AI CURATED HOT STORY · 11/10/2026
Manus co-founder Tao Zhang announced at Web Summit that the company has scrapped traditional coding interviews, replacing them with a four-hour task where candidates use Manus to solve real problems and then review their full collaboration records with the AI. Implemented since March, this shift moves hiring criteria from coding proficiency to human-AI collaboration habits.
Internally, role boundaries have blurred: front-end and back-end divisions are gone, and product managers and designers now write and commit code directly. Traditional job titles remain on the careers page only because "the outside world hasn't caught up," Zhang said. He stressed that the company seeks people who habitually work with AI and can explain their problem-solving process, not just those who can do the job.
This change mirrors a broader job market divide: U.S. software engineer hiring has fallen to less than half its 2022 peak, with front-end and mobile roles nearly halved, while Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) positions grew 4.6-fold in a year. Manus's approach signals a new paradigm for talent assessment in the AI era—collaboration ability is replacing pure coding skills as the core metric.
The line compares only sources observed throughout; gap hours are interpolated to keep the trend continuous.