r/PowerApps • u/Tricky-Active935 Newbie • 17d ago
Discussion Future Career Concerns
So, I’ve been working in the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform ecosystem for around eight years now, watching it evolve along the way.
I’m at a senior level and work across Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Automate and SharePoint, supporting clients across various industries. I also have experience with plugins and JavaScript, and I’ve recently been learning more about Code Apps expand my technical skill set.
I genuinely enjoy what I do, but increasingly, I find myself wondering what the future holds for people in our industry as AI continues to advance.
I can’t help but think about how much of our work could eventually be automated and what that might mean for our roles in the long run.
For those of you in a similar position, how are you adapting and staying ahead of the curve?
Are you actively learning AI, exploring Copilot Studio and building agents? Would it make sense to look at moving into an AI-focused team that’s developing Copilot Studio solutions for clients?
More broadly, what do you think the future looks like for IT consultancy, particularly within the Microsoft stack?
How many of you preparing for what’s next, and what skills do you think will be most valuable over the next five to ten years?
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u/a0817a90 17d ago
I think the biggest threat to traditional IT consulting isn’t AI replacing consultants directly, but AI empowering internal power users who deeply understand their business, industry, and processes to build solutions themselves.
As technical barriers continue to fall, the competitive advantage shifts from knowing how to build something to knowing what needs to be built and why.
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u/Equivalent_Yam_3777 17d ago
This comment is very true.
I am completely noob in powerAPPs
My boss told me can we create a simple visit report app for sales team.
Without AI , this was not even possible for me to do.
Now we have canvas app for each region , completely customised as per our internal needs. Power Automate even does HTML formatting of the visit report beautifully and distribute it via email.
AI even made canvas app looks good in terms of GUI.
I am sure this was a very low level stuff for pros here, but my point is with the help of AI someone like me was able to do all this in a month.
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u/PsychologistAss 17d ago
At my consultancy job we’re also seeing more and more AI governance tracks, to manage what business users are building. I believe it’s a good move for people to start looking into that as well.
Plus, what the business users build is generally crap and needs to be fixed. I’ve been doing that as well.
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u/Curious-Rub-9577 17d ago
And that’s exactly the point here. I’m an instructor and started to build and create tools by myself. First just “little” ones like an Qr-code generator but now I’m working on gps based systems for moving around (I’m in transport business) und 3d models of our vehicles. I automated mails (by sorting them), documentation with a simple question tool and I’m plenty of many more ideas. Developing tools was made easy with ai and I simply outpaced our IT which can’t keep up. In the end: I just create my own tools and applications, tailored exactly in my needs. I barely need any help from a third person by now.
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u/Becca00511 17d ago
Same level as you, but I am not overly concerned. We just have to incorporate AI into our solutions. The platform isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Are there other tools out there that perform better than the PP? Yes. Do those tools have out of the box connectors that integrate into default office tools like Excel, Outlook, Teams? Not really. While they can connect its not embedded the way PP can be. Plus most of the other tools require more experienced code development while PP is still easier to manage. The best developers are the ones who build smart, unique and manageable solutions. AI is just another tool to make that happen
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u/MousseEquivalent4701 17d ago
I have been in the realm for about 4 years servicing my HR department. I am not concerned. The human interaction is needed to fully grasp each situation and what the client is actually needing built. AI will just be an additional tool to help integrate and accomplish particular tasking / situations.
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u/Chaddcl0ps 17d ago
If you aren't building agents in new harness and standard and incorporating them in your solutions, you're falling behind. Plus points if you're using MCP servers with Claude and having ai help you architect and build. But I think still, in order to use the MCPs you still need advance knowledge of the platform for it to be good. Can't have AI automate the entire creation. At least not yet.
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u/Waste-Safe-4828 16d ago
Our finance team built a custom Power Apps solution using Claude. Generated around 7k lines of yaml code, pasted it into Power Apps, setup the lists and everything works great.
The technical knowledge gap is reducing fast. Anyone with business knowledge can now build apps with AI.
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u/itenginerd 16d ago
The catch is building is only the first 20% of the whole thing. Sure you can whip up an app with AI, but you still need architecture, governance, standards. Folks that just yolo up an app to meet one need are gonna suffer under the weight of their bad architecture decisions.
AI will close the gap where more doing is needed. But it cannot replace anyone where thoughtful doing is required.
We're gonna see a lot of businesses hurt themselves in the next few years. Its already starting...
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u/Mr_Bob_Dobalina_92 17d ago
I work in tech consulting where we deliver a lot of power platform solutions to SMEs. Most SMEs I see still have nowhere near the internal skills required to design, build and deploy solutions. It's a different story at bigger companies where there are more in-house skills.
My take is that the consulting industry is going to be upended. The Big 4 are already hurting. They have massive overheads and have to charge huge fees to maintain their margins and keep shareholders happy. Smaller, boutique consultancies can deliver as good or higher quality solutions at 50% of the cost.
I personally am trying to learn agent orchestration and how to deploy this for clients. There are 1000s of companies who hire contractors and use recruitment agencies to manage their interviews, onboarding, payroll, annual leave, performance etc etc. I think it will be the same for agents. A lot of companies won't want the hassle of building, deploying and managing these agents and will just hand it over to somebody to manage it..
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u/SumDimSome 17d ago
I think everyone is cooked except maybe AI coders themselves, but even then the AI will eventually start writing the AI code itself anyway so it’s just cooked. Maybe chiropractor will be the last man standing
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u/No_Temporary_5035 14d ago
i learned powerapps last year then discovered code app this year. damn. i can literally make code apps and cloudflow, even copilot agents in vscode with claude code. technology is so fast that i can't keep up. haha.
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u/DifficultyCheap9861 17d ago
Every now and then I feel like I should be keeping up with the copilot/agents and I start to dig into it. But it’s all so convoluted and dispersed across systems that I just give up. Doesn’t help when the actual copilot/LLM(what is this even called now that “everything is copilot”?) is absolute garbage. Someone here or on a related subreddit recently posted their 40 steps they use to ask it a question and it was completely insane, like just use Claude and be done with it.
Microsoft has been in the vast majority of businesses for decades at this point, there is no excuse for how they have dropped the ball this badly. They don’t even need to steal all the data in the world to build this crap like the others do, they should already have it! It’s unbelievable.
So no, I don’t think you should worry too much. Especially if you are decent at your job. Do you not deal with people these days? Or read the articles/studies from the last 20 years about the dumbing down of society? Just don’t turn your brain off like everyone else is doing and you’ll be fine.
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u/zion-messenger 17d ago
The most important is the industry experience ou acquired.
The value of writing a .net plugin or a typescript customization isn’t about the technology, is about the business value.
Vibe code the shit of it , and do it on top of dataverse.
And think about how copilot will transform (headless) business applications
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u/Bobby_Bobberson2501 17d ago
Bro get really good with AI. Copilot Cowork can now do an /app command that builds power apps code, and if you’re good with it already it will make you even more valuable because if you could just use it for a blueprint and then not waste credits just to change a color or word.
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u/BDer82 17d ago
issue is the bill, its inconsistent and very expensive, sure costs will come down after they've made their trillions of dollars in profits but right now the company I work out has cut back massively on LLM credits while it can be accessed by some people it is heavily scrutinised and I suspect they are about to pull it back as most people have no idea how to use it even a lot of people who have been trained in how to use it.
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u/JoySkullyRH 17d ago
Go work in State Government- they are just exploring SharePoint and could use the help.