Future Of Software Engineering? Cisco Boss Hires Gen Z Employee To Rewrite Company's Entire 'Legacy' Code

In what could be a preview of the future of software development, Cisco's Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel has granted a 27-year-old engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite all of the company's code. This massive job that would have typically taken hundreds of employees has now been consolidated down to a team of one. In an interview with Fortune, Patel noted that he found the worker hidden "five levels" below him in the organisational chart.

The Gen Z employee chosen for the job is Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, who Patel affectionately calls 'Paddy'. He joined Cisco in 2025 after his real-time translation startup, EzDubs was acquired by the US-based tech giant. Despite coming in with CCEO experience, Paddy was buried away in the organisation, doing something 'unstrategic,' as per Patel.

The two met at the company's San Francisco office, where Krishnamurthy suggested that he could rewrite Cisco's legacy code with a team of just two people. The idea instantly caught Patel's attention, who said even the company's AI-focused teams had not considered attempting such a project.

“I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code. So I'm like, you can go, you can go nuts," Patel said.

As per Patel, Paddy's long-term vision is to refactor 98 per cent of Cisco's legacy code within 24 months. Patel said he was on the hunt fpr more such employees who will "challenge the system".

“If you don't hire the early-in-career [workers], and you just let your workforce continue the way that they were, where do fresh ideas get injected? How do you challenge the status quo?” he said.

Also Read | Sam Altman Says It's 'Terrible' For People To Have RAM For Personal Use, Gets Ripped Apart Online

Quizzed about the tension in the company over a Gen Z employee taking over one of the most radical projects while the seniors watch on, Patel said the friction helps in coming up with fresh ideas.

“Tension is good. I actually try to create tension in the teams because you want to have enough friction on the ideas. You don't want to have friction with people and personalities.”

“What you have to do is establish enough trust with people to say you are going to be expected to create unreasonable goals for yourself. And so, in order to go out and achieve those unreasonable goals, think outside of the box.”