Where the scepticism comes from
The first thing to notice is that a lot of it is driven by fear, uncertainty, and a sense of threat that people experience from having these AI tools at their disposal.
There's a threat to identity as a coder - the AI is writing the code now, not them, they're not typing it. There's a threat to their sense of what their future role will be. And there are real changes in what's expected of them day to day.
Handling it with care
This needs to be very carefully considered, and approached compassionately, when it comes to handling that uncertainty.
The real key: people they already trust
But the real key to leading people forwards is to take people that the sceptics genuinely trust, and have those people demonstrate the benefits and advantages of using AI and adopting the new tools.
Used well, AI doesn't compromise the expertise and skill sets that engineers have built up - it enables it, and pushes it further. It allows people to do more with the skill set they've earned and learned over the years. Showing that value has to come from someone within the team they trust, someone they genuinely feel able to follow into this path.
Final thoughts
That's our top tip for overcoming the sceptics: don't lead with the tool, lead with the person your team already trusts - and let them show what's possible.
If you're seeing this same gap open up in your own engineering team, we'd love to talk about what we're seeing across our clients, and how to bring people along with you.
