Microsoft recently laid off about 6,000 workers, with many of them being software engineers. Despite this, Aparna Chennapragada, Microsoft’s chief product officer, says that coding jobs are not going away.
She disagrees with the idea that people should stop studying computer science or that coding is no longer useful. She shared this during a podcast after Microsoft made these big cuts — the second largest in the company’s history.
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In Washington state alone, around 2,000 jobs were cut, and more than 40% of those were software engineering roles. Project managers were also affected, making up nearly 30% of the layoffs there.
Microsoft is investing a lot in artificial intelligence (AI), which is now helping write some computer code. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said AI writes up to 30% of code in some projects. This makes people wonder if human programmers will still be needed.
But Chennapragada says AI is just the next step in how programming changes over time. She explained that programmers don’t write simple code like they used to—instead, they work with higher-level tools. She thinks in the future, many people will work as “software operators,” managing software rather than writing every line of code.
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For project managers, she thinks their roles will change too. Since AI can create lots of ideas and prototypes quickly, managers will focus more on choosing and improving those ideas, like editors.
Microsoft is spending about $80 billion this year on AI technology but is also cutting jobs to manage costs.
