Where is Ukrainian IT heading and will there be enough room for everyone?

What you already know: artificial intelligence is definitely affecting the requirements for job seekers who want to get into IT. This is no longer a secret to anyone and we covered this topic quite well in this video. Without AI skills, without, as they say, «being AI native,» it’s really hard to get a job. Already now.

What’s new: not only juniors, but also middle-aged and seniors should prepare for a roller coaster ride. Because selling IT skills and IT teams to a customer is no longer so easy. Classic outsourcing, outstaffing is gradually ceasing to work. It is being replaced by, as IT tops call them, outcome-driven requests.

It doesn’t matter who you have on your team — humans, robots, AI agents — the important thing is not their number and regalia, but the result. If company X, with three real, but very advanced in the field of AI tools, can provide the result that company Y could previously provide with a hundred people, then it is also in the game.

What power remains in the classic long-term outsourcer? The founders of Softserve and Intellias both speak about this in one voice — domain expertise (i.e. expertise in a certain field — automotive, ecommerce, finance, healthcare, etc.). I will emphasize here: not IT, but domain expertise, because by default, with the advent of natural language coding, the value of ordinary knowledge and proficiency in programming languages ​​will decrease, just as the value of written translators of human languages ​​​​once fell (after all, Google Translate appeared).

It will be easier (and more valuable for the company) to teach a person to flash to get the desired programmatic result than to teach them the industry intricacies of a specific domain.

Traditionally, Ukrainian outsourcers are strong in domain expertise: they developed computer vision for top automakers, automated American e-commerce, and «drawn» digital twins for European and other industrial manufacturers.

And this is a huge plus for them: acquired industry knowledge and long-standing connections with the industry.

The downside is that foreign customers from different industries are also learning to use artificial intelligence. And some tasks that used to be outsourced can now be performed in-house, by a small team.

Of course, it is difficult for a customer to replace an experienced Ukrainian outsourcer in the most complex industry projects. In simpler projects, why not tackle it yourself?

Thus, not all outsourcing was at risk, but only those companies, or teams within companies, that were not focused on a specific domain.

As you might guess, there were a majority of «jacks of all trades» in IT. Today your client is an oil company, tomorrow it’s healthcare. Of course, there was a lot of typical, template work, a lot of support, which is also now being rapidly automated.

The people in the outsourcing who actually engaged in R&D and provided highly qualified domain support are a minority.

I don’t know what their percentage is: 10-20-30%. It’s hard to say.

The main thing is that the huge market with 300,000 jobs is rapidly transforming. IT leaders say the time frame is: a year or two. During this period of time, the company/team will either get on new tracks under the influence of changes, or not.

What should be done with tens of thousands of people who will remain out of demand?

Here is the answer: to finish your studies (to gain certain domain knowledge) or to retrain (i.e. to go into another field). Someone buys a house in the village and becomes a craft beekeeper, someone — a qualified electrician, someone — goes to defense tech to assemble drones.

There is always a choice. If only there was a desire.