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Coding isn’t enough anymore: Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu reveals the one skill engineers need to beat AI
In a viral X post, Sridhar Vembu warned engineers that AI is turning syntax writing into a commodity. To remain valuable, developers must become domain experts who understand security, compliance, and customer needs.
Sridhar Vembu on AI era (Image source: Forbes India)
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu recently shared his insights on how software engineers can thrive in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). In an X post, Vembu highlighted the importance of deep domain expertise over relying solely on coding ability.
Further, Vembu stressed that while programming remains a critical foundation, in-depth knowledge of a specific domain ultimately creates real value for customers.
He emphasised that businesses pay not just for writing code, but for ensuring reliability, security, support, and compliance. These are the areas where human judgment and experience are still essential.
“Here is what I tell our software engineers on how to thrive in the AI era: be very good domain experts. Programming skills are the foundation (and we definitely don’t want to lose them), but deep domain knowledge is what customers pay for, along with reliability, security, support and compliance,” Vembu wrote.
While acknowledging that AI tools can significantly speed up the development of early prototypes, Vembu pointed out that delivering a complete, production-ready product involves many additional stages that AI cannot yet fully optimise.
He also advised engineering teams not to become overly focused on coding speed, but instead to leverage AI to enhance the overall customer experience.
“The productivity gains from AI are still hotly debated: we definitely get to a working prototype much faster but a finished product has a lot more to it and not all the stages can be sped up by AI,” he wrote, adding that AI has the potential to reduce unnecessary complexity in software systems.
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“There is a lot of needless or incidental complexity in software that can be eliminated by AI,” Vembu concluded.
See the post here:
Here is what I tell our software engineers on how to thrive in the AI era: be very good domain experts. Programming skills are the foundation (and we definitely don’t want to lose them) but deep domain knowledge is what customers pay for, along with reliability, security, support…
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) April 19, 2026
The post quickly gained traction, drawing a range of reactions. “this is the sanest AI take from a CEO i’ve read all month. “focus on customer experience not programmer productivity” shouldn’t be controversial but somehow in 2026 it is,” a user wrote.
“now all software engineers have to think from POV as problem solver and coding as language to tell computers to tell how to do the job,” another user reacted.
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