OpenAI CEO Says AI Skills Matter More Than Learning to Code

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that in today’s world, mastering artificial intelligence tools is becoming more important than traditional programming education.

In an interview with analyst Ben Thompson, he noted that coding used to be the obvious tactical skill for anyone pursuing a career in tech, but today, that role has shifted to the effective use of AI tools.

Altman emphasized that algorithms helping to write code are already being actively used in major companies. According to his estimates, in some of them, AI automates more than 50% of programmers' work. He also expressed confidence that in the near future, so-called agentic coding will become especially significant—using AI agents capable of independently developing and deploying software solutions. So far, he said, no one is systematically working on this area, but it may become the next major step in the evolution of software development.

Other AI industry leaders share Altman’s opinion. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently stated that within a year, AI will learn to write nearly all code for engineers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that his company is already developing a system that will be able to write most of the code in their products. All of this points to a paradigm shift: programming is becoming less about writing lines of code and more about the art of task-setting for AI.