🔥 Main Story of the Week
AI Is Replacing Programmers Faster Than Expected
Last week, executives from two major tech companies made unusually blunt statements about the future of software development.
Spotify
Gustav Söderström, CTO of Spotify, revealed during the Q4 earnings call that the company’s top engineers haven’t written a single line of code since December 2025. Instead, they generate code using AI and focus entirely on supervision, validation, and outcomes. Spotify has fully embraced “vibe coding” as its default development model.
Microsoft
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, went further, stating that most white-collar work will be fully automated by AI within 12–18 months. Lawyers, accountants, project managers, marketers — anyone whose work happens primarily at a computer — should expect near-total automation of their core tasks.
Business impact
Radical reduction in development and operational costs
Immediate need to redesign team structures and roles
AI adoption is now existential — a one-year delay can be fatal
Focus shifts from execution to oversight, architecture, and strategy
💡 Notable News
OpenAI Begins Testing Ads in ChatGPT
OpenAI has started testing advertising inside the free version of ChatGPT. Former OpenAI researcher Zoë Hitzig publicly expressed deep concerns in an op-ed for The New York Times, warning that advertising could distort AI behavior and user trust.
At the same time, OpenAI disbanded its Mission Alignment team, responsible for ensuring AGI development aligns with humanity’s interests. Team members were reassigned internally.
Why it matters
Advertising-driven AI assistants may optimize for incentives that are invisible to users. Businesses should be cautious about which models they rely on for automating critical workflows.
Meta Sold 7 Million AI Glasses in 2025
Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses reached 7 million units sold in 2025, triple the combined sales of 2023–2024. EssilorLuxottica’s CEO confirmed that shipping 10 million units per year by 2027 is realistic.
Real-world usage
AI glasses are moving beyond hype into daily use for field work, inspections, training, and remote assistance in manufacturing and logistics.
India Requires Deepfake Removal Within 3 Hours
India updated its IT regulations, requiring platforms to remove deepfakes within 3 hours of receiving a takedown request. New rules also mandate labeling of synthetic content and prohibit deceptive impersonation.
Trend
Global AI regulation is accelerating. Companies must implement detection, labeling, and auditability for AI-generated content now.
ByteDance Unveils Seedance 2.0
ByteDance released Seedance 2.0, a powerful AI video generation model. The launch immediately triggered controversy after Disney issued cease-and-desist notices over unauthorized videos featuring characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Google Docs: AI Audio Summaries
Google introduced Audio Summaries in Docs, powered by Gemini. Long documents can now be summarized into short audio briefings.
Practical uses
Rapid team briefings on long reports
Listening during commutes or workouts
Accessibility for visually impaired users
Faster review of specifications and legal docs
Availability
Rolling out to business subscribers and Google AI users.
Path: Tools → Audio Summary.
📊 Trend of the Week
From Writing Code to Generating It
Spotify and Microsoft confirm a structural shift: programming is no longer about writing code — it’s about generating and supervising it.
What’s changing
Senior developers become AI supervisors
Junior roles shrink or disappear
Architecture, testing, and review dominate value creation
Companies hire AI orchestrators instead of programmers
What businesses should do
Now: Experiment with Copilot, Cursor, Replit Agent
6 months: Retrain teams to work with AI-generated code
12 months: Redesign dev orgs and reduce headcount
Companies that delay AI adoption risk falling behind by 3–5× in speed and cost.
💬 Quote of the Week
“When I talk to my most senior engineers — the very best developers we have — they tell me they haven’t written a single line of code since December. They only generate code and supervise it.”
Till next time,