ORLANDO – With an AI-first strategy, data management vendor Atlan has shifted tasks that internal employees, such as marketers and data engineers, perform, showing that roles are changing across industries as AI advances.
The India-based AI vendor has made internal changes that will require its engineering teams to teach AI agents to code using cloud code, cursors or any other AI coding tool instead of coding them themselves. On the marketing side, employees are encouraged to create agents that they train to create marketing campaigns rather than creating the campaigns themselves.
“In general, as a company, we are all trying to embody this concept that everyone can be a creator,” said Austin Kronz, director of data and AI strategy at Atlan, during an interview at the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2026.
great concern
The changes Atlan has made to the roles of its data engineers and marketers are an example of how a company has responded to pressure from many organizations as AI automates certain jobs and tasks, such as coding. In recent months, many companies have done so finished jobs Blaming AI technology. This is an employment crisis from which even data engineers and data scientists are no exception.
“They’re all worried about their jobs,” said Paul Bell, global head of data trust and integrity. entertain plcAn international sports betting and gambling company, in an interview.
While this concern seems justified by headlines about tech companies like AWS and Block laying off people and Oracle expected to eliminate teams and jobs, Gartner research finds that investment in data and analytics teams remains high. While AI is impacting jobs, it is more changing the way we look at jobs for now. Instead of valuing employees by the details of their jobs, they are now valued more by the skills they contribute and the way they work with AI technology and AI agents.
humans and ai
“Your role may shift from being a developer to acting as a validator, where you review and adjust the work of others, humans and agents,” said Gartner analyst Georgia O’Callaghan during a keynote presentation at the tech research firm’s conference.
“The value of human talent and skills will still be at the core of delivery teams, but these teams will now combine human expertise with AI agents to create more productive AI-powered fusion teams,” O’Callaghan said.
Additionally, a major side effect of many companies trying to use AI to automate is that they will likely have to upgrade their staff, as companies’ needs vary depending on what the AI is used for.
This is why enterprises and businesses must pay close attention to which areas they want AI to automate and which areas they want people to lead.
“This is a difficult decision for most business leaders because they have to strategically say, ‘This is the area where we want AI to work, and we’re going to effectively navigate the change and its impacts,'” Gartner analyst Helene Poitevin said during an interview.
He said that businesses will find success if they give their human workers a chance to help them decide what to do. Automating with AI Agents Or what AI technology looks like.
“If they’re inspired to say, ‘Okay, let’s make that experience better and be part of designing it,’ then they’ll feel more engaged and more willing to accept significant change to their day-to-day work,” Poitevin said.
experience vs skill
Another change that is happening is on the recruitment front. For many organizations, the talent they need is no longer about experience but about the skills potential employees already possess.
Raj Tiwari, vice president of technology development and analytics, said, “We’ve refocused on hiring individuals who are skilled at understanding how to signal, particularly data professionals who understand the nuances of what’s going on with these models and people who are willing to test and learn and fail.” Stanley Martin Homes. “Curiosity…goes a long way. It’s really more of a personal standpoint rather than tenure at this point.”
He further added that, for the most part, Stanley Martin Homes is human-based, but the company is developing AI systems that take the human out of the loop completely, such as creating a closing house journal (the document that provides the final terms of the house loan).
“What we’ve done is taken it out and essentially brought it back into our ERP system, end-to-end with automation,” Tiwari said. “This is a low-value endeavor, and hopefully humans can move toward higher-value endeavors.”
Amy Leander, chief data officer at Capital One, said the constant changes in hiring and work due to AI technology will always be in flux due to the immaturity of the technology.
“We’re all learning as we go through this,” Leander said. “It remains to be seen what talent mix we will need in this AI world.”
