Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearning.AI, directly challenged the narrative that artificial intelligence will eliminate coding as a career skill, calling out earlier predictions as potentially harmful career advice. His pushback came during a heated debate at HumanX, a major tech conference, where industry leaders grappled with an uncomfortable reality: companies are increasingly citing AI when announcing significant workforce reductions .

Why Are Tech Companies Suddenly Blaming AI for Layoffs?

The trend is unmistakable. Salesforce laid off 4,000 customer support workers while stating that AI now handles 50 percent of its work. Block's chief Jack Dorsey announced plans to cut the company's headcount nearly in half, explicitly citing "intelligence tools" that have fundamentally changed how companies operate . The pattern has become so common that some economists question whether companies are using AI as a convenient justification for layoffs that actually stem from past overhiring or cost-cutting ahead of massive infrastructure investments. OpenAI's Sam Altman has even spoken of "AI-washing," a term describing the misuse of AI as a pretext for job cuts .

What's the Real Disagreement Among Tech Leaders?

The debate centers on which skills will survive automation and which will become obsolete. Two years ago, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang declared that the ultimate goal was to make it so "nobody has to program" or code. Ng's response was sharp and direct .

Jensen Huang

"We will look back on that as some of the worst career advice ever given," Ng stated on Tuesday.

Andrew Ng, Founder of DeepLearning.AI

In Ng's view, coding is not becoming obsolete. Instead, AI has simply made it available to more people. This distinction matters: rather than eliminating the skill, AI is democratizing it, allowing individuals without formal computer science training to write functional code with AI assistance .

Meanwhile, other industry voices have embraced a different strategy: emphasizing that human skills will become more valuable as AI handles routine tasks. Greg Hart, chief executive of Coursera, noted that critical thinking courses have seen enrollment triple over the past year .

"As AI can do more of a job, the things that will distinguish and differentiate a given employee are going to be the human skills: critical thinking, communication, teamwork," Hart explained.

Greg Hart, Chief Executive of Coursera

How Should Workers Prepare for AI-Driven Workplace Changes?

Industry experts and career development platforms have outlined practical steps for workers concerned about automation. The guidance emphasizes that preparation requires multiple approaches, not just learning new tools .

• Master AI as a Co-Pilot: Spend 30 minutes daily practicing advanced prompting, tool integration, and industry-specific AI platforms. Take free courses like Google's AI Essentials or Andrew Ng's short courses on DeepLearning.AI to produce higher-quality work faster than colleagues who resist AI adoption .
• Build Financial Resilience: Aim for 9 to 12 months of living expenses in liquid savings, more than the traditional 3 to 6 months. Create a separate "disruption fund" and consider side income through freelance consulting or AI-powered gigs on platforms like Upwork .
• Develop Irreplaceable Human Skills: Focus on emotional intelligence, creative problem-solving, judgment and strategy, and digital storytelling. These areas represent where AI fails: empathy, ethical judgment, creative synthesis, and building trust with stakeholders .
• Commit to Lifelong Learning: Adopt micro-learning habits of 20 to 30 minutes daily on platforms like Coursera or LinkedIn Learning, focusing on emerging areas like AI ethics, data literacy, and domain-specific AI applications .
• Create Multiple Income Streams: Freelance using AI tools to scale output, launch micro-businesses that leverage AI, and network aggressively through industry communities and former colleagues .

The stakes are particularly high for early-career workers. Hiring of candidates with less than one year of experience fell 50 percent between 2019 and 2024 among America's major tech companies, according to a study by investment fund SignalFire . AI has automated entry-level tasks that once served as on-the-job training, creating a significant bottleneck for workers trying to break into the industry.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore emerged as the conference's most vocal dissenting voice, calling for concrete action rather than vague reassurance. He warned that the tech industry risks repeating the mistakes of the globalization era, when policymakers failed to prepare workers for the consequences of offshoring .

"The mistake was not globalization. The mistake was in not preparing for the consequences of globalization," Gore stated, drawing a parallel with the deindustrialization that followed the offshoring wave of the 2000s.

Al Gore, Former U.S. Vice President

The broader message from industry leaders is that AI-driven disruption is real, but preparation can mitigate its worst effects. Workers who treat the current period as a "career upgrade season," building savings, mastering AI tools, sharpening human strengths, and creating multiple income streams, position themselves to benefit from the wave rather than be swept away by it. The question is not whether change is coming, but whether workers and policymakers will prepare for it proactively or reactively.