Founder2Founder Meetup in Jõhvi: Are Developers Less Needed in the Age of AI?

The Founder2Founder Meetup, organized by the Tehnopol Film and Multimedia Accelerator, brought together over 70 participants in Jõhvi last week — startup founders, creatives, developers, and kood/Jõhvi alumni.

The event took place just before the Job Fair and naturally evolved into a meeting point where different backgrounds and mindsets came together.

The evening wasn’t just about networking, but centered around a question that concerns almost everyone in tech today: are developers less needed in the age of artificial intelligence?

The discussion was moderated by Marko Russiver, who immediately set the tone by bringing a clear and practical perspective to the table. His starting point was simple: even if a non-technical founder can build a prototype using AI, they quickly reach a limit where real understanding of how systems work becomes necessary. From there, the choice is straightforward — either learn it yourself or bring a developer on board.

This framed the core axis of the discussion: do founders still need developers, or are we moving toward a reality where developers themselves are increasingly becoming founders?

The panel featured Kaspar Kallas, Vladislav Šmigelski, and Kätlin Merisalu, who contributed insights from technical, educational, and real startup experience.

The conversation didn’t remain theoretical. At one point, the discussion turned directly to the audience: how many feel that AI is already impacting their work today?

Hands went up — but not all of them.

That moment spoke volumes.

Some participants clearly see the shift already, especially in entry-level roles. Others are still finding their place in this transition and don’t yet fully feel its impact. This reflects the current reality well: the change is not uniform — it depends on role, experience, and how closely someone interacts with technology in their daily work.

One clear direction emerged from the discussion: the role of developers is not disappearing, but it is changing.

Technical skills remain important, but they are no longer enough on their own. Increasingly, value lies in understanding why something is being built and for whom it creates value. This means moving from narrow roles toward broader thinking.

At the same time, the question arose whether standalone “business roles” will be necessary in the future. On one hand, today’s tools enable technical founders to cover much of what was previously considered purely business competence. On the other hand, it became clear that if the goal is to build a scalable company, business thinking isn’t going anywhere — it simply becomes intertwined with technical capability.

Another important takeaway concerned AI itself. It was not seen as a replacement, but as a tool — a powerful one that can multiply efficiency, but only if the user truly understands what they are doing.

The more we rely on AI, the more important critical thinking becomes. Artificial intelligence doesn’t argue — it confirms. This means responsibility for decisions doesn’t disappear, but shifts more clearly to the human.

Practical experiences shared from hackathons and education reinforced the same pattern. Ideas emerge quickly, but without a real understanding of user needs, they don’t last. The biggest mistakes don’t come from technology, but from poorly defined problems.

The Founder2Founder Meetup didn’t offer simple answers.

But it made one thing clear — the question is no longer whether AI will change our work, but how quickly we are able to adapt to that change.

Want to see what the evening looked like? Check out the photo gallery.

The activities of the Tehnopol Startup Incubator Film and Multimedia Accelerator are co-funded by the European Union.