Luis Daniel Soto

BCG Report: IT Firms Lack AI Talent to Capture $200B Opportunity (a) BCG evaluated 50,000 engineer profiles (b) Only 10% doing Applied AI work at IT firms (c) Urgent need to build Applied AI workforce (d) INSIGHTS for IT engineers:. Market Is Ready; IT Firms Aren’t a. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has published an extensive report on how IT companies can build Applied AI workforce from the people they already employ. b. Opportunity: BCG estimates in the next 4 years AI will add $400B of new revenue streams for IT services globally, but wipe out $200B of old revenue streams. So, the net gain is $400-$200 = $200B. c. Problem: IT firms claim to offer “AI-first” services, but in reality they have not built an AI delivery model. These companies only have a fraction of talent needed to capture the vast opportunity. d. IT companies tag their workforce as “AI engineers,” but in reality only 10-15% do Applied AI work. The rest merely use AI to do old work faster. At AI-native firms (“tech companies”) 90-95% do real Applied AI work. Infused AI vs. Applied AI a. Infused AI: It uses AI tools to do existing work faster. An IT engineer’s task is still fundamentally software development, which is now done faster with AI tools. b. Applied AI: It involves building and operating AI agents that do the work. Examples: enterprise AI agents, agentic workflow automation, production AI platforms, and AI systems for end-to-end business processes. c. Infused AI eliminates the need of humans for repetitive tasks. If previously 3 engineers worked for 8 hours to develop and test a feature, now only 1 engineer can do the same task. So, two-third of the workforce is gone. d. Applied AI engineers create new sources of growth & revenue for clients by building and operating AI agents: new services, new products, new customer problems that can be solved economically, and new ways to increase productivity. e. IT companies lack the capacity in Applied AI. BCG says time is running out, and market opportunity will be grabbed by firms that move fast to build massive “Applied AI” talent. Applied AI Job Roles BCG has identified 40 distinct Applied AI roles. Four categories, which IT engineers and IT firms should target are: a. Forward-Deployed Engineer (FDE): Works closely with the client to design & deliver a working solution. b. AI Engineer/AI Architect: Builds and scales enterprise AI and agentic systems. c. Semantic Engineer: Develops data representations, vector embeddings, and knowledge structures that AI agents can use. d. AI Ops Engineer: Monitors AI systems for performance, accuracy, drift, and bias. In AI-native firms, 45% of the workforce comprises forward-deployed engineers (FDEs). In traditional IT firms, the share is less than 5%. 5 Questions IT Firms Must Answer BCG wants IT companies to answer these five questions right now: a. Has the company selected the AI use cases (agentic systems) it intends to build to solve client problems? Otherwise it may train people in general AI skills without knowing where those skills will be used. b. Is there consistent role architecture across the company? A common architecture makes job roles, skill requirements, and career paths easier to compare across teams. c. Has the company made deliberate hiring and training decisions for all 40 Applied AI roles? A blanket hiring and training policy won’t sustain for long. d. Has the company assessed its existing workforce properly? Accurate assessment prevents the company from overestimating or underestimating its current capabilities. e. Can the company’s pay and career structures survive competition from AI-native firms? Otherwise the company will lose existing talent or fail to attract top talent. Endpiece: The Clock Is Ticking BCG report’s final message is that building AI capability takes time. Winners will be those IT firms that begin early and enable their employees to develop skills and experience before the opportunity matures toward 2030.