Any Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic – Arthur C Clarke.

The Caveman who first produced fire was likely to have been treated as a deity amongst mortals. A System Engineer before Y2K was treated with the gravity of a Prophet (of Doom, but still a Prophet). The next step in the professional technology evolution will be significantly more profound.

Never before have lay people been as educated or interested in modern technology as they are now. The curtain has been pulled back on what was once magic to them.

Technology advances have traditionally disrupted business & society. Technology has stripped bare industries by forcing change with little regard to how society has had to scramble to keep up.

For the first time, technology itself is being disrupted.

The impact of AI on the production of technology as well as the Professionals of IT could be as disruptive as the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel or the invention of the internet. I’d go a little further and suggest that not since the invention of the internet has the technology world been shaken to this degree.

Like any technological leap, humans will adapt and evolve. It’s usually just a question of how quickly.

The tools you currently use to produce and ship software could become obsolete. Hmm... that’s a strong statement. 

Maybe it’s fairer to say that your knowledge of a tool will no longer be your marketable skill. Not when AI can produce code quicker and easier than you can.

The class divide will broaden between those who can only sling tools & those who exploit tools to engineer solutions. We will see a labour class emerge under leadership/engineering/crafting.

Your value will become the resourcefulness you use to leverage those tools, be it Copilot in .NET, UiPath or Python, with the aim of producing business outcomes.

AI is inevitable in some form, your best bet as a professional is to embrace it in all its glory (or horror). Grab the tiger’s tail, and learn to sling the beast in clever ways to produce outcomes in business.

This is where your value lies.

This blog was written by our Practice Manager, Jason Pretorius.