AI: Without Qualifications, Speed Becomes a Risk

Something has changed in the market. We are now seeing an increasing number of qualified applicants responding to our job postings. This is a new experience for us, because as an SAP consultant and software manufacturer in German-speaking countries, we have sometimes found it challenging in recent years to adequately fill all the positions we’ve advertised.

On the one hand, this recent change seems to me to be a consequence of the volatile (global) economy. On the other hand, AI-driven job cuts aimed at optimizing shareholder value have now definitely reached us as well. We’re hearing more and more often that job applications have been rejected elsewhere simply because junior positions are no longer being advertised or „because AI now handles those jobs.“ This primarily affects positions in software development—and, specifically, new entrants to the field. Despite their high qualifications, motivated graduates from universities, universities of applied sciences, and higher vocational schools are thus being denied the opportunity to launch a successful career.

AI has long been a part of everyday business operations

Of course, AI has long since become a part of our everyday work. In the day-to-day work of Snap developers, GitHub Copilot is our tool of choice. We use this tool in the software development of our snapWARE portfolio and appreciate the benefits of AI-assisted code generation and the automated creation of test scenarios and documentation (the speed is breathtaking). And we’re also happy to take advantage of the quality improvements achieved through AI in software development within the SAP environment. In my view, however, there is one essential prerequisite for the successful use of AI: There must always be a person (a „senior“) who gives the “intelligence” precise instructions on how to implement something and who is able to assess whether the result of a prompt is usable.

Since, as we all know, senior developers don’t just fall from the sky, I wonder where they’ll come from in the future if shareholder-oriented companies use AI to make their HR policies „cost-efficient“—and thereby bar newcomers from entering the profession. And as a result, there won’t be any junior developers who can grow into senior roles—or, to put it another way, who are capable of assessing what AI produces and determining whether something is fact or fiction.

Qualification comes from quality

As an owner-managed company, we at Snap have made a conscious decision to train our employees ourselves. To this end, we founded the Snap Academy years ago, where our employees can develop individually. This doesn’t just sound good—it also brings very concrete benefits: As a company, we have a highly qualified team with extensive expertise. Our customers can reliably access the expertise they need at any time—regardless of how AI providers choose to finance themselves in the future. And last but not least, dedicated colleagues (and those who want to become one) find opportunities with us to join the team, learn, and grow. Because I personally—and all of us at Snap—believe that AI offers a wealth of opportunities to support us at a breathtaking pace.

Perhaps the near future will bring a self-configuring, agent-driven SAP ERP, as Christian Klein recently outlined at SAP Sapphire. But until AI agents have reached the necessary level of reliability, a qualified person is needed to define requirements, make architectural decisions, and review the output. Otherwise, the fast pace will very quickly turn into high risk.

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