’t fit neatly into the old categories.

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025 found that 84% of developers are now using or planning to use AI tools. Among those using AI agents, roughly 70% say agents boosted their productivity and reduced task time. The tools are proving their value in the workflow, not just in the demo.

That’s the community I want to be part of. That’s the community I want to advocate for.

What’s next for builders

This name change is effective today, but it’s really the beginning of a larger journey. Our Builder Experience organization is investing in resources, content, and community programs that serve the full spectrum of builders: from the seasoned backend engineer to the AI tinkerer to the automation-first operator.

And here’s what hasn’t changed. You can still find us where you always have:

• For documentation, visit our developer docs
• For support, head to our developer forum
• For helpful videos, visit our YouTube channel
• On social media, follow us on our LinkedIn page

If you build — whatever that means to you — we’re here for you.

Welcome to Builder Advocacy.

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