Despite laying off over 6,000 employees in one of its largest workforce reductions last week, Microsoft is pushing back against claims that the coding profession is becoming obsolete. Aparna Chennapragada, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer of Experiences and Devices, has firmly rejected the idea that young people should shy away from studying computer science, especially in the age of AI.
Speaking on a recent podcast, Chennapragada stated, “I just fundamentally disagree with the notion that people shouldn’t bother studying computer science or that coding is dead.” Her comments come in the wake of Microsoft’s sweeping layoffs, which saw software engineers take the biggest hit, accounting for more than 40% of the job losses in Washington state alone, according to a Bloomberg report. Project managers were also significantly affected, making up nearly 30% of the cuts.
The layoffs have sparked heated debate across the tech world, especially as Microsoft doubles down on its investment in artificial intelligence. With AI now generating up to 30% of the code in some internal projects, as revealed by CEO Satya Nadella in April, questions are swirling about the long-term demand for human programmers.
Chennapragada, however, sees AI not as a threat to developers but as a new evolution in software creation. She likened today’s AI-assisted development to the natural progression of programming languages over the decades. “We don’t program in assembly anymore. Most of us don’t even use C. Every generation builds higher levels of abstraction—and AI is just the next layer,” she explained.
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According to her, the future won’t be devoid of developers but will instead require a new kind of tech professional. “There will be an order of magnitude more software operators. Instead of ‘computer scientists’ maybe we’ll have ‘SOs.’ But that doesn’t mean we throw away computer science knowledge,” she added.
The impact of AI isn’t limited to coding. Project management roles are also evolving. As AI accelerates idea generation and rapid prototyping, managers will shift into roles focused more on refinement and decision-making. “In a world where the supply of ideas and prototypes is exploding, the real value will come from editing and taste-making,” said Chennapragada.
While Microsoft is slashing jobs, it’s also investing heavily in the future. The company has earmarked a staggering $80 billion for AI infrastructure in the current fiscal year. This signals a clear strategy: embrace AI-driven growth while optimizing human resources.
In a tech landscape where AI is rewriting the rules, Microsoft’s top brass insists that coding is far from dead. Instead, they say, it’s entering a bold new chapter—one where understanding computer science is more essential than ever.
