After laying off 6,000, Microsoft's CPO shares advice for coders

Microsoft recently cut nearly 6,000 jobs, about 3% of its global workforce, sending ripples across the tech community. The layoffs raised an immediate question: Is coding a dying career in the age of AI? Aparna Chennapragada, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer (CPO) for experiences and devices, has a clear answer — no, coding is far from dead. It’s evolving.

Coding isn’t dead — it’s changing

Speaking on Lenny’s Podcast, Chennapragada pushed back against the popular narrative that programming is becoming obsolete. “A lot of folks think about, ‘Oh, don’t bother studying computer science or the coding is dead,’ and I just fundamentally disagree,” she said.

Her view? Programming has always been about building on layers of abstraction. Once upon a time, engineers wrote code in assembly language or C. Today, that’s mostly history. Now, developers work with higher-level languages, frameworks, and tools — and AI is the newest addition to this progression.

AI is just the latest abstraction layer

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed earlier this year that AI writes up to 30% of code in certain projects. This development understandably raises questions about the future demand for human programmers. But Chennapragada sees AI not as a replacement but as a new tool — another abstraction layer that coders will learn to master.

“We don’t program in assembly anymore,” she said. “Maybe instead of ‘Cs,’ we’ll have ‘SOs’ — software operators — who guide and manage AI-powered coding.” These software operators will still need a strong foundation in computer science to understand how systems work and how to supervise AI effectively.

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Changing roles for coders and project managers

Chennapragada also predicted that project managers’ roles will shift, focusing more on “taste-making and editing” rather than micromanaging every coding detail. The tech world is moving toward collaboration between humans and AI, where creativity and strategic thinking become just as important as writing lines of code.

Layoffs amid AI investments

Microsoft’s layoffs come amid aggressive investments in AI, mirroring similar moves by other giants like Google. The company’s spokesperson framed the cuts as organizational adjustments to stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.

Why now is still a great time to learn coding

For anyone worried about learning to code today, the CPO’s message is encouraging: this is not the end of programming but a transformation. The demand for coders who understand computer science deeply and can navigate new AI-driven tools is likely to grow.

If anything, now is a perfect time to jump into coding. The landscape may be shifting, but the core skills will remain valuable — perhaps even more so — as technology advances.