Andrew Ng Says Deciding What to Build Is Becoming AI Software Engineering's New Bottleneck

Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearning.AI and co-founder of Coursera, has long focused on AI education and workforce training. He believes generative AI is sharply lowering the barriers to writing code and building prototypes. As a result, the scarce skills in software development will shift from implementation to identifying needs, setting priorities and deciding which products are worth pursuing.

In a recent interview, Ng said that as building software becomes easier, deciding what to build is emerging as the new bottleneck. He also rejected claims that AI will trigger mass unemployment, noting that software engineering jobs are still growing rapidly. The related reports gave no specific publication date, hiring growth rate or investment amount, making it impossible to quantify the trend from the available information.