Is coding dead or just evolving: As AI takes over keyboards, what's left for human engineers, is the future of coding paradoxical?

Economic Times

26-05-2025

iStock While AI now generates 30% of Microsoft's code, Chief Product Officer Aparna Chennapragada argues coding is still crucial—just redefined. Yet with thousands of software engineers laid off, including those who trained AI tools, the tech world is left wondering: is coding thriving in abstraction or quietly being phased out?
As Artificial Intelligence strides into every corner of the tech world — now capable of writing 30% of Microsoft's code, a question echoes across developer forums and college campuses: Is coding still worth learning? At first glance, the signs seem ominous. Microsoft, one of the world's biggest tech employers, recently laid off 6,000 employees. A significant portion of them were software engineers.
Yet, in an almost paradoxical twist, Microsoft's chief product officer for experiences and devices, Aparna Chennapragada, is urging young professionals not to abandon computer science. On a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast , she made a bold claim: 'Coding is not dead. It's evolving.'
The contradictions are hard to ignore. On one hand, Microsoft executives are embracing AI as a transformative force. On the other, headlines shout about mass layoffs. In Washington state alone, over 40% of those laid off were software engineers — the very people helping build and integrate AI into Microsoft's systems. It raises a provocative question: Are coders being asked to build the tools that could render them obsolete? Take Jeff Hulse, a Microsoft vice president who pushed his 400-person team to adopt OpenAI tools to automate as much as 50% of their code. Within weeks, many from that same team were laid off. For those affected, this wasn't just a restructuring — it was a bitter irony.
Chennapragada, however, doesn't see this shift as a funeral for coding, but rather a metamorphosis. In her words, 'We've always had higher and higher layers of abstraction in programming.' Coding is no longer about speaking to machines in assembly or even C. It's about instructing at a higher level, often through natural language, with AI bridging the gap. She predicts a shift in roles — not a disappearance. 'Tomorrow's engineers might function more like software operators than traditional developers,' she noted. Think of it as moving from wielding the wrench to managing the entire factory floor with the press of a button. Still, she insists that the foundational knowledge of computer science remains essential. 'It's a mental model — a way of thinking,' she said. 'So I strongly disagree with the idea that 'coding is dead.'' The AI revolution isn't only changing engineering. Project and product managers — once the middlemen of Big Tech's structured layers — are under pressure from what many insiders are calling the 'great flattening.'
Chennapragada acknowledges that these roles, too, must adapt. In an AI-driven world teeming with new ideas and prototypes, managers must become more like curators than coordinators. Their job is no longer about moving projects from point A to point B but identifying which ideas rise above the noise. In her words, it's about developing a knack for 'taste-making and editing' — skills that blend creativity, instinct, and clarity amid a flood of innovation. To truly understand the seismic shift underway, consider the experience of a young Google techie who recently posted on X (formerly Twitter). Reflecting on her internships since 2022, she wrote: 'AI can code, build, brainstorm, design, and iterate. Then why do we need software engineers?' Her answer? Abstraction. Three years ago, she had to manually learn every programming language and architecture before solving a single problem. Today, AI takes care of the heavy lifting. Debugging that once took an hour is now done in five minutes with an AI agent. Complex documentation has transformed into interactive podcasts and videos, turning dry technical learning into something bingeable. 'Software engineering is more fun now,' she wrote. 'The boring stuff is abstracted out. All you have is your imagination.'
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has openly stated that in some teams, nearly one-third of all code is generated by AI. It's an impressive feat — or a forewarning, depending on where you stand. The central dilemma remains: If AI is making code faster and cheaper, where does that leave the humans? Are we being elevated to more creative, managerial roles — or slowly coded out of the equation? Aparna Chennapragada believes the former. 'AI is a democratizing force,' she says. But for the thousands now jobless, it's hard not to wonder: Is AI opening doors — or closing them? Either way, one thing is clear. Coding isn't dead. It's just no longer what it used to be.