We are witnessing a quiet but seismic shift in the way work, value, and relevance are defined. This is evident in the growing pressure within tech spaces and the quiet concern among students preparing for a future that’s evolving faster than anyone anticipated. Artificial intelligence is not just advancing; it is accelerating. And with it comes a fundamental reordering of what makes us valuable as tech professionals.
Most of the public conversation around AI has focused on the obvious: job losses at the entry level, the automation of repetitive tasks, and the need for upskilling. But that conversation, while not wrong, is incomplete. The people most at risk in this new world may not be the interns or junior hires. The real disruption is coming for the people we often think of as the safest, the deeply skilled, long-standing technical experts.
Why? AI is not replacing jobs in a linear fashion. It’s replacing tasks. And the tasks it replaces first are often the very ones we’ve spent years celebrating: writing efficient code, solving logic problems, analysing data sets, and draughting documentation. These were once seen as markers of expertise, evidence of technical credibility. Now, machines can do them in seconds, consistently, cheaply, and with relentless precision.
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This is not to say expertise no longer matters. But it does mean we need to reframe what makes expertise valuable. Technical depth is no longer meaningful simply because it is hard to acquire. It is only meaningful when it translates into real-world usefulness. In this new AI era, the professionals who thrive will not be defined by the size of their portfolios but by their proximity to real human needs. The winners are those who have made the shift from writing code for its own sake to solving real pain points.
The mindset shift from tool-based value to human-centred impact is a necessity. And it is especially urgent for professionals building from and for Africa. Let me say this plainly: your skill set is not your value. Your value lies in whether you have solved someone’s problem. African challenges are not generic. They are complex, layered, and often under-represented in global design thinking. Professionals cannot afford to import generic solutions and hope they work. We must build for our context, and that requires more than competence; it requires courage, empathy, and relevance.
That’s why human-centred thinking is a competitive advantage. Consider a product like SeaBaaS, which enables businesses to pay in Naira instead of foreign currency. On the surface, it is a financial tool. But beneath that, it is solving a human problem, shielding businesses from the volatility of foreign exchange rates, enabling them to optimise for cost predictability, which is crucial for operational efficiency and financial planning. That is the impact.
Too often, we confuse sophistication with significance, assuming that if something is complex, it must be important. I’ve worked with brilliant engineers who could reverse a stack trace in seconds, yet had no idea who the end user was or what problem they were trying to solve. I’ve also worked with junior developers who hadn’t yet mastered the tools but knew how to ask the right questions. They understood the user and cared about the outcome, and that made all the difference.
AI will only widen this gap. When everyone has access to the same tools, your edge is no longer your technical ability; it’s your lens. It’s how you see. Do you see a user or just a dataset? A problem or just a requirement? Do you build with empathy, or do you build to impress? Today, the real advantage is not in how much you know, but in how well you solve problems that matter. Empathy has become a form of leverage. Product thinking is now a form of intelligence. Context is a real competitive edge.
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We need to stop focusing only on tools and start focusing on outcomes. We must ask: Why are we building this? Who is it for? What will it change in the real world? This means we also need to shift how we hire, train, and promote talent. The most valuable tech professionals in the future will not be the ones with the most certifications. They will be the ones who listen, think across disciplines, and understand what not to build.
The good news is that the future remains open. It belongs to those who are willing to grow, to listen, and to build with empathy and intention. It won’t be defined by speed, but by substance. The future won’t belong to those who build the fastest; it will belong to those who build what truly matters.
About the author:
Sunmonu Oluwole is a staff software engineer with over six years of experience designing and leading scalable systems across some of Africa’s most innovative tech companies. Currently leading backend engineering at Peerless, he recently spearheaded the successful Seabass Project—an ambitious platform built for scale and reliability. Oluwole is passionate about clean architecture, cloud-native solutions, and the transformative power of AI in modern software development.
