Few questions surrounding artificial intelligence feel more urgent than what it will mean for the future of work. As AI becomes capable of performing more tasks once handled exclusively by people, concerns about widespread job loss are understandable. But focusing only on whether jobs will disappear overlooks a much larger shift already underway: the redesign of roles, responsibilities, and the skills employers need. 

For leaders of IT and engineering staffing firms, the real question is how quickly that shift will happen and whether their firms are prepared to supply the talent clients will need next. 

That is the outlook shared by Kip Wright, CEO, The Planet Group, and President, TechServe Alliance Board of Directors. While AI will create real disruption, Wright sees a workforce transition defined by changing tasks, evolving roles, and growing demand for professionals who know how to work effectively with AI. 

Will AI replace jobs or change the work people perform? 

AI has advanced from automating narrow, rules-based tasks to generating content, analyzing data, writing code, and supporting decisions. Agentic AI is pushing that progression further by giving systems the ability to pursue goals and complete portions of a workflow with less direct human involvement. 

As Wright explained, “Technology has rapidly evolved from supporting work to performing work.” 

That evolution will affect employment, but history suggests technology typically disrupts tasks before it eliminates entire job categories. Wright pointed to estimates indicating that approximately 10 million U.S. jobs could face some degree of partial or complete replacement from AI and automation by 2030. At the same time, as many as 12 million occupations may need to change substantially. 

Those figures describe a major transition, but not the disappearance of work. “The theme is not necessarily job displacement,” Wright said. “It is job or role redesign and skill displacement.” 

The greater challenge may be the speed of that redesign. Previous technological transitions unfolded over decades. AI capabilities and adoption can advance much more quickly, leaving employers, workers, and education systems less time to adjust. 

How will AI change technology roles? 

In Wright’s view, technology is one of the clearest examples of why AI’s impact cannot be reduced to a simple job-loss narrative. AI can already write and debug code, but businesses still need professionals to integrate AI into core systems, prepare and manage data, protect expanding digital environments, and guide implementation. 

Entry-level software development, quality assurance testing, help desk support, and lower-complexity data processing may face greater exposure. Meanwhile, demand is expected to grow for AI engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity professionals, cloud and platform specialists, technical architects, project and product managers, and software engineers who can build and shape AI-enabled systems. 

“Technology is shifting to AI, but it is not going away,” Wright said. 

Wright’s comparison with other sectors helps explain this distinction. Repetitive, structured activities are generally easier to automate, while work requiring judgment, expertise, relationships, and real-time problem-solving remains more resilient. Within technology, that means the mix of tasks performed by a software developer may change significantly even when the role itself remains essential. 

Why will AI fluency become a defining workforce skill? 

As routine technical tasks become more automated, the value of human professionals will increasingly come from how they apply AI, evaluate its output, solve complex problems, and connect technology to business needs. 

Wright summarized the shift with a particularly important warning: “I’d be less worried about AI replacing your job than someone who knows AI and how to use it replacing your job.” 

For staffing leaders, Wright believes this creates both a talent challenge and a development challenge. Firms may need to identify candidates who can work within AI-enabled environments while finding new ways to help emerging professionals build experience as some traditional entry-level tasks become compressed. Relying only on yesterday’s job descriptions may not create tomorrow’s senior engineers, technical architects, or technology leaders. 

How can IT staffing firms prepare? 

According to Wright, staffing firms could respond on two fronts. Internally, they can adopt AI selectively in areas with clear potential impact, involve employees in the process, and use early projects to uncover workflow inefficiencies and change-management barriers. From his perspective, the objective is not wholesale adoption for its own sake. It is targeted experimentation that produces practical learning. 

Externally, Wright advised firms to learn where clients are investing and how those investments are changing their workforce requirements. This may include helping recruiters and sales teams become familiar with AI terminology, relevant technology stacks, and the supporting capabilities that make AI implementation possible, including data cleansing, data management, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and systems integration. 

That knowledge can help firms rethink their talent pipelines. Those that can speak credibly about AI without overcomplicating the message may be better positioned to advise clients, anticipate demand, and connect emerging needs with qualified talent. 

What is the most likely outcome for the workforce? 

Wright sees the most realistic outlook as an uneven transition: overall job growth may continue, but skill gaps, wage pressure, and displacement will affect some roles and sectors more than others. In his view, the outcome will depend partly on how quickly businesses invest in training, redesign career pathways, and help workers develop new capabilities. 

For IT and engineering staffing firms, Wright cautioned that waiting for the market to settle may carry its own risk. Firms that learn where AI is creating demand, prepare their teams to discuss it, and build talent communities around emerging skills may be better positioned for the next phase. 

As Wright emphasized, “The future is not predetermined. It can and will be shaped.” 

If you would like to watch the full webinar with Wright on AI and its impact on the workforce of the future, click here.