From code writer to composer – how AI is reshaping what it means to work in IT

It's easy and fast to generate a lot of content and tons of ideas. But in the end, you're still the one trying to find or establish the red thread," a manager told us during our research. 

This captures the shift precisely. Rather than acting as direct creators of IT products, IT professionals are moving towards a curatorial position that requires evaluating, selecting, and maintaining a unifying storyline within AI-generated output.

Our research identified three key shifts in how IT professionals will work:

Shift from operational to strategic focus: IT professionals will move from performing both strategic and operational activities to primarily strategizing. In the AI orchestra metaphor, they become the "audience" rather than the performers, focusing on defining conceptual visions and guardrails, instructing and supervising the "conductor" (an AI agent orchestrating other AI agents), and evaluating outputs with minimal operational intervention. Traditional tasks such as writing code will be replaced by AI agents acting autonomously after receiving initial inputs.

New role as evaluators and curators of AI output: Rather than directly creating IT products, IT professionals will evaluate, select, and maintain coherence within AI-generated content. As one manager stated: "It's easy and fast to generate a lot of content and tons of ideas. But in the end, you're still the one trying to find or establish the red thread." This means curating from multiple AI-generated options, maintaining a unifying strategy across outputs, and understanding underlying goals as AI agents handle operational tasks. Human prompting will become obsolete as AI agents interact with each other, making the evaluation role even more critical.

Acquiring new skills for building and handling AI agents: IT professionals must develop competencies to coevolve alongside AI agents. This includes working directly with AI systems, bridging human language and machine code, and solving domain problems using well-defined AI agents. They will need to understand how to apply agents to specific use cases without necessarily knowing their internal workings, developing proficiency with "out of the box" AI agent fleets that require higher-level abstractions rather than deep technical knowledge. As one manager noted, this represents "a new job that has sort of just emerged."

Our research identified six critical actions organisations should take now – not to predict one specific future, but to prepare and improve regardless of how the future unfolds.

1. Develop the concert hall for the orchestra to play. Before the music can start, you need the venue. Our research found that IT professionals face significant constraints when working with clients who either prohibit AI use entirely or lack coherent AI policies. Organisations must establish comprehensive regulatory and ethical frameworks for AI use. Operational cost savings become counterproductive when they expose the organisation to significant legal and ethical risk.

2. Rethink your value proposition. The AI orchestra scenario means engineering activities will become increasingly commoditised. IT leaders must ask themselves frequently: What is our unique value proposition tomorrow? Organisations that currently focus on engineering activities must reconsider which aspects of their business model will remain difficult to replicate.

3. Start building the AI orchestra. Whatever your strategic direction, AI has already been incorporated at various stages within IT development. We call for introducing the role of the AI Scout – someone responsible for continuously monitoring what's new on the market, evaluating whether it could be implemented internally, and launching pilot projects.

4. Invest in premium, human-centred services. Given the AI orchestra scenario, customers will expect lower costs within engineering activities through automation. Organisations should invest in adding premium components that customers need and that are hard to deliver without human involvement – particularly strategising activities that outshine AI systems.

5. Develop your people as human composers. Not all IT professionals previously involved in engineering will immediately shine in strategic roles. Organisations should proactively add strategic activities – in collaboration with AI – to these professionals' work schedules. Create dedicated innovation pods or moonshot workshops where IT professionals practise being creative and strategic.

6. Hire for creativity, not frameworks. In the future, skills such as critical thinking and creativity will be far more decisive than specific domain knowledge within IT frameworks. New hires should already show signs of developmental potential in these areas.

The future of IT development will be defined by how effectively organisations cultivate a workforce that sees AI not as a threat but as a powerful partner. The question isn't "Can you code?" but "Can you compose?"

Our full research is available in MIS Quarterly Executive. If you'd like to explore how these findings apply to your organisation, we're offering complimentary AI orchestra Readiness Workshops for leadership teams.