Palo Alto Networks CEO says AI won’t mean fewer engineers: ‘I need more’

• Nikesh Arora said it’s a “fallacy” that AI productivity gains automatically mean fewer workers.
• Instead, he thinks AI will help engineers ship feature requests that grew “longer than their arm.”
• He said some AI-linked layoffs may help companies make room for workers with newer skills.

Arora thinks there’s a more nuanced impact on jobs.

@hardfork How A.I. Is Affecting Cybersecurity Jobs Nikesh Arora, the chief executive of the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, joins us to talk about how A.I. models like Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber, which excel at finding vulnerabilities in technical systems, are changing how he’s thinking about hiring security specialists. #podcast #tech #news #ai #claude #anthropic #security ♬ original sound – Hard Fork Podcast

He argued that AI could create greater technical capacity — and that companies may use those gains to tackle long-delayed product roadmaps and business transformation rather than simply banking the savings through mass layoffs.

“The problem is, every technologist that you talk to has a feature request list which is longer than their arm,” he said. “I think the first thing that’s going to happen is, as we create more capacity, we’re going to try and fill the technological backlog.”

Arora also offered a layered view of recent AI-linked layoffs, saying some companies may be using cuts to “create capacity” and make room for workers with different job responsibilities.

“They’re saying, ‘That capacity allows me to hire more people and make room for people that I need who have the newer skill set,'” he said.

Palo Alto Networks has continued to add employees, though its filings do not attribute that growth specifically to AI. The company increased its total employee head count by 959 in the first two quarters of fiscal 2026, according to its latest 10-Q filing.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.