Microsoft Teams Up with Carnegie Mellon to Launch PRAISE for Training Engineers in the AI Era

When AI can write code, join architecture design, and fix bugs in seconds, the growth path for junior programmers needs a rethink. Microsoft has teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University to launch PRAISE, a mentorship program for AI-accelerated software engineering. It aims to keep developing future senior engineers as AI speeds up coding.

PRAISE borrows the clinical mentoring model from nursing. Junior engineers pair up with senior ones, who guide them to understand systems, test ideas, decide when to use AI, and own the results. The goal is not to avoid AI and keep writing code by hand, but to build systems thinking, engineering taste, judgment, and responsibility.

Microsoft believes AI changes the work itself, but humans are still responsible for software quality and safety. Engineers still need to understand how the underlying code works, or teams will struggle to fix problems when systems fail. Carnegie Mellon will offer formal courses and group discussions to connect theory with real-world software delivery.