Evolving the Aussie technology service teams of tomorrow

Australian IT service providers are not backing down from having mixed generational and diverse teams that utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to uphold ethical standards, regulatory safeguards and forward-thinking innovation.

Technology service providers see these teams as vital in ensuring they can provide their customers with the right technology strategy for the business. 

As IT service providers drive conversations about AI adoption from a C-suite level, strategic discussions require a consultative approach that blends business strategy with technical execution. 

According to HCLTech executive vice president and Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) country leader Sonia Eland, these conversations bring to the forefront the critical role of diverse teams. 

These teams will be vital in overseeing AI operations effectively and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation across generations. 

Previously, Interactive CEO Alex Coates advocated for inclusive environments that foster collaboration and communication. 

“We have this purpose that we’ve held for a while, and we believe it will endure even in this era of agentic AI, which is expected to replace many jobs,” she said at the time. “Our purpose is to keep technology human.”

Coates believes there’s a purpose which IT service providers have had for a while, which will endure even in this “era of agentic AI notionally replacing so many jobs”. 

There are three reasons why a younger generation would choose to be in technology, in a competitive market, she said. 

The first reason is the connection to the purpose of the work. What Coates sees in the broader industry is the increased desire to belong, which comes with purpose. 

She said the work that is given to employees must be able to correlate with the impact that is being made in the industry and with customers. 

“This connection to purpose, and therefore belonging, is really important,” Coates said. 

The second reason is an increased focus on career pathways and what that looks like in this new world. 

“How do you get the skills that you’re going to need for the future so that you’re seen as kind of a launch pad for these future careers?” she asked. “If you think about AI, it’s all new. Therefore, you can’t necessarily go and do the course and be up to speed with it.  

“It’s on-the-ground, on-the-job learning, lots of hands-on experience.” 

This brings Coates to her third reason, which is that these changes are as much a “cultural thing as anything else”, this culture of experimentation and a “kind of fearless learning”. 

To change the culture within Interactive, Coates tells her teams to feel totally safe to “FLARN” – her acronym for ‘FaiL and leARN’ at the same time.  

“I want [them] to [experiment] mindfully,” she said. “I don’t want it to cause customer impact, and I don’t want it to be hugely impactful for us.  

“But I want [them] to know that, as someone young trying to learn about what this new world order looks like, FLARNing needs to be a safe space for [them] to experiment. 

“This notion of experimentation is really, important.” 

Guidance and mentorship 

Interactive places younger workers in “sometimes challenging roles early on”, and pushes them out to be as close to customers as it can with the right support and mentoring.  

“We’re here, ultimately, to solve a customer’s problem or opportunity,” she said. “The closer that we put some of these very talented, very curious, highly learning, highly adaptive talent, the more it brings benefit for the customer too.  

“Those new eyes are powerful [and] requires a shift in how you manage this set of talent’s performance.” 

Coates is confident in that leadership sets companies apart because there’s “leaders that are going to be okay in this new world and then there’s managers”.

“There’s still going to be a moment in leadership where you can’t go and talk to Copilot,” she said. “Where you need to talk to someone at a human level about their development, or about their performance, or about the industry more broadly.  

“Or you need to come and share your experience with a graduate.” 

This is why Coates believes it is important for different generational workers to value each other’s input, guidance and mentorship.  

“We believe in the power of superpowers,” she said. “We believe in taking the time in a team to step back and [ask] who has got what superpower, and how do they make this team amazing.” 

“I’ve loved it for my own leadership team and I’ve loved it for every team that I’ve worked with that I’ve done this with.” 

For that generational interaction, there will always be different superpowers that do exist, and Interactive sees them as strengths.  

“We try and not see them as friction,” said Coates. “[They] will all have different strengths and when they understand that they will build a balanced team. 

“For younger generations, more mature generations are going to bring insight, perspective, history and lessons learned. They’ll have done it five ways and failed four.” 

Taking that very intentional view around teams, which will be hybrid generational teams with a couple of agents in a few years, is essential.  

“Respect” requires early investment in forming these teams and understanding each other at a different level from the start. This will lead to teams without “friction, but fire” explained Coates.  

Mixed teams 

This was necessary as customer conversations with IT service providers revolve around AI and the need to solve specific use cases for them. 

“That’s our approach to hybrid teams that are working together to experiment and to dream up [solutions for customers],” Coates said. “There are definitely people with experience leading those teams and keeping them within the guardrails.  

“But what I’ve seen is an unbelievable release of talent.” 

According to Coates, customers are very eager to get Interactive’s newest talent around some of these new skills. However, this is tempered with the notion of making “sure that there’s safety, and mentoring and guidance,” she said. 

“The scrums of the future are particularly around these new skills that arguably are going to be for the generations to come; … all those people that really take reskilling very seriously,” said Coates. 

This focus on training and reskilling aligns with HCLTech as well, said Eland.   

“We have the full spectrum of generational employment, … the full diversity,” she said. “The starting point is then to upskill and train. 

“Training is critical and everybody should be doing it.” 

Eland said HCLTech requires baseline level of training that everyone must complete, regardless of age, ensures that all team members, whether younger, more native to AI tools, or more experienced professionals, can effectively contribute when it comes to AI augmented collaboration. 

“We have our own training that we’ve developed and designed ourselves,” she said. “We have two broad cohorts that would fit into the cohort of being a developer and engineer. 

“The first cohort is primarily the bulk of employees at HCL, because we’re a technology company.”  

While the core of the work remains in application development, following the familiar lifecycle, this cohort is now beginning to incorporate generative AI into tasks like testing and creating test cases.  

For older team members, this helps them adapt because it fits within the work they already know, allowing them to quickly see the benefits of new tools.  

Meanwhile, more advanced projects that require fully agentic AI rely more on younger engineers who are native to these technologies.  

Older team members are able to contribute by managing teams and understanding client needs, which is crucial for success. 

This is where the integration of AI Force, HCLTech’s agnostic, end-to-end platform built to help accelerate the adoption of generative AI and support the software development lifecycle, comes in.  

“It helps different generations of workers apply their training in real-world settings,” said Eland. 

“What we do depends on what the project needs,” she said. “This can range from software development, migration, knowledge-sharing agents.  

“Another could be testing reconciliation in a simulated environment to maintain data security. There are different types of agents tailored to each project.” 

Education rethink  

However, a broader reimagining of business strategies and operating, as well as changes to the education systems, must evolve to prepare the future workforce with both technical and critical thinking skills necessary for an AI-driven world. 

Coates believes there needs to be a total overhaul of the educational components, and there needs to be some reset of communication and awareness in schooling.  

“I look at the degree structures and think who’s sitting back at a macro level, at this systemic educational level, asking what needs to change to be true for this next new world order,” she said. 

“My greatest fear is that the generations to come won’t even do it to a degree. They won’t even see it as an important thing to do.” 

Hyland believes there needs to be education around critical thinking to take advantage of the capacity people will have with AI doing mundane tasks.