03/07/2026
🤖 AI is changing who tech companies are looking for - and it's no longer just about "AI experts."
The first edition of the IT Talent Index (Future Collars, based on over 2,000 Competency Test results) confirms what many CTOs already sense intuitively: in the AI era, narrow technical specialization isn't enough. The market needs people who combine technical competencies with analytical, business, and interpersonal thinking.
For teams building or scaling AI products, this has concrete implications. A developer who only understands "how to implement a model" loses out to someone who understands what, why, and with whom it's worth doing - someone who can assess where AI actually solves a business problem versus where it's just a technological add-on.
The report highlights 6 development paths, with AI permeating practically every one of them, not just its own category:
▪️ AI
▪️Data
▪️Software development
▪️Cyber security
▪️UX design
▪️Business
And 4 competency profiles, none of which dominates the market:
✅ Unicorn (31%) - creativity + analytical thinking, quickly adapts to new areas (e.g. implementing AI in new parts of a product)
✅ STEEL (26%) - logic, precision, analytical-technical work (ideal for building and maintaining ML pipelines)
✅ Venture Builder (23%) - driving change and ex*****on (turns AI experiments into real-world deployments)
✅ Integrator (20%) - connects people, processes, and technology (key for implementing AI cross-functionally, between dev, business, and data teams)
For CTOs: this is a signal to think not just about tech stacks when building AI/dev teams, but about the mix of competency profiles within the team.
For developers: it's an argument for investing not only in new frameworks, but in the ability to combine technical depth with business context.
Full Future Collars report 👇
https://futurecollars.com/pierwsza-edycja-it-talent-index/
