BENGALURU: The IT industry is undergoing the most profound structural change in decades as AI reshapes talent needs across the delivery chain. The traditional pyramid model of large teams of junior programmers overseen by multiple managers is being replaced by feature-dense, AI-enhanced structures. “It’s a shift from coding depth to problem framing,” said Gilroy Mathews, COO of UST. Rather than testing whether a candidate can write a Java function, companies are now asking whether they can define a business problem, break it down into AI-actionable steps, and validate the output for bias, risk, and completeness. Access to AI tools is closing the gap between entry-level and mid-career engineers. Well-trained entry-level hires are expected to become more productive faster than before.
.
LTIMindtree describes the new structure as a “diamond” rather than a pyramid. At the foundation is a small layer of AI-savvy engineers, supported by automation and AI agents that handle day-to-day execution. In between, architects and managers are evolving into orchestrators who design AI-first workflows, integrate systems, and align delivery to business goals. Gururaj Deshpande, chief delivery officer at LTIMindtree, said, “It’s not that we have fewer people, it’s that we have fewer people doing less judgmental work,” arguing that AI-driven productivity improvements go beyond simply reducing headcount and can help clear backlogs on larger projects. One obvious change is that the space for purely supervisory managers is shrinking. AI-driven environments require managers to redesign processes around automation, understand agent-based workflows, ensure AI governance, and connect execution to business KPIs. Employment models are changing in parallel. At UST, selection has shifted from “employability” to “adaptability.” Candidates are given real-world business scenarios and assessed on how they frame problems, use AI tools, validate output, and consider ethical considerations.
