“Don’t teach kids to code.” If that opening surprises, you are not alone. For more than a decade, coding has been heralded as the golden ticket to economic security and the key to future-proofing the next generation. Billions have been poured into K–12 computer science initiatives, coding bootcamps, and workforce development programs, all in the name of preparing students for high-tech careers. But in 2025, an uncomfortable truth is emerging. Artificial intelligence is coming for the coders too. As the New York Times recently noted in its reporting on what some call the “AI doom loop,” large language models can now write production-ready code, refactor legacy systems, and debug more quickly than many human programmers. The same technological tide that disrupted manufacturing and retail is beginning to wash over the very tech jobs students were told would keep them safe.

Last month, Salesforce, one of the world’s largest software companies, made a stunning announcement: they do not plan to hire any more coders than they already have. This isn’t a temporary hiring freeze. It’s a sign of a deeper structural shift. The company’s leadership has made it clear that, powered by AI, their existing workforce can now accomplish more with fewer people. In fact, Salesforce claims that integrating AI into its operations has increased worker productivity by 30–50 percent—a staggering leap that, by all accounts, is not being driven by human hustle, but by machine intelligence doing the work humans once did.

If Salesforce, a tech industry giant, no longer needs to expand its pool of software engineers, what does that say about the thousands of schools and universities churning out new coders every year? What does it mean for the parents who still believe that computer science is a “safe bet”? And what does it mean for the communities whose hopes for upward mobility hinge on the promise of tech-driven prosperity?

The End of a Golden Era—and the Arrival of the Non-Human Workforce

The education sector is facing a code red moment. The very future it has been preparing students for, one where technical skills guarantee a place in the new economy, is evaporating before our eyes. The age of the non-human workforce is no longer a theoretical threat or the plot of a dystopian film. It is a present reality, one that is accelerating much faster than most school boards, superintendents, or college presidents are prepared to acknowledge.

AI is no longer just automating repetitive manual labor or low-wage jobs. It is writing code, debugging software, designing user interfaces, and even inventing new algorithms. The same tools that once powered economic mobility— digital literacy, programming, and data analysis— are now the very tools that AI can wield faster, cheaper, and, increasingly, better than most humans. Salesforce’s decision is simply the first public admission of what’s quietly happening across Silicon Valley and beyond: the workforce of tomorrow will include millions of non-human actors, and the demand for human coders is already flattening.

The New Productivity Boom: Fewer Workers, More Output

Consider the scale of what Salesforce and similar companies are reporting. A 30–50 percent jump in productivity is not the result of better coffee in the break room or more ergonomic chairs. It is the result of AI-driven automation woven into every part of their workflow. Customer support is handled by intelligent bots that never sleep. Marketing copy and internal reports are drafted and edited in seconds. Data analysis is no longer a tedious, week-long slog but a task completed in minutes by AI engines trained on vast datasets. Even software engineering, the beating heart of the tech economy, is being transformed as AI models can now generate, test, and refine code far faster than any junior developer.

For education, this is a wake-up call. If a single employee can do the work that once required three, and if that employee is now working in tandem with AI, what skills are truly in demand? What does a “good job” look like in a world where productivity gains come not from hiring more people but from deploying smarter machines? Are we preparing students to compete with, collaborate with, or be displaced by algorithms?

The False Promise of the Coding Boom

This moment should spark not just anxiety, but honest reflection. For years, coding was sold as the twenty-first century’s literacy, a skill as fundamental as reading or math. We built curricula, hired specialists, and wrote grant proposals based on the idea that more coders meant more opportunity. But in the rush to embrace “coding for all,” we missed a critical question: what happens when AI can code, too?

The truth is that AI is already writing millions of lines of code each day, from simple scripts to complex applications. OpenAI’s Codex, Google’s AlphaCode, and similar models have shown they can outperform many human programmers on standard tasks. AI can debug, refactor, and optimize code in ways that once took teams of engineers. The coder’s edge, once built on speed, precision, and logic, is now being matched or exceeded by machines that never get tired, never make careless errors, and never demand a raise.

Salesforce’s announcement is not the outlier. Across the tech sector, whispers are becoming shouts: AI is changing the very meaning of work, and the golden era of easy coding jobs is ending. As automation moves up the value chain, even white-collar and knowledge work is at risk. The pipeline we built for the old tech economy may soon become a funnel to nowhere.

What’s at Stake: Equity, Opportunity, and the Next Digital Divide

For education leaders, the stakes could not be higher. The risk isn’t just that we’ll train too many coders for too few jobs. The deeper danger is that we’ll reinforce a new digital divide, where those who design, own, and control AI reap massive rewards, while everyone else is forced into an even more precarious scramble for relevance.

Inequity is already being hard-coded into our systems. The same communities historically excluded from economic opportunity, students of color, low-income families, rural schools, are least likely to have access to cutting-edge AI tools, curriculum, and mentorship. If we keep preparing young people for jobs that won’t exist, we risk locking them out of the economy altogether, while a select few gain unprecedented power and wealth.

Education’s historic role as a ladder to social mobility is at risk. If we do not act with urgency and vision, AI will become a force multiplier for inequality, not opportunity.

What Education Leaders Must Do Now

So what now? First, we must abandon the fantasy that simply teaching kids to code is enough. AI literacy is about far more than programming. We must prepare students to critique AI, to understand its limits and biases, to design systems with justice in mind, and to imagine new forms of work and citizenship in a world where not every worker is human.

Second, we must audit our own practices. Is AI making decisions in our admissions, course placement, or hiring? Who built those systems? What data and values are embedded in them? Transparency and accountability must become non-negotiable. We have to understand what AI is prioritizing in reaching results.

Third, curricula need a radical overhaul. It’s time to invest not only in technical skills, but in creativity, empathy, collaboration, and ethical reasoning—traits machines cannot easily replicate. Interdisciplinary learning, project-based experiences, and real-world problem solving must become the backbone of modern education.

Fourth, we must advocate fiercely for policy and funding that ensure all students, not just the privileged few, gain access to meaningful AI education and opportunities. This means confronting tech monopolies, demanding open resources, and pushing for community-driven design.

Finally, we need to lead with courage. Education leaders must convene “communes of courage” across sectors, teachers, parents, students, unions, technologists, to co-create the future. The goal is not just to react to the machine age, but to shape it in the public interest.

The Future We Choose

I was recently listening to an interview with the writer of the second Contagion movie. He described how AI helped him reduce his research time for the film from a month to a single day. That’s an extraordinary gain in efficiency, but he was clear that AI could not write scenes with the quality, emotional depth, and narrative nuance needed for a successful film. In other words, ideas and creativity at their highest levels remain the province of humans, especially in specialized, high-stakes contexts.

AI’s march into the workforce is not something we can wish away. But we are not powerless. The decisions education leaders make today will echo for decades. Will we double down on the narrow dream of coding as salvation, or will we embrace a broader, bolder vision of what it means to be human and creative in a machine world?

The history of education is full of pivots, reinventions, and revolutions. This is our moment. We can let AI deepen the ruts of inequality, or we can demand that it serve justice, inclusion, and the common good. But we cannot do both.

So let’s stop asking how many coders we need, and start asking what kind of society we want to build and the skills we need to have. The answers won’t be found in yesterday’s playbook, but in the collective imagination, courage, and leadership we bring to the code red moment before us.

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Share your thoughts and strategies below. How is your institution responding to the rise of AI and the non-human workforce? What questions and challenges are emerging in your community? Join the “AI Code Red” conversation as we confront the future together.

Julian Vasquez Heilig is a Professor of Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology whose recent work is focusing on the intersection of artificial intelligence, equity, and public policy. He examines how AI is reshaping education, democracy, and civil rights, advocating for systems that expand opportunity rather than reinforce inequality. A trusted voice in public policy, he has provided testimony to state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. His insights have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, and he has appeared on MSNBC, PBS, NPR, and DemocracyNow! Vasquez Heilig is combining scholarly rigor with grassroots commitment to ensure AI advances human potential while safeguarding justice and human rights.