Latest news with #JeetuPatel
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Cisco President Jeetu Patel says software engineers need these 2 'grossly underestimated' skills to survive
Cisco President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel says software engineers need to focus on two critical skills as artificial intelligence reshapes the industry: orchestrating agent workflow and generating quality ideas. Speaking to Business Insider, Patel identified these capabilities as "grossly underestimated" despite their growing importance in an AI-driven workplace . "We feel more constrained now than ever before on not having enough engineers to get prosecuted all the ideas that we've got going internally," Patel said, noting that Cisco employs 27,000 engineers and is "unapologetically hiring" more. However, he acknowledges AI will fundamentally change engineering roles, particularly as tools like OpenAI 's Codex automate repetitive coding tasks. From writing code to directing AI agents Patel expects traditional coding syntax knowledge to become less consequential within five years. "Understanding the nuanced details of syntax in coding language will still be important, but there will be less emphasis on it in the future," he explained. Instead, engineers will need to master "orchestrating agent workflow" - overseeing AI agents that communicate with each other to solve complex problems. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Economic Storm Warning for Australia Fat Tail Daily Learn More Undo "That will be super important," Patel emphasized about workflow orchestration, comparing it to managing teams where understanding which tasks suit AI versus humans becomes crucial. When Imagination becomes the only constraint The second essential skill involves generating high-quality ideas. Patel believes AI augmentation will make engineers "10 to 50 times as productive," enabling product development timelines to shrink "from months to minutes." This efficiency boost means "the scarcity of developers" won't constrain innovation, but idea quality will determine success. "The only constraint becomes their imagination," Patel said, arguing that AI tools "unlock" human creativity rather than replace it. As coding becomes more automated, engineers who can conceptualize innovative solutions will become increasingly valuable, positioning creativity as the new competitive advantage in software development. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
India Today
a day ago
- Business
- India Today
How to deal with AI era? Cisco CPO Jeetu Patel has advice for software engineers, says work on 2 skills
As AI continues to grow rapidly, many engineers are wondering what their future in the tech industry looks like. Cisco's Chief Product Officer (CPO) Jeetu Patel believes the role of engineers is far from over — but says they need to adapt and focus on new skills to stay valuable in this changing a conversation with Business Insider, Patel said Cisco is still actively hiring engineers. The company currently has around 27,000 engineers and is looking for more. 'We feel more constrained now than ever before on not having enough engineers to get prosecuted all the ideas that we've got going internally,' he said, Patel admitted that AI is changing how engineering teams work. Cisco is already testing tools like OpenAI's Codex, an AI coding assistant that can write code, fix bugs, and run tests. With such tools becoming more common, Patel believes engineers will no longer need to focus heavily on writing perfect code. He suggested that knowing every detail of coding syntax won't be a big deal in the next five years. Instead, he highlighted two other skills that he feels are often underestimated but will matter a lot more in the future. First, he talked about the importance of orchestrating agent workflows. In simple terms, this means managing a group of AI tools that work together. Engineers will need to figure out how to assign the right tasks to either humans or AI systems to get the job done efficiently. Patel said this will become a key part of engineering work going second important skill, according to Patel, is the quality of ideas. As AI takes over repetitive tasks, human engineers will need to bring creativity and strong ideas to the table. He said tools like Codex help unlock people's imagination, allowing companies to move faster without being limited by the number of developers they also added that AI will boost productivity in a big way. With the help of AI, engineers could become 10 to 50 times more productive — turning ideas into working products in minutes rather than months. This, Patel believes, will not only help companies move faster but also make work more satisfying for engineers. "The only constraint becomes their imagination," he tech leaders have expressed similar thoughts. For example, Dropbox executive Morgan Brown previously pointed out that in the AI era, what really matters is doing deep, thoughtful work and coming up with strong ideas. While AI may change the tools engineers use, Patel made it clear that the demand for skilled minds isn't going away — it's just changing in a new direction.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
2 'grossly underestimated' skills that will be valuable in the next era of engineering, according to Cisco's CPO
Cisco has about 27,000 engineers and is "unapologetically hiring" more, CPO Jeetu Patel told BI. He said that AI automation tools, like OpenAI's Codex, are reshaping the role of engineers. Having a strong skillset in agent workflow and idea quality is "grossly underestimated," Patel said. It's no secret that the role of engineers is changing — and in some cases, shrinking. That's not the case at Cisco, though, the company's president and chief product officer, Jeetu Patel, told Business Insider in an interview — at least, not yet. The company has 27,000 engineers and is "unapologetically hiring" more, he said. "We feel more constrained now than ever before on not having enough engineers to get prosecuted all the ideas that we've got going internally," Patel said. Patel isn't denying that AI advancements will redefine the role of engineers, though. Cisco recently partnered with OpenAI for design testing on its new Codex AI coding assistant, which offloads repetitive tasks and performs tasks like writing code, fixing bugs, and running tests. Patel said Codex will allow companies to pair human software engineers with an AI counterpart. Understanding the nuanced details of syntax in coding language will still be important, Patel said, but there will be less emphasis on it in the future. He said that skill won't be "consequential" in the next five years. Two other skills, which are "grossly underestimated," will take precedent, the CPO told BI. Patel said one of those will be "orchestrating agent workflow." That will involve overseeing a whole family of agents who talk to each other to ensure they solve problems. Salesforce EVP of talent growth and development, Lori Castillo Martinez, similarly said in an earlier interview with BI that it's more important than ever to know which tasks are best suited for agents and humans. She said the best managers are those who can analyze teams and maximize productivity. "That will be super important," Patel said about orchestrating agent workflow. Patel said the second skill that will become valuable is "quality of ideas." It appears that engineers will need to have a lot of them. Patel said tools like Codex "unlock" human imagination so that the "scarcity of developers" doesn't constrain companies from innovating. The CPO said that AI augmentation will make engineers 10 to 50 times as productive, with engineers spending more time thinking and less time fixing bugs. Patel said the speed at which an idea becomes a product will go from months to minutes. Dropbox VP of product and growth, Morgan Brown, previously shared similar advice with BI. In the age of AI, he said product managers should focus more on what he referred to as the "deep work," adding that companies are eager to have more great ideas. Patel said that this evolution will improve "output capacity, but also the satisfaction that someone gets from a job." "The only constraint becomes their imagination," Patel said. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
2 'grossly underestimated' skills that will be valuable in the next era of engineering, according to Cisco's CPO
It's no secret that the role of engineers is changing — and in some cases, shrinking. That's not the case at Cisco, though, the company's president and chief product officer, Jeetu Patel, told Business Insider in an interview — at least, not yet. The company has 27,000 engineers and is "unapologetically hiring" more, he said. "We feel more constrained now than ever before on not having enough engineers to get prosecuted all the ideas that we've got going internally," Patel said. Patel isn't denying that AI advancements will redefine the role of engineers, though. Cisco recently partnered with OpenAI for design testing on its new Codex AI coding assistant, which offloads repetitive tasks and performs tasks like writing code, fixing bugs, and running tests. Patel said Codex will allow companies to pair human software engineers with an AI counterpart. Understanding the nuanced details of syntax in coding language will still be important, Patel said, but there will be less emphasis on it in the future. He said that skill won't be "consequential" in the next five years. Two other skills, which are "grossly underestimated," will take precedent, the CPO told BI. Patel said one of those will be "orchestrating agent workflow." That will involve overseeing a whole family of agents who talk to each other to ensure they solve problems. Salesforce EVP of talent growth and development, Lori Castillo Martinez, similarly said in an earlier interview with BI that it's more important than ever to know which tasks are best suited for agents and humans. She said the best managers are those who can analyze teams and maximize productivity. "That will be super important," Patel said about orchestrating agent workflow. Patel said the second skill that will become valuable is "quality of ideas." It appears that engineers will need to have a lot of them. Patel said tools like Codex "unlock" human imagination so that the "scarcity of developers" doesn't constrain companies from innovating. The CPO said that AI augmentation will make engineers 10 to 50 times as productive, with engineers spending more time thinking and less time fixing bugs. Patel said the speed at which an idea becomes a product will go from months to minutes. Dropbox VP of product and growth, Morgan Brown, previously shared similar advice with BI. In the age of AI, he said product managers should focus more on what he referred to as the "deep work," adding that companies are eager to have more great ideas. Patel said that this evolution will improve "output capacity, but also the satisfaction that someone gets from a job." "The only constraint becomes their imagination," Patel said.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Building An ‘AI-First' Culture: What Does That Even Mean?
AI-first means people-first Lately, there's been no shortage of talk of managing organizations around 'AI-first' approaches, meaning managers would consider whether AI could do a job, or set of tasks, before humans are brought in. But AI-first goes deeper than that, suggesting an organization's entire culture can be redesigned to incorporate the broad intelligence solutions that AI platforms and tools can offer. How would such an organization look, and is this something a decades-old company could pull off? Cisco Systems, which was founded more than 40 years ago, has been undertaking such a transformation over the past three years across all aspects of its business. This includes transforming 'the way that we build product, the way that our products get used by customers, the way that we actually get jobs done within the company,' said Jeetu Patel, president and chief product officer for Cisco. Even in what is one of the most technology-savvy companies in the world, such an effort will meet resistance, Patel recently explained on a recent episode of Michael Krigsman's CXOTalk. 'It's a cultural shift. It's actually fraught with a level of skepticism." Still, 'If you looked at us a year and a half, two years ago, no one would have really said that Cisco is AI first,' he said. An issue being encountered is 'people have actually been afraid of AI, saying, 'Hey, AI's going to take my job, so I'm not going to go out and use it,' Patel added. 'I actually find that it's less about AI taking your job, it's more about someone that uses AI better than you in their jobs is probably the one who's going to take your job.' Ultimately, 'the dexterity that you need to show in the way in which you do everything with AI is going to be pretty important,' he said. 'We've always felt like there's only going to be two kinds of companies in the world. Ones that are dexterous with the use of AI, and others who really struggle for relevance.' There are three key considerations in building an AI-first culture, Patel explained: Customers are also part of the transformation to an AI-first culture. 'One area that we struggle with is that the pace and rate of change is so fast that communicating that to our customers and having them digest that change is a challenge,' said Patel. 'I don't think we've cracked the code on that.' Customers have a view of Cisco from more than three years back, 'and frankly, it's an entirely different company than what it used to be three years ago,' he added. 'I feel like there's so much coming at people all the time that you have to make sure that you distill it down to a few things that make sense.' For example, AI is accelerating the company's responses to support tickets. It also is helping to reduce overhead costs. On the sales side, AI will help accelerate sales meetings, as well as legal and accounting processes involved with the sale. 'All of those things will have AI as a pretty critical component of it, and I do feel like the sales process is going to change quite materially over the course of the next few years. And you will never be in this position where you go completely blind and unprepared into a conversation because AI can get you prepared within a very, very compressed amount of time on what needs to happen.' What's important now for the new generation that's entering the workforce – as well as existing workers – is not to operate out of fear of AI, Patel advised. 'You have to operate from a place of looking at the possibilities and looking at the opportunities that actually can be unlocked. I would urge people to just have a very different kind of mental model, which is, there's nothing that should stop us from actually being curious about how we might be able to use AI, and this technology is going to get easier and easier and easier, where no longer is technical dexterity going to be an impediment.'
