A 27-year-old Gen Z employee is taking on a project that would typically be handed to some of the most experienced engineers at Cisco. But instead of years of experience, he has something else going for him - a startup background, an unconventional approach to coding and unlimited access to AI tools.
Cisco President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel has given Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Paddy, the freedom to use as many AI tokens as he needs to rewrite the company's legacy code. The ambitious target is to replace 98 per cent of Cisco's existing code within the next 24 months.Patel revealed the project during a conversation with Fortune, explaining that he had given the young engineer unlimited AI tokens to get the work done. "I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code," Patel said. "So I'm like, you can go, you can go nuts."When was this Gen Z recognised first?The assignment came after Patel discovered that Krishnamurthy, despite having previously founded a startup, was working on what he considered a relatively unimportant role within Cisco.
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 proposal caught Patel's attention.
Even some of the company's more AI-focused teams had not considered attempting the project in this way. Krishnamurthy has given himself four weeks to demonstrate what he can achieve before moving towards the larger target.Krishnamurthy joined Cisco in 2025 after the company acquired EzDubs, a real-time translation startup he had co-founded in 2023.
Despite his experience as a founder, he was not initially working on a project that matched Patel's expectations of his capabilities. Now, Patel wants to find more young employees who can question established practices rather than simply follow existing processes.
He believes people entering the workforce can bring questions and ideas that experienced employees might overlook because they are accustomed to doing things a certain way.That does not mean the approach always works smoothly. Putting younger employees in teams with colleagues who have spent decades at the company can create disagreements.
However, Patel believes some level of friction is necessary to get better ideas. "Tension is good," he said, adding that the aim is to create disagreements around ideas rather than personal conflicts.Patel is also applying this approach to interns. He treats them as reverse mentors and expects them to bring fresh perspectives instead of spending their time on routine administrative work.
He cited the example of Baya, a Stanford scholarship student who caught his attention during a college interaction. Patel asked her to send him monthly updates on what she was learning about AI.
After consistently following through, she secured an internship at Cisco and managed to redesign something that experienced employees had struggled to solve.Patel is not alone in believing that younger workers can bring valuable ideas to technology companies. Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner has also spoken about preferring candidates with fewer than four years of industry experience.Tastewise CEO Alon Chen has similarly expressed interest in hiring entry-level employees, arguing that they are less restricted by conventional ways of thinking.
Musician and investor Will.i.am has also been looking towards young talent at institutions such as MIT and Stanford for future technology breakthroughs.- Ends