Move Over Junior: AI is Here 

The impact of AI on technology jobs is the definition of a hot button topic. And it is not only about staying employed or your organization plugging skills gaps - the impact on the next generation of IT professionals is real. This week we reported that as AI gets better at writing code, software development teams may shrink to a few senior positions according to industry insiders.  

This got the readers of CIO.com asking Smart Answers asking what impact such AI tools can have on the overall output of a coding team. Pulling together the wisdom of our many decades of reporting, our own AI tool posited that although many teams report productivity gain through using AI, this has to be offset against the challenges of managing such tools in a complex environment. Nothing is ever quite as simple as it at first seems.  

Find out How do AI coding assistants impact the productivity of software development teams? 

Thinking For Themselves 

Sticking with the AI theme, this week we reported on SalesForce's new low-code suite that enables enterprises to build AI agents that can reason for themselves when completing sales, service, marketing, and commerce tasks.  

That had readers of CIO asking the obvious question: can an AI bot really think for itself? Smart Answers says that yes, they can act independently, although that doesn't mean thinking for themselves. The obvious risk of operating unethically needs to be considered.  

Find out: Can AI agents really take actions on their own without human intervention? 
 

Get A Human in the Mix 

They are all at it! This week we also reported on the latest release of ServiceNow’s flagship offering which features ServiceNow AI Agents for customer service management and ITSM in a bid to inject intelligence into enterprise workflows.  

This prompted our readers to ask a more fundamental question around how humans should manage AI agents. Smart Answers agrees that this is crucial, even when agents are designed to run with autonomy. Everything should be checked, even though this causes friction and may even undermine the efficiency AI is designed to bring.  

Find out: What is the role of humans in oversight and governance of AI agents?