For years, parents, teachers, and career advisors have repeated the same mantra: learn to code. But according to Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia — the company powering much of today’s artificial intelligence revolution — that advice may soon be outdated. Speaking at a major global tech conference in Dubai earlier this year, Huang claimed that coding is on its way to becoming a redundant skill.
A radical prediction from the man behind AI’s rise
Huang isn’t just any tech executive. Under his leadership, Nvidia’s chips have become the backbone of the AI boom, fuelling everything from ChatGPT to self-driving cars. So when he makes a bold statement about the future of work, the industry listens.
At the summit, Huang told attendees that people should stop pushing children to learn programming languages. His reasoning? Artificial intelligence will soon make coding obsolete. Thanks to the rapid progress of “natural language” interfaces, he argued, anyone will be able to write software simply by describing what they want in plain English — or any other language.
“Everyone in the world is a programmer,” Huang said, envisioning a near future where AI can transform a simple text prompt into fully functional code. In essence, he believes that AI will do the coding for us, just as graphical user interfaces once made computing accessible to people who didn’t understand command lines.
Not everyone agrees
Unsurprisingly, Huang’s comments stirred up quite a debate in the tech community. Patrick Moorhead, a well-known analyst at Forbes, pushed back almost immediately. He pointed out that for more than three decades, people have been predicting the demise of coding, yet the demand for skilled programmers continues to rise.
“I’ve been hearing for 30 years that something would ‘kill coding,’ and it never has,” Moorhead wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “AI won’t end programming — it will expand it. Just like desktop publishing didn’t kill creativity, it amplified it.”
And many developers seem to agree. The ones I’ve spoken with recently don’t feel threatened by AI — at least not yet. They’re using tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot to speed up specific tasks, but they still rely heavily on their own expertise to design, debug, and optimise software. As one engineer told me, “AI can write lines of code, but it can’t understand the logic behind a complex system.”
Coding’s hidden value
Even if AI automates some aspects of programming, many educators argue that learning to code teaches far more than syntax. It builds problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and patience — abilities that transfer well beyond software development.
The World Economic Forum has consistently ranked computational thinking as one of the top skills for the future workforce. Understanding how systems work, even at a basic level, will still matter — especially as more industries become data-driven.
The reality on the ground
Ironically, the job market doesn’t seem to share Huang’s pessimism. A recent report by Bloomberry found that demand for freelance programmers in the US has increased since the launch of ChatGPT, while jobs in writing and translation have dropped sharply. In other words, the world still needs coders — and lots of them.
AI may change what programming looks like rather than eliminate it. Instead of writing every line, tomorrow’s developers might spend more time designing systems, auditing AI-generated code, or focusing on security and ethics — areas that still require a human touch.
A future written in plain English
Huang’s vision isn’t entirely implausible. If AI continues to evolve at this pace, it could democratise software creation the way smartphones democratised photography. But until machines can fully grasp nuance, context, and creativity, coding isn’t dead — it’s just evolving.
So, before you toss out your Python books, remember this: AI may change how we code, but it won’t replace the people who understand why we code.
