Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer of Experiences and Devices, Aparna Chennapragada, has expressed her disagreement with the idea that coding is becoming obsolete. In a recent interview on ‘Lenny’s Podcast,’ Chennapragada emphasized that she ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with the notion that people shouldn’t study computer science.
Chennapragada believes that while AI may change the nature of programming, it won’t make software engineers irrelevant. Instead, she thinks that AI will add another layer of abstraction to the programming process, making it more accessible and democratized. ‘We don’t program in assembly anymore… Most of us don’t even program in C,’ she explained, highlighting how programming languages have evolved over time.
The Microsoft CPO suggested that in the future, software engineers might be referred to as ‘software operators,’ but their role will still require a deep understanding of computer science principles. ‘There’ll be an order of magnitude more software operators… It doesn’t mean you don’t understand computer science, and it’s a way of thinking, and it’s a mental model,’ she said.
Regarding project managers, Chennapragada acknowledged that their roles might change, especially with Big Tech companies undergoing ‘great flattening.’ However, she believes that project managers will continue to be important, with their responsibilities shifting towards ‘taste-making and editing.’ With AI making it easier to generate ideas and prototypes, Chennapragada stressed that project managers will need to develop their ability to sift through the increased supply of ideas and identify what stands out.
‘In a world where the supply of ideas… becomes even more like an order of magnitude higher, you’d have to think about, ‘What is the editing function here?” she noted. Chennapragada also observed that in startups and companies she’s advising, there’s less automatic gatekeeping, and project managers will need to ‘earn the right’ to judge and provide final approval.
