Gartner Inc. predicts that generative AI (GenAI) will create new roles in software engineering and operations through 2027, thus requiring 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill.
“Bold claims on the ability of AI have led to speculation that AI could reduce demand for human engineers or even supplant them entirely,” said Philip Walsh, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “While AI will transform the future role of software engineers, human expertise and creativity will always be essential to delivering complex, innovative software.”
Impact
Gartner posits thatAI tools will increase productivity by augmenting developer work patterns and tasks and enabling developers to automate and offload more tasks fully.
“In the AI-native era, software engineers will adopt an ‘AI-first’ mindset, where they primarily focus on steering AI agents toward the most relevant context and constraints for a given task,” said Walsh.
Gartner predicts that AI will make engineering more efficient. However, organisations will require more skilled software engineers to meet the increasing demand for AI-empowered software.
“Building AI-empowered software will demand a new breed of software professional, the AI engineer,” said Walsh. “The AI engineer possesses a unique combination of skills in software engineering, data science, and AI/machine learning (ML), skills that are sought after.”
Developer platforms
Gartner recommends that organisations invest in AI developer platforms to support AI engineers, build AI capabilities, and integrate AI into enterprise solutions at scale.
“This investment will require organisations to upskill data engineering and platform engineering teams to adopt tools and processes that drive continuous integration and development for AI artifacts,” said Walsh.
