Cisco's Jeetu Patel: AI to add more jobs, not less

Patel's argument rests on his own experience at Cisco, which he describes as being "pretty AI-pilled for several years." He says every major AI improvement there has surfaced a new human bottleneck — coding automation pushing work toward code review, and code review automation still leaving judgment and taste to people. On that basis he rejects the idea that AI means "doom and gloom" for employment.

That view sits against the backdrop Chen raised in the interview: a report showing Bay Area tech layoffs this year already topping all of last year's, with many companies tying them to AI-driven restructuring, Cisco among them. Patel's answer is that the people he knows who are fluent in AI are making more money than ever and that there is a shortage of such workers.

Where this lands depends on whether that fluency spreads as fast as the technology does. Patel himself says every job will be reconfigured and that AI fluency will be a prerequisite to stay employed, while also warning there will be "fits and starts" and moments that feel catastrophic. For employers and workers, the practical question is whether retraining keeps pace with the pace of AI adoption Patel describes.