The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is often seen as a reason for fear. Some experts believe that emerging technologies are developing the ability to complete tasks more quickly and effectively than human technology.
According to research, technology leaders feel that approximately 17% of IT jobs could be lost to automation. Whether this percentage is accurate is up for debate, but what is already certain is that the role of IT professionals will change forever.
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So how can technology workers prepare for changing responsibilities? Five business leaders offer tips on how IT professionals can prepare for change.
1. Cultivate proper grounding
Nigel Richardson, PepsiCo's European senior vice president and chief information officer, said the fact that AI can write code effectively doesn't mean blue-chip companies like his don't need programmers. In fact, the rise of generative AI is driving the rise of IT professionals.
“This will make some of the tedious parts of programming faster and easier,” Richardson says. As AI takes back slack in some areas of development work, he advises his IT professionals to focus on what he calls three fundamental areas: compute, algorithms, and data. Masu.
“I always focus on getting a broad foundation in different technologies, especially early in my career, because I want to learn some of the core infrastructure skills.” he says. “There's a lot of infrastructure in the cloud today, but there's still kit that needs to be managed.”
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Richardson told ZDNET that IT professionals should also learn the ins and outs of machine learning. Finally, he pointed out the importance of learning how to leverage data securely.
“Data governance sounds like a boring subject, but it is an important part of what we do,” he says. “When you think about three things: computing, algorithms, and data, you have to understand all of them. Then you can become a specialist in something like information security. But I always try to do that. Please learn a wide range of basics.”
2. Aim to be a generalist
Nick Granger, corporate director and CFO at the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), agrees that good technical fundamentals remain important for IT professionals in the age of AI. But that advice comes with a subtle twist.
“I don't understand why people choose to focus on specific skills,” she says. “If she gets a computer science degree and she learns C++, will it still be useful in 5, 10, or 15 years? It's hard to know.”
Granger told ZDNET that what's easier to understand is that sticking to a single language or skill set is likely to limit your career opportunities.
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“It's important to have the skills to adapt and learn from new technologies. For example, I think we'll see degrees that look at how to facilitate generative AI rather than how to code at the base,” she says. “It will become more important for digital and data professionals to become generalists.”
3. Enhance human skills
Caroline Carruthers, CEO of consultancy Carruthers & Jackson, views AI as augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence.
“I'm excited about the marriage of using the right tools and the humans controlling them,” she says. She says, “I like the idea of eliminating boring, repetitive, transactional work so that people in IT can focus on interesting things and solving tough problems.”
Carruthers told ZDNET that patience is key when using AI to augment human skills. Yes, AI has the potential to do more boring tasks, but only if people approach emerging technologies without preconceptions.
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“The key is to help IT professionals understand it without fear. With AI, if the first answer doesn't solve the problem, people will think it's wrong. Copilot In something like , the AI learns from the user, so the AI needs to learn from the user, so keep using it,” she says. “It's similar to how we work with alumni. If you let a graduate through the gate and their initial behavior was bad, you don't think, 'Let's kick them out.' We help them learn over time. If you're going to do something with AI, you have to use the same process.”
4. Focus on areas that create value
Football Association (FA) CIO Craig Donald says his organization is already considering the potential impact of AI on the IT profession.
“Internally, we've just started some trials with the development team,” he told ZDNET, suggesting the work is in “pre-beta stage.” One of the areas his team is focusing on is unit testing (a way of checking units of source code to make sure they are fit for purpose) and how he thinks AI can address them. That's it.
“If you ask developers, they don't want to sit down and write documentation about unit tests; they want to actually build the code,” he says.
Donald says these initiatives will free up IT professionals to focus on projects that bring further value to the FA's customers, including footballers, managers, administrators and fans.
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“We're using some of the AI capabilities exposed within GitHub, as well as some of the other Microsoft tools, to build unit tests in a more automated way and take some of that tedious work away. We're looking at whether we can get rid of it and allow the team to focus on adding value,” Donald told ZDNET.
5. Sharpen your rapid engineering skills
Andy Moore, chief data officer at Bentley Motors, says it's difficult to stand out from the crowd in a rapidly changing technological world. He mentions generative AI tools like Copilot and how they can be used throughout his IT development process.
However, Moore told ZDNET that while new technology is important, technology professionals should not forget the growing importance of nimble engineering skills. IT professionals who create prompts for generative AI need strong writing skills.
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“If you want to code, whether it's Python or SQL, the most popular programming language is going to be English, because you use Copilot to enhance the IT skills you already have,” he says. “I think it’s important to understand that process and deliver value. We need to think carefully about how we leverage generative AI to create value. Success is determined by the combination of a human and her AI. Masu.”