While many high-tech executives still preach the importance of learning code, the CEO of software company Autodesk says there is another skill that is more important.
“If your coding model is running code for you, what's even more important is you understand that there is this concept of interdisciplinary thinking at the system level,” Andrew Ananist told Business Insider.
In aeronautics and computer science, Anagnost is a major advocate for interdisciplinary thinking and exploration as someone who followed the non-traditional educational path before completing his Ph.D.
He understands the value of diving deep into the topic and gaining expertise on it, but he doesn't think that being “incredibly deep in narrow discipline” is the most important thing in today's job market, unless a person is planning to become a research scientist.
Anagnost said it will become increasingly important in a world where AI agents can implement their professional skills, understand multiple fields, and engage in “how to create and how to create products.” He added that humans need to take on the role of “creative orchestrators” and manage the outcomes of AI systems.
A new era for computer scientists
Anagnost's comments are as AI tools like Codex and Github Copilot are becoming more and more popular and are increasingly handling coding tasks that were previously the core of the work of software engineers.
Anagnost said with the advent of AI tools, there are “people who generate more code than ever”, many of whom do not have a background in computer science. The CEO said it would take a “a little effort” to generate code that can perform very specific tasks.
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“As we move into the future, there will definitely be more people generating code in some way that will run computers in new and interesting ways,” Anagnost says. “It's just going to be a different person.”
Educational needs may change
Anagnost explained that the true value of computer science education is not in entry-level coding, and that companies are likely to reduce employment in these roles. However, he said more sophisticated tasks such as deep modeling and algorithms would require computer scientists.
Software companies typically employ four types of workers: product managers, product designers, engineers and QA specialists who test products, according to Anagnost. The CEO said that in the future, these four roles could be reduced to two, and that product designers could work with coding agents to test the software.
In these situations, Anagnost said there need to be people with “Total Systems Thinking” on how everything works. Anagnost said the education system needs to adapt to that shift, teach students how to think critically and engage in AI tools.
“Perhaps fewer people have traditional computer science degrees and software companies,” Anagnost said. “But there are probably more people who create products than ever before.”
