The situation in Europe worries me deeply. IT experts are barely being hired anymore, and IT budgets are being slashed dramatically. The thinking seems to be that this makes companies more competitive — and all that's left to do is send out a memo telling the remaining staff to "just use AI" and everything will carry on as before, only cheaper.
That is a serious mistake.
AI is an opportunity to grow — not a tool to maintain the status quo at a lower cost. And it certainly doesn't implement itself.
As for the mass layoffs at major IT companies, I suspect we're seeing a well-known management pattern play out: cut the headcount, and the people left behind will be forced to figure out a new way to get the job done. They'll come around to using AI on their own. And just like that, management considers the transformation complete.
Is difficult to predict the future since technology is moving very fast. I even started to write another article trying to predict what would be the future of the profession (scheduled for the next article).
However I wouldn't be admired that in a few years forward, a wave of new recruitment/ramp up would start.
Cut costs is a default strategy for AI today, but won't produce growth. The challenge is to improve current solutions and integrating with AI in a way that produces value. Staff reduction won't create the atmosphere for producing those values since teams would try to produce the same with less.
Absolutely. I see a clear analogy to the transition from ink and drawing boards to computers. It didn't simply result in more drawings produced by fewer drafters — it completely transformed the way we do business. What we achieve today would have been utterly impossible with the tools of the past, no matter how many drafters you had. And back then, I had not the faintest idea how it would all play out within ten years.
The situation in Europe worries me deeply. IT experts are barely being hired anymore, and IT budgets are being slashed dramatically. The thinking seems to be that this makes companies more competitive — and all that's left to do is send out a memo telling the remaining staff to "just use AI" and everything will carry on as before, only cheaper.
That is a serious mistake.
AI is an opportunity to grow — not a tool to maintain the status quo at a lower cost. And it certainly doesn't implement itself.
As for the mass layoffs at major IT companies, I suspect we're seeing a well-known management pattern play out: cut the headcount, and the people left behind will be forced to figure out a new way to get the job done. They'll come around to using AI on their own. And just like that, management considers the transformation complete.
Indeed Uwe.
Is difficult to predict the future since technology is moving very fast. I even started to write another article trying to predict what would be the future of the profession (scheduled for the next article).
However I wouldn't be admired that in a few years forward, a wave of new recruitment/ramp up would start.
Cut costs is a default strategy for AI today, but won't produce growth. The challenge is to improve current solutions and integrating with AI in a way that produces value. Staff reduction won't create the atmosphere for producing those values since teams would try to produce the same with less.
Absolutely. I see a clear analogy to the transition from ink and drawing boards to computers. It didn't simply result in more drawings produced by fewer drafters — it completely transformed the way we do business. What we achieve today would have been utterly impossible with the tools of the past, no matter how many drafters you had. And back then, I had not the faintest idea how it would all play out within ten years.
I see. I suspect we will realise that AI is a great tool, but slashing teams because of it will be a tactical mistake