The IT talent landscape is being turned upside down: AI is taking over routine work from juniors and the demand for senior experts is only increasing. Low-code and no-code can help companies stay agile.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly taking over basic tasks. That’s good news, but at the same time increases the need for senior profiles. “IT talent continues to move, but we as an organization must also evolve,” states Gregory Verlinden, Vice President Data and AI at Cegeka.
He explains the changing IT landscape as a result of artificial intelligence using a metaphor. “We’re getting an inverted IT talent pyramid within data and AI,” he begins.
Talent pyramid
The IT talent landscape is represented by Verlinden using a pyramid. “At the bottom of the pyramid you find IT juniors who take up the largest share of the market. At the top are the seniors or experts who comprise only a small part,” Verlinden explains. While this pyramid has been a good representation of the current IT landscape for years, he notes that the balance is shifting.
Inverted pyramid
The pyramid as just explained by Verlinden will look completely different soon, according to him. “We will get an inverted pyramid.”
“Companies will need less level 1 and level 2 capacity, but more experts from level 3,” states Verlinden. Level 1 and level 2 could be described as the largest group of younger people who are positioned more as juniors in the market.
The expert layer, level 3, is often the smallest share in a normal pyramid, comprising about 20 to 25 percent of your organization. “When we look at the inverted pyramid, we see that the expert layer now comprises the largest share of the pyramid. Concretely, this would mean that we would then need 35 to 40 percent experts. Organizations will therefore experience a growing need for more seniors and intellectual capacity,” Verlinden explains.
Consequence of AI
He sees the reversal of the talent pyramid as a consequence of AI. Artificial intelligence can increasingly perform basic tasks that previously belonged mainly to the job description of juniors. This reduces the need for ‘executors’ and creates more demand for strategic thinkers and senior profiles.
How organizations can then attract more seniors is also still an open question for Verlinden. “As an IT organization, we will need to invest more in training and development to increase the share of senior employees.”
No-code
To still keep the IT talent balance within an organization in equilibrium, Verlinden mentions another possible solution. “Organizations will no longer have enough IT experts who can develop everything themselves,” he states. By shifting to no-code and low-code, companies can engage more juniors without requiring in-depth coding knowledge.
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Verlinden compares this to Cegeka’s composable infrastructure, where complex infrastructure is made manageable by implementing low-code and no-code, among other things.
Countering the flip
As always in the IT world, experts are desperately needed, but with the arrival of AI and the tilting talent pyramid, more than ever. Verlinden states that additional training and the transition to a no-code and low-code approach can help increase the share of seniors in the IT sector, specifically within data and AI.