The seismic shift AI promises for technical professionals isn't a distant future—it's unfolding now. According to Thomson Reuters' Future of Professionals Survey of 2,275 global professionals and executives, 80% anticipate high or transformational AI impacts on their work within five years, with 38% expecting changes this year. Kirsty Roth, Chief Operations and Technology Officer at Thomson Reuters, warns this is merely the beginning:

"We haven't seen the full effect yet. These are early days for AI. Professionals who aren't using AI will quickly find themselves unable to do their work."

For developers and technical teams, the implications are profound. The research indicates AI could save professionals five hours weekly—240 hours annually—valued at ~$19,000 per person. Among engineers, this manifests as reduced time on routine coding and testing, freeing capacity for high-value innovation. However, Roth emphasizes three critical actions for technical leaders:

1. Democratize AI Tool Access

Organizations investing in role-specific AI tools see 46% faster adoption. Engineers need integrated AI assistants for code generation, testing, and documentation—not generic chatbots. Teams without tailored tools risk inefficiency: 

# Example: AI reducing boilerplate code
def generate_api_client(api_spec):
    # Traditional manual implementation
    # vs. AI-assisted generation
    ...

2. Institutionalize Knowledge Sharing

With 30% of organizations moving too slowly on AI, isolating successful use cases is fatal. Roth notes: "Pockets of creativity exist—get those shared." Engineering teams should establish:
- Regular guild meetings for prompt engineering techniques
- Internal repositories for reusable AI workflows
- Cross-functional showcases of productivity gains

3. Quantify Impact with Precision

Merely tracking "AI usage" is insufficient. Successful teams measure:
- Daily integration rates in development workflows
- Time reallocation from low-to-high value tasks
- Quality metrics (e.g., reduced bugs in AI-assisted code)

Roth observes engineers leveraging AI effectively shift focus: "They have more time to ask, 'What do I build next? What does the customer need?'" Yet achieving this requires moving beyond guesswork. Instrumenting workflows to capture AI's value—like Thomson Reuters' shift from basic adoption metrics to granular usage analytics—is non-negotiable.

As AI reshapes technical roles, the divide won't be between adopters and non-adopters, but between organizations that instrument transformation and those left debugging obsolete processes. The $19,000 productivity premium awaits teams who treat AI not as a tool, but as a fundamental redesign of engineering value.

Source: Thomson Reuters 'Future of Professionals' Survey (2025), ZDNET interview with Kirsty Roth