Copyright thehindubusinessline
The widespread adoption of AI is causing significant shifts in the work dynamics for both freshers and mid level managers. Speaking to businessline on the sidelines of the CTOtalk event here on Saturday, tech leaders said that freshers will no longer have the 2-3 year ‘learning buffer’ after joining and must already be prepared with AI-assisted coding and real-world tools such as GitHub and Claude. They added that mid level managers are the most vulnerable layer as tasks typically done by 3–8 year experienced engineers will increasingly be automated and can be done by AI empowered juniors. Suresh Sambandam, Founder & CEO of Kissflow said that engineering teams at his firm are using coding agents such as Claude Code or GitHub more than relying on junior developers for basic tasks. “Senior engineers find it easier to work with AI-driven tools as they receive, review and fix it faster compared to the time consuming process of getting it from junior developers,” he said. Sambandam said that the company has stopped campus hiring for this year, and has also reduced its CRM and design teams from 12-14 employees to around 4 employees. Sudheer Bandharu, CEO, hivel.ai said the other way to look at it is that there is a lot of unlearning required for senior engineers today. “People who are coming out of college have learned the AI way through internships. Whereas for senior folk, they have to unlearn and learn it. So the complexity of the stuff that the juniors will have to do will go up,” he added. Data shows that senior engineers have the lowest AI usage and they distrust AI-generated code and prefer manual methods, he added. Deepak Dastrala, Partner and CTO at Intellect Design arena believes that the AI-driven coding has a two pronged challenge. “Suppose you need to protect a particular software for clients, the room for error is zero and so we can’t take a chance with completely AI-generated code. But at the same time, senior engineers trying to have everything hand stitched is also a problem,” he added. CTOtalk is a knowledge-sharing annual summit where over 1000 CTOs, engineering leaders, and innovators from some national and global companies discuss emerging technology trends, leadership insights, and the future of enterprise technology. This year, the summit saw sessions from industry leaders including Gaurav Satija, Sr. Director of Engineering, Adobe, Prajakt Deshpande, Head of Engineering, Atlassian Natraj Choudhury, CTO, Lenskart and Sreedhar Gade, VP of Engineering, Freshworks among others. Published on October 25, 2025
