Cisco is placing a major software modernisation project in the hands of a 27-year-old engineer, giving him access to unlimited artificial intelligence (AI) resources to replace 98 per cent of the company’s existing code over the next 24 months.
Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Paddy, has been entrusted with the assignment by Jeetu Patel president and chief product officer, Cisco. The project reflects the company’s willingness to give younger employees greater ownership of complex technology initiatives, particularly when they bring unconventional approaches to problem solving.
The opportunity emerged after Patel discovered that Krishnamurthy, a former startup founder, was working on a relatively limited assignment within the organisation. Krishnamurthy had joined Cisco in 2025 following its acquisition of EzDubs, a real-time translation startup he co-founded in 2023.
During a meeting at Cisco’s San Francisco office, Krishnamurthy proposed that he could rewrite the company’s legacy code with a team of just two people. The suggestion caught Patel’s attention, particularly because the scale of the exercise had not been considered in the same way by some of Cisco’s AI-focused teams.
According to Fortune, Patel has given the engineer unrestricted access to AI tokens to carry out the work. Krishnamurthy has set himself an initial four-week timeline to demonstrate what he can achieve before taking on the larger 24-month target.
The assignment is also part of Patel’s broader approach to bringing younger talent into the company’s decision-making and innovation processes. He believes employees entering the workforce can question established practices and identify possibilities that colleagues with longer tenures may overlook.
Patel acknowledges that placing younger employees alongside experienced teams can create disagreements, particularly when new approaches challenge established ways of working. However, he views constructive differences of opinion as necessary for innovation, provided discussions remain focused on ideas rather than individuals.
This approach extends to Cisco’s internship programme as well. Patel encourages interns to act as reverse mentors and share what they are learning about emerging technologies, rather than being confined to routine administrative responsibilities.
Cisco’s approach reflects a wider interest among technology leaders in tapping younger professionals for fresh perspectives. Josh Kushner, founder, Thrive Capital, has spoken about his preference for candidates with fewer than four years of industry experience, while Alon Chen, CEO, Tastewise has also highlighted the value of hiring entry-level employees who may be less constrained by conventional approaches.
For Cisco, Krishnamurthy’s assignment will test whether a small team equipped with AI tools can take on a software- transformation exercise traditionally associated with much larger and more experienced engineering teams. It also illustrates a changing view of talent, where the ability to experiment with new technologies and challenge established processes can carry as much weight as years of experience.
