According to Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, AI will reshape IT occupations and make coding obsolete

AI Will Shift Tech Talent Away From Coding to Orchestration and Problem-Solving: Nandan Nilekani

Bengaluru — Artificial intelligence is fundamentally rewriting how software is built and used, and writing code will no longer remain the central role for technology professionals, Nandan Nilekani, cofounder of Infosys, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the company’s Investor Day event, Nilekani said AI is being adopted faster than any previous technology wave — including the internet and smartphones — and will drive deep structural changes in how enterprises design systems, serve customers, and manage talent.

“Talent will have to deal with a world where writing code will not be the goal. It’ll actually be making AI work, orchestration, and those kinds of things,” he said. “Customer journeys, operating models, and mental models all have to change. Every enterprise must rethink how it operates.”

He emphasized that while traditional coding roles may shrink, a wide range of new roles will emerge. These include AI engineers, forward deployment engineers, and forensic analysts — job categories that were rare or nonexistent just a few years ago. According to Nilekani, the coming talent transformation across the technology sector will be significant.

Nilekani noted that greenfield coding productivity is not the biggest hurdle facing enterprises today. Instead, the larger challenge is dealing with vast legacy environments — including systems handling trillions of dollars in value — that often contain undocumented dependencies and architectural complexity.

Highlighting adoption trends, he said AI is scaling at unprecedented speed because it builds on infrastructure created by earlier technology revolutions. While the internet took more than a decade to reach one billion users and smartphones took about five years, AI adoption is occurring within just a few years.

Each previous platform shift changed business practices, he said, but AI represents a more fundamental operational reset. “Customer journeys, operating models, talent — everything has to change,” he said.

He warned that modernization of legacy systems can no longer be postponed. Many large enterprises currently spend between 60 percent and 80 percent of their IT budgets on maintaining old systems, which he described as generating little direct business value. Rising security risks, siloed data, and accumulated technical debt are adding to the urgency.

“Accumulated tech debt over decades must be paid. You no longer have the option to defer this,” Nilekani said, adding that AI-powered tools can accelerate modernization at lower cost and greater scale, though execution remains complex.

He also pointed to a shift in enterprise technology strategy — from buying packaged software to building AI-driven solutions. Organizations are increasingly layering agentic AI interfaces on top of existing systems of record to simplify and personalize customer interactions.

However, he cautioned that simply deploying AI tools does not automatically translate into productivity gains. Enterprises must focus on outcomes, change management, and system redesign to avoid what he called “false productivity.”

Nilekani concluded that success with AI will require first-principles thinking, technology-agnostic system design, and collaboration across firms. “The opportunity is bigger than ever before, but the risk is in execution, not in the opportunity itself,” he said.