Uncertain and rapidly changing landscape no longer guarantees clear roles and operating models for engineers. AI is slowly taking over routine tasks, and the traditional technical engineering role is changing inevitably. Cementing work identity to a specific vendor, technology, or skill is no longer sustainable. A new type of more diverse knowledge and skill set is needed.
AI for automation, purpose for the people
AI and automation will take routine tasks from humans sooner or later. That’s fine, because humans are so bad at repetitive and detailed work, and they can now focus on more meaningful work. A problem for AI use is that companies and engineers often lack clear procedures for how work is done. For computers, unstructured, undocumented work looks like a chaotic mess. That’s why we need a clear structure and instructions for the work we want to automate.
We also want to make automation and operations reliable, or else AI can dump engineers into an accountability sink where their only role is to check and correct AI-made outputs. That wouldn’t be a shiny future. Knowledge workers already become exhausted with routine tasks they execute on a daily basis. AI can make this far worse. The role of humans should be more of an innovator, creator, and AI pilot who orchestrates good outputs from computers.
Engineers will become Architects
As said, AI and automation need clear instructions to work. First, work has to be somewhat standardized to reduce the set of variations needed to perform and manage. This means well-defined processes and “products” for all external and internal work. Every engineer in each company will have to describe what they do and how in their own context. This streamlining and describing of every operation could be a task for the next few years, maybe 10 years. But it’s good practice for new role requirements and organizational knowledge.
When AI someday starts its job in a team, engineer’s identity can collapse. Vendor and technology-specific knowledge is already democratized to anyone, so what is the value of knowing technical details? Not much. Engineers must transform themselves into architects who innovate and design customer-centric solutions, make strategic plans, and sell and consult in customer-facing roles. Currently, there is a need for Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) who implement and integrate products or solutions in customer’s environment and provide feedback to product development. Some companies rethink the roles now, and want engineers to become architects with broader planning skills and a mindset change. But this kind of sales or solutions engineering role seems to be something that traditional engineers don’t want.
Uncertainty cries for a new skill set
Technically oriented engineers clearly have resistance to change. Identity could have been based on technical virtuosity, which was admired in the past. Now the same knowledge is available for all. Engineers could have worked solely with systems and products without the touch of external or internal customers. Now, engineers are having a hard time reinventing themselves as “customer solutions architects”, where technical mastery is no longer a superpower and generalists run the show.
Future needs engineers who combine technology, business, and people. Social skills are more important. They help with working with customers, but also operating inside the organization. Ultimately, technology is not the problem in most company projects or initiatives. It’s more about what to do, how to start, and which steps to take to get the desired outcomes. There is a huge need for innovators, designers, and organizers who build solutions, roadmaps, and projects that lead to successful outcomes.
Rapidly changing technology and an uncertain world demand a pervasive understanding and knowledge of almost anything. Management and leadership are changing too. Today, nobody can provide exactly the right answers and tell what to do, because there isn’t one truth, and the right answer changes all the time. Instead, the essential skill is to be able to execute in uncertainty with incomplete information. This requires self-reliant curiosity and interest, courage and boldness, trust and confidence, where the capabilities for experimentation and evaluation are built on.
Future hard skills are soft
The key to surviving in a new world is to learn and adapt. Human-centric work is important because we need to build trust, be empathetic, and influence people. Sales, customer service, project management, leadership, and communication are hotter than ever. New skills are learned by having a curious, broad, and open mind. Generalists most likely adopt these more quickly and easily.
Many essential skills are more like traits that are hard to teach and learn. One research suggests that self-taught people are more comfortable in uncertain situations where information is limited and they perform better than traditionally educated people. Self-taught don’t rely on formal fixed patterns, but they build their own flexible model by experimenting and understanding causality. They build working knowledge and can apply it in new cases and contexts. Strange or not, with less information they can perform better.
Organizations need to support change
Understanding systems, integrations, all components, and their functions and dependencies is important. Ultimately, you need to know what you are trying to achieve before building a technical solution. Skills are built on brave and innovative ideas, risk taking, experiments, failures, and new iterations. Organizational culture must align by providing psychological safety for experimentation and learning by doing. Slack time is also needed. Super-charged corporate efficiency doesn’t support informal and unproductive tasks, thinking, and learning. Organizational silos and roles limit people who want to broaden their knowledge, skills, and responsibilities. Therefore HR, managers, and teams need to rethink engineering roles, career paths, learning, and instructions, for example. AI will force the whole organization to change.
Too often I hear “is there anybody who knows this vendor?” Well, if you know principles and what you are trying to achieve, vendor and technology details are minor hurdles. Successful professionals can adopt anything and execute in unknown territory by applying their understanding in a new context. It’s more about vision and understanding: knowing what the target is and how to achieve it, not how to implement it.