Once seen as the golden ticket to a six-figure salary, coding is now facing a massive wave of skepticism, and not just from disillusioned tech workers.
Industry leaders and analysts are publicly saying it might not be worth learning to code anymore.
Risk analyst Ian Bremmer made an interesting statement during a recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher.
He said, “Just five years ago, the smartest advice that we had for the kids was ‘learn how to code.’ That is literally worse advice now than ‘get a face tattoo.’ You can’t do worse than learn to code.”
Bremmer pointed out how quickly AI has shaken up the tech world, pushing many former software developers out of stable jobs.
Some, he said, are now resorting to selling plasma to make ends meet.
His warning aligns with labor market data from the New York Federal Reserve.
The report showed that recent computer science graduates had a 6.1% unemployment rate, and computer engineering grads were at 7.5%, both higher than journalism and English majors.
That’s a surprising reversal for a field once considered a safe and well-paying choice.
Nvidia CEO: Coding is Overrated
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, echoed the sentiment during the World Government Summit in Dubai.
“It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program. And that the programming language is human,” he said.
Huang believes AI will make traditional coding skills obsolete and says kids should focus on other areas like biology, farming, education, and manufacturing.
“Everybody in the world is now a programmer. This is the miracle of artificial intelligence,” Huang added.
Chamath: Coding Will Be “Supervisory, At Best”
Investor and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya also weighed in. “Unfortunate but accurate,” he wrote on X in response to a post declaring that people should stop learning to code.
“The engineer’s role will be supervisory, at best, within 18 months. Building tools for them will be roadkill for the model makers product roadmap.”
He suggested parents encourage their kids to study subjects like philosophy, psychology, history, physics, and English writing instead.
But Not Everyone Agrees
Tech analyst Patrick Moorhead pushed back against the idea that AI will completely kill coding.
He pointed out that people have been predicting the death of programming for decades.
“Just like desktop publishing didn’t kill creativity, it just expanded it,” he said.
Moorhead believes AI will put coding in the hands of more people, not eliminate it.
Meanwhile, data shows software development jobs are actually up 6% since ChatGPT launched, while freelance writers and translators have taken the biggest hit from AI.
Where This Leaves Us
Whether coding is truly doomed or just evolving, the conversation is shifting fast.
AI isn’t just changing how we work; it’s redefining what skills are considered worth learning.
For now, it might be wise to combine tech fluency with strong communication and critical thinking skills before betting it all on code.