Will AI Replace Your Programmer? Anthropic, Zoho & IBM Honchos Weigh In
This Week in Products, we explore hot opinions from tech honchos - Is AI truly an existential threat to developers, or just another tool in their arsenal?
Anthropic’s CEO predicts that AI will write 90% of code in the next 6 months. IBM’s CEO pushes back, arguing AI will boost productivity but not eliminate programming jobs. Meanwhile, Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu takes a different stance, pointing to deeper inefficiencies in the software industry as the real issue.
This Week in Products, we explore one of the hottest debates in tech: Will AI replace programmers?
The Prediction That Started It All
In a bold and controversial statement, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, claimed that AI will be writing 90% of code within the next 3-6 months and potentially all of it within a year.
“We are not far from a world where, in 3-6 months, AI is writing 90% of the code.”
Amodei made this statement during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), sparking intense debate across the tech world.
While Amodei’s prediction sounds like a doomsday scenario for programmers, he clarified that human programmers would still be needed to define application goals, set conditions, and make design decisions. The role of software engineers, in his view, may shift more towards orchestration and oversight rather than writing raw code.
This statement sent shockwaves across the industry, prompting strong reactions from leaders, engineers, and AI skeptics alike.
IBM’s CEO Pushes Back
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna was quick to counter Amodei’s claim, offering a more tempered prediction. Speaking in a recent interview, Krishna suggested that AI’s impact on coding would be significant but far from total replacement.
“I think the number is going to be more like 20-30% of the code could get written by AI — not 90%,” Arvind said.
He believes AI will augment human programmers rather than replace them. He sees AI as a productivity multiplier, allowing developers to write 30% more code in the same timeframe rather than eliminating jobs.
He also drew comparisons to past technological shifts, such as how calculators didn’t replace mathematicians and Photoshop didn’t eliminate artists.
Interestingly, Aravind’s stance contrasts with his own past statements. In 2023, IBM announced plans to pause hiring for certain back-office roles that the company expected to automate with AI. This suggests that while Krishna believes AI will transform industries, he remains skeptical of immediate, large-scale job displacement.
Sridhar Vembu’s Take: AI Isn’t the Real Threat
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu added another dimension to the debate with his take on X.
Vembu argues that AI isn’t the main reason behind job losses in software… at least, not yet.
Instead, he points to decades of inefficiencies in enterprise IT as the bigger problem.
For decades, large enterprises have thrown huge budgets at inefficient IT projects, often leading to bloated software teams.
These inefficiencies were outsourced to IT services firms in India, creating an artificial need for more software jobs.
AI’s ability to automate boilerplate code will reduce inefficiencies rather than eliminate developers.
“A large amount of code is boilerplate code, and AI can eat such code for breakfast.” – Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho.
So, the real crisis according to Vembu isn’t AI replacing jobs. It is a slowdown in enterprise IT spending due to economic conditions which is leading to job loss.
The Future: A New Era of Software Development?
This debate highlights two key perspectives:
The AI-Driven Future (Amodei & Altman): AI will eventually write most—if not all—of the code, reducing the need for traditional programmers.
The Augmentation Model (Krishna & Vembu): AI will act as a powerful tool that boosts productivity, but human oversight and expertise will remain essential.
Regardless of which vision prevails, one thing is clear: the nature of programming is evolving rapidly.
The future programmer may not be writing code in Python or JavaScript but rather orchestrating AI agents, designing prompts, and verifying AI-generated solutions.
What do you think? Will AI truly replace programmers, or is this just another overhyped cycle?
A video I enjoyed watching this week
Ever heard of Vibe Coding?
I think YC’s Head of Content deserves a pay hike. They consistently nail the timing—sharing the right blogs and videos just when the conversation is heating up.
This week’s pick: The Light Cone podcast by Y Combinator, where they break down Vibe Coding, a concept Andrej Karpathy coined to describe how AI is reshaping software development.
Key takeaways:
💡Coding by intuition – AI tools like Cursor and Wind Surf are making development more about guiding AI than writing every line manually.
🤔Engineers → Product thinkers – Founders are emphasizing human taste and product sense over traditional coding skills.
📈100x coding speed – Some startups claim AI-assisted development is exponentially faster, though debugging remains a challenge.
🌱AI-generated code dominance – Up to 95% of some founders’ codebases are now AI-generated.
As AI keeps advancing, software engineering is evolving into something fundamentally different. Is this the beginning of the end for traditional coding—or just a new phase?
Watch the video for detailed insights
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Opportunities for Founders in a Post-AI World
ProdWrks is excited to invite you to insightful panel discussions on Opportunities for Founders in a Post-AI World, happening on April 5th from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at Zifo RnD Solutions in Chennai (DLF IT Park, Porur).
About the event:
AI is reshaping how products are built, businesses are created, and industries evolve. Founders today have unprecedented opportunities to leverage AI, not just as a tool, but as a core driver of innovation. This event brings together founders, product leaders, and experts to explore the new wave of AI-driven opportunities for building products and product-led businesses.
Panel 1: AI-Native Industries – New Businesses of Tomorrow
Panel 2: The Citizen Developer Movement
This event is completely free to attend! Join us and be part of the movement.
📬I hope you enjoyed this week's curated stories and resources. Check your inbox again next week, or read previous editions of this newsletter for more insights. To get instant updates, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cheers!
Khuze Siam
Founder: Siam Computing & ProdWrks