The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) can be frightening. However, some experts believe that this emerging technology is developing capabilities that allow tasks to be accomplished faster and more efficiently.
Research suggests that technology leaders estimate that around 17% of jobs in the information technology sector could be lost to automation. Whether this proportion is correct remains a debate, but what is already certain is that the roles of IT professionals are set to change forever.
So how can tech workers prepare for the transformation of their responsibilities? Five business leaders give us advice on how IT professionals can prepare for change.
1. Develop good foundations
Nigel Richardson, CIO Europe at PepsiCo, says that just because AI can write code efficiently doesn’t mean businesses don’t need programmers. The rise of generative AI is even seen as an opportunity for IT professionals.
“It’s going to make some boring parts of programming faster and easier,” says Richardson. With AI taking over some areas of development, he advises IT professionals to focus on three underlying areas:
- The calculation
- The algorithms
- The data
“I would always emphasize having – especially early in your career – a good general foundation in different technologies,” he says. “There is a lot of infrastructure in the cloud today, but there are always things that need to be taken care of.”
Richardson tells ZDNET that IT professionals should also learn how machine learning actually works. Finally, he highlights the importance of learning how to use data securely.
“Data governance seems like a boring subject, but it’s a key part of what we do,” he says. “When you think about these three things – computation, algorithms and data – you have to understand them all. Then you can become a specialist in a field like information security. But I would always try to ‘have as broad a basis as possible’.
2. Aim to become a generalist
Nic Granger, director of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), agrees that good technical training is still essential for IT professionals in the AI era – but this advice comes with with a subtle nuance.
“I’m not convinced that people choose to focus on a particular skill,” he says. “If you get a computer science degree and learn C++, will you still be relevant in five, ten, fifteen years? It’s hard to know.”
What’s easier to understand, Granger tells ZDNET, is that limiting yourself to a single language or skill set risks narrowing career opportunities.
“It’s important to have the skills to adapt and learn new technologies. For example, I think there will be degrees on how to enable generative AI rather than how to perform the underlying coding,” he says. “Becoming more generalist will become more important for people in digital and data professions.”
3. Increase your people skills
Caroline Carruthers, CEO of consultancy Carruthers and Jackson, sees AI as augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence. “The combination of using the right tools and the humans controlling them excites me,” she says. “I like the idea of getting rid of boring, repetitive, transactional work, so that IT people can focus on the interesting things and solve the hard problems.”
Carruthers tells ZDNET that patience is the key to using AI to augment human skills. Yes, AI has the potential to do more boring tasks, but only if people approach the emerging technology without bias.
“We need to help IT professionals see what’s in it for them without being afraid. With AI, if it doesn’t solve the first question, people think it’s bad. With something like Copilot, it learns from you, so you have to keep using it,” she says. “It’s like when you work with graduates. If you get a graduate and the first thing he does is bad, you don’t say, ‘Let’s get rid of him.’ Instead, you take the time to help it learn. If you’re doing something with AI, you have to use the same process.”
4. Focus on value-generating areas
Craig Donald, CIO of the Football Association (FA), says his organization is already thinking about the potential impact of AI on the IT profession.
“Internally we have just launched some tests with the development teams,” he explains to ZDNET, suggesting that this work is in the “pre-beta stage”. One area his team is investigating is how AI can be used to manage unit testing, a method that checks source code to ensure it is fit for its intended purpose.
“If you ask a developer, you’ll find that they don’t want to sit down and write a document about unit testing, but they want to build the code,” he explains.
According to Mr Donald, these initiatives will allow its IT staff to focus on projects which bring greater added value to the FA’s customers, whether they are footballers, managers, administrators or supporters.
“We’re looking at whether we can use some of the AI features that have appeared in GitHub and other Microsoft tools to build some of these unit tests in a more automated way to take some of that hassle out of our hands,” Mr. Donald tells ZDNET.
5. Hone your rapid engineering skills
Andy Moore, chief data officer (CDO) at Bentley Motors, says it’s difficult to stand out in the ever-changing world of technology. He discusses generative AI tools such as Copilot and how they can be used in the IT development process.
However, while new technologies are essential, Moore tells ZDNET that technology professionals should not forget the importance of prompt engineering skills. IT professionals writing prompts for generative AI will need excellent writing skills.
“If you’re coding, whether it’s Python or SQL, the most common programming language will be English or French, because we’ll be using Copilot to reinforce the IT skills we already have,” he explains. “I think it’s critical to understand this process and deliver value. You need to think carefully about how you’re going to leverage generative AI to drive value – and success will be linked to the combination of humans and AI.”
Source: “ZDNet.com”