Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a hot topic among tech leaders, with so-called industry visionaries offering their perspectives on its future at tech events, conferences, or during interviews. As these visionaries run the multibillion-dollar companies that drive the wave of AI and related technologies that the world adopts, their perspectives matter to the industry, individuals, and even market sentiments, influencing stock movements.
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Let's take a look at what these influential figures have recently said about AI's impact on jobs, society, and the future of innovation in the first edition of What They Said on AI.
1. Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates on AI and Jobs
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has predicted the future of artificial intelligence (AI), stating that it will replace experts in key fields. Over the next decade, advances in AI will mean that humans will no longer be needed “for most things” in the world because AI technology will readily perform tasks that currently require specialized human skills, Gates said during an interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s The Tonight Show.
According to Gates, AI won’t be able to replace biologists but will serve as a useful tool for tasks such as disease diagnosis and DNA analysis, as it lacks the creativity needed for scientific discoveries. He also said that AI won’t replace energy experts, as the field is still too complex to be fully automated, according to multiple media reports.
Today, expertise in fields such as medicine and education remains “rare,” Gates explained, pointing to human specialists we still rely on in many fields, including "a great doctor" or "a great teacher." But "with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace—great medical advice, great tutoring," he said.
"What we're doing now [in artificial intelligence]," Gates further explained in an interview last month with Harvard University professor Arthur Brooks, "is kind of an extension of the digital revolution—because it's built on the chips and the internet, and all of those things are about free intelligence."
"Unlike the first PCs, which merely amplified human capabilities, AI has the potential to replace them. Gates reportedly pointed out the existential shift: "Intelligence will be completely free."
According to Harvard Magazine, Gates also spoke with optimism about AI's potential in medicine. "It's very profound and even a little bit scary—because it's happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound," he said. One of its most immediate and transformative applications, he suggested, is in medical diagnosis. Healthcare is on the brink of transformation from AI—from use cases in identifying rare diseases to customising treatments based on genetic profiles.
Gates envisions AI-powered tools that can provide primary-care diagnostics, reducing dependence on overburdened medical professionals. "Eventually," he noted, there will be no shortage of doctors, "and the machine will probably be superior to humans—because the breadth of knowledge that you need to make some of these decisions really goes beyond individual human cognition," the report said.
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2. None of Us Will Have a Job, Says Elon Musk
Elon Musk has made predictions about artificial intelligence taking over jobs. Speaking at the VivaTech 2024 conference in Paris, Musk said that in the future, "probably none of us will have a job." He believes AI and robots will take care of almost everything, making human jobs optional—more like a hobby, Moneycontrol reported on March 27, 2025.
"But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want," Musk said, as reported by CNN. He added that such a world would need a system of "universal high income" to ensure people have enough to live on. In other words, even if no one is working, there would be no shortage of resources, the report added.
3. AI to Reshape Software Engineering, Reduce Demand Over Time: Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes AI will gradually reduce the need for software engineers as automation advances. In an interview with Ben Thompson of Stratechery, Altman said AI is already handling over 50 percent of coding in many companies, with future developments in "agentic coding" expected to accelerate the shift.
"I think in many companies, it's probably past 50 percent now. But the big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one’s doing for real yet," Sam Altman said in the interview.
He continued, "My basic assumption is that each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers."
While software engineers will initially become more productive, Altman predicts fewer will be needed in the long run. Job displacement, he noted, will not be sudden but will "seep through the economy" at an increasing pace.
"It kind of just seeps through the economy and mostly kind of like eats things little by little and then faster and faster," he said.
On career advice for students, Altman emphasised mastering AI tools, much like coding was essential in previous generations. However, he stressed that adaptability and continuous learning would be the most valuable skills in an AI-driven future.
"The obvious tactical thing is just get really good at using AI tools. Like when I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that," he said.
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4. AI Will Take Over Coding in 12 Months: Anthropic CEO
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could generate up to 90 percent of all code within the next three to six months and every line of code within the next year.
"I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is writing 90 percent of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code," Amodei said at a Council of Foreign Relations event, per Business Insider.
Amodei said software developers would still have a role to play in the near term, as humans will have to feed the AI models with design features and conditions.
"But on the other hand, I think that eventually all those little islands will get picked off by AI systems. And then, we will eventually reach the point where the AIs can do everything that humans can. And I think that will happen in every industry," Amodei reportedly said.
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5. AI Will Write Most of the Code, Says Zoho Founder
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu believes AI will handle 90 percent of coding, eliminating repetitive tasks.
In a lengthy post on X on March 22, 2025, Vembu wrote, "When people say "AI will write 90 percent of the code" I readily agree because 90 percent of what programmers write is "boiler plate". There is "essential complexity" in programming and then there is a lot of "accidental complexity" (that is the boiler plate stuff) and this is very old wisdom from the Mythical Man Month."
"AI is doing a great job eliminating the accidental complexity. Humans still needed to deal with the essential complexity.
"In essence, AI can make mincemeat of patterns already discovered (by humans). Can it find totally new patterns? As with humans, that is much rarer and a quality known as "taste" or "knowing where to dig" or "follow a hunch or conviction all the way" is needed to discover new patterns. I don't know if AI can do this. I don't know if that can be brute forced," he concluded.
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6. Don't Study Coding Now, Says Replit CEO
Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, said that learning to code is pointless as AI will take over coding jobs in the near future. Instead, he advised people to focus on problem-solving and creativity, which he believes will remain valuable skills in an AI-driven world.
This comes after Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that 25 per cent of the new code at the tech giant is AI generated, though it is later reviewed by engineers.
"I no longer think you should learn to code," Masad declared in a recent post on X on March 27, 2025.
