Microsoft 's chief product officer is pushing back against claims that coding careers are obsolete, even as the tech giant eliminated 6,000 positions last week with software engineers bearing the brunt of the cuts.
Aparna Chennapragada , Microsoft's CPO of experiences and devices, said she "fundamentally disagrees" with the notion that people shouldn't study computer science, comments that take on new significance following the company's second-largest layoff in its history.
"I have one other additional bonus thing, which is a lot of folks think about, 'Oh, don't bother studying computer science or the coding is dead,' and I just fundamentally disagree," Chennapragada said on a recent podcast appearance.
The layoffs, announced earlier this month, disproportionately affected coding professionals, with over 40% of the approximately 2,000 Washington state positions eliminated belonging to software engineers, according to Bloomberg analysis. Project management roles accounted for nearly 30% of the cuts in the state.
AI reshaping development landscape
The job cuts come as Microsoft aggressively invests in artificial intelligence that's automating aspects of software development. CEO Satya Nadella revealed in April that AI now writes up to 30% of code in some Microsoft projects, raising questions about the future demand for human programmers.
Chennapragada argues that AI represents just another layer of abstraction in programming evolution. "We don't program in assembly anymore. Most of us don't even program in C, and then you're kind of higher and higher layers of abstraction," she explained, suggesting engineers might become "software operators" instead.
"There'll be an order of magnitude more software operators," she predicted. "Instead of 'Cs,' maybe we'll have 'SOs,' but that doesn't mean you don't understand computer science."
Management roles also under pressure
For project managers, who also faced significant cuts at Microsoft, Chennapragada expects modified responsibilities focused on "taste-making and editing" as AI generates more ideas and prototypes.
"In a world where the supply of ideas, supply of prototypes becomes even more like an order of magnitude higher, you'd have to think about, 'What is the editing function here?'" she said.
Microsoft has allocated approximately $80 billion for AI infrastructure spending this fiscal year while simultaneously scrutinizing costs through workforce reductions.
Aparna Chennapragada , Microsoft's CPO of experiences and devices, said she "fundamentally disagrees" with the notion that people shouldn't study computer science, comments that take on new significance following the company's second-largest layoff in its history.
"I have one other additional bonus thing, which is a lot of folks think about, 'Oh, don't bother studying computer science or the coding is dead,' and I just fundamentally disagree," Chennapragada said on a recent podcast appearance.
The layoffs, announced earlier this month, disproportionately affected coding professionals, with over 40% of the approximately 2,000 Washington state positions eliminated belonging to software engineers, according to Bloomberg analysis. Project management roles accounted for nearly 30% of the cuts in the state.
AI reshaping development landscape
The job cuts come as Microsoft aggressively invests in artificial intelligence that's automating aspects of software development. CEO Satya Nadella revealed in April that AI now writes up to 30% of code in some Microsoft projects, raising questions about the future demand for human programmers.
Chennapragada argues that AI represents just another layer of abstraction in programming evolution. "We don't program in assembly anymore. Most of us don't even program in C, and then you're kind of higher and higher layers of abstraction," she explained, suggesting engineers might become "software operators" instead.
"There'll be an order of magnitude more software operators," she predicted. "Instead of 'Cs,' maybe we'll have 'SOs,' but that doesn't mean you don't understand computer science."
Management roles also under pressure
For project managers, who also faced significant cuts at Microsoft, Chennapragada expects modified responsibilities focused on "taste-making and editing" as AI generates more ideas and prototypes.
"In a world where the supply of ideas, supply of prototypes becomes even more like an order of magnitude higher, you'd have to think about, 'What is the editing function here?'" she said.
Microsoft has allocated approximately $80 billion for AI infrastructure spending this fiscal year while simultaneously scrutinizing costs through workforce reductions.
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