62% Modern Engineers Expect Career Growth to be Enhanced by AI

While AI integration has boosted team communication and collaboration (47%) and clarified data-driven decision-making (44%), seamlessly integrating AI into existing workflows remains a challenge (37%), study reveals.

AI and Generative AI-led technologies are changing the future of modern businesses, and every sector is looking to harness its potential. However, behind this technology revolution, it is the modern engineers who are at the forefront of this disruption. EPAM Systems, a global digital transformation services and product engineering company, and CyberMedia Research (CMR) commissioned a joint study to better understand modern engineers’ perspectives around AI and generative AI. The study covered 800+ modern engineers aged 25 years and above, with top skillsets cutting across Data Engineering, Analytics, Product & Platform Engineering, Cloud Transformation & Migration, Testing, Digital Experience Engineering, Al Prompt Engineering and others.

The respondents were surveyed from 8 major cities in India with the highest concentration of modern engineers.

Key Highlights:

Modern engineers believe that AI can significantly improve daily work by automating tasks and increasing efficiency:

• AI has provided continuous learning and development opportunities (60%) for most modern engineers.
• While AI integration has boosted team communication and collaboration (47%) and clarified data-driven decision-making (44%), seamlessly integrating AI into existing workflows remains a challenge (37%).
• While 41% of modern engineers feel current AI training resources are insufficient, leading to job security concerns (44%), a significant majority (76%) expect their organizations to offer access to AI resources and learning platforms for professional development.
• · Modern engineers believe that following (50%) AI protocols set by their organizations ensure human accountability and control over AI-driven decisions. They prefer Explainable AI (56%) for transparent decision-making.

Furthermore, the report brings insights such as:

• AI improves decision-making by minimizing errors and enhancing data interpretation, yet it requires human oversight to ensure accuracy.
• AI has transformative potential in engineering workflows, offering continuous learning opportunities and acting as a valuable daily assistant. Its clear impact on problem-solving, debugging, and workflow efficiency highlights its job market relevance and the need for engineers to adapt and learn continuously.
• AI serves as a catalyst for creative problem-solving, offering alternative approaches and solutions that engineers might not initially consider, thereby enhancing both the quality and relevance of their work.
• There is a recognition that AI will handle more tasks, potentially making certain job roles obsolete and leading to a significant shift in the workforce.
• The integration of AI in the engineering industry is poised to bring about significant changes, both in terms of job creation and job elimination. Roles focused on AI/ML model monitoring, data analysis, and the formation of cross-functional teams are anticipated to emerge.

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