Replit CEO Explains Why Learning To Code Is Pointless In AI Era: "Instead, Learn How To..."

Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit - a company that allows users to build apps and websites using AI, has said that learning to code is pointless because artificial intelligence (AI) will soon take over coding professions. Taking to X, Mr Masad reshared a video of him explaining his statement. In the clip, he agreed with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, who had predicted that almost all of the codes in the coming future will be AI-generated. 

"In the upcase, like what Dario just said recently, all code will be AI-generated. I assume that on this optimisation path we're on, where agents are gonna get better and better and better, the answer would be different. The answer would be no. It would be a waste of time to learn how to code. But you could have different predictions, and I think different people will make different assumptions," he said. 

I no longer think you should learn to code. https://t.co/UNkOEmotwQ

— Amjad Masad (@amasad) March 27, 2025

Further, the Replit CEO emphasised that people will need to continue to work on their basics, even if coding becomes outdated. "I would say kind of learn a bit of coding. I would say learn how to think, learn how to break down problems, right? Learn how to communicate clearly, as you would with humans, but also with machines," Mr Masad explained. 

In a follow-up post, the CEO also reflected on how he spent years popularising coding through open-source work, Codecademy, and Replit, only to now believe that AI is making traditional coding skills redundant. "I understand all the cope. It was hard to arrive at this conclusion. There are obvious domain exceptions, but the trend is hard to miss," he added. 

Mr Masad's post triggered mixed reactions on social media. While agreed with his stance, others said that learning the basics should be the first step before delving deeper into the computer system.

"Strongly agree with this.. this doesn't mean engineering is obsolete. The engineering approach to solving problems is now even more crucial to make best use of AI tools. the paradigm of what the focus of engineering just changes from syntax and semantics to problem solving," one user wrote. 

"I do think that understanding how software is structured and all of the pieces involved (api's, auth, etc) is important because I find myself having a lot of blindspots when trying to improve/debug stuff that I build," expressed another. 

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"I still thinking knowing how to code is going to make you better at using AI tools, and especially when you run into things AI doesn't fix or can't figure out. But I do see a future in 10 - 12 years where maybe we barely look at code anymore, similar to how most people that code barely think about memory management," commented a third user. 

"at least for me, learning to code is what's allowing me to learn what you suggest. i know it's for soundbites, but i think the real lesson is, don't get caught up in syntax," said one user. 

Notably, Mr Masad's statement 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. ChatGPT maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also recently stated that AI has already taken over half of the coding work in many companies.