Science & Tech · AI · 11 hrs ago
Cisco gives 27-year-old engineer AI tools to refactor 98% of legacy code
Cisco has tasked 27-year-old Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy with refactoring 98% of its legacy code within 24 months.
The project was assigned by Jeetu Patel, Cisco's president and chief product officer.
Krishnamurthy joined Cisco in 2025 after it acquired EzDubs, a translation startup he co-founded.
Patel said he found Krishnamurthy working in a role that did not make use of his experience as a founder.
Krishnamurthy proposed using a two-person team and AI tools to tackle the code, and Patel gave him unlimited AI tokens.
He has set himself four weeks to show what he can do before pursuing the larger goal.
Patel wants younger workers to challenge established ways of working, even when that creates disagreements with experienced colleagues.
Cisco President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel has tasked 27-year-old Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy with refactoring 98% of the company’s legacy code within 24 months.
Krishnamurthy, known as Paddy, has unlimited access to AI tokens for the project.
He joined Cisco in 2025 after the company acquired EzDubs, a translation startup he co-founded in 2023.
After meeting Krishnamurthy at Cisco’s San Francisco office, Patel backed his proposal to tackle the work with a two-person team.
Krishnamurthy has set himself four weeks to demonstrate what he can achieve before pursuing the larger target.
Patel says he wants younger employees to challenge established ways of working, even if that creates tension over ideas.
- Who
- Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, a 27-year-old Cisco engineer, is leading the project. Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s president and chief product officer, assigned it to him.
- What
- Krishnamurthy is to refactor 98% of Cisco’s legacy code within 24 months, using unlimited AI tokens.
- When
- The assignment was reported on October 30, 2026. Krishnamurthy set himself four weeks to demonstrate what he could achieve.
- Where
- Cisco; Patel and Krishnamurthy met at the company’s San Francisco office.
- Why
- Patel backed Krishnamurthy’s proposal and wants younger employees to bring fresh ideas and challenge established practices.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Krishnamurthy co-founded EzDubs, a real-time translation startup.
Krishnamurthy joined Cisco after the company acquired EzDubs.
Patel met Krishnamurthy at Cisco’s San Francisco office, where Krishnamurthy proposed rewriting the legacy code with a two-person team.
Krishnamurthy set himself this period to demonstrate what he could achieve.
The target is to refactor 98% of Cisco’s legacy code.
- Engineer
- Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, known as Paddy
- Age
- 27
- Code target
- 98% of Cisco’s legacy code
- Project deadline
- 24 months
- AI access
- Unlimited tokens
- Startup
- EzDubs, co-founded by Krishnamurthy in 2023
3 sources
Cisco gives 27-year-old engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite 98% of the company's legacy code in 24 months — president plucks former startup founder, telling him to 'go nuts'
Cisco gives Gen Z employee unlimited AI tokens to rewrite all of company's code
Cisco is letting a 27-year-old rewrite 98% of its legacy code with unlimited AI tokens: ‘Go nuts’
What people are saying
I’ve given him unlimited tokens because he’s going to refactor code
So I’m like, you can go, you can go nuts.
Tension is good
the aim is to create disagreements around ideas rather than personal conflicts