The New IT Team: Humans, AI Agents and the Consultant in the Middle
On september 29, Gartner predicted that by 2028, 70% of enterprises will abandon agentic AI built through vendor forward-deployed engineering (FDE). Gartner points to two main reasons: rising costs and an inability to evolve the solution independently.
The broader issue Gartner highlights is not only how technology is built, but who owns it once it is in place. When external specialists are deeply involved in implementing an AI solution, organizations can struggle to develop the knowledge and ownership needed to evolve it independently.
That raises a broader question for any organization adopting agentic AI: who connects the technology, the people, and the business reality?
A new kind of IT team.
Your organization has three kinds of contributors: your own people, AI agents, and the IT consultants who help connect the two. The IT consultant sits in the middle. They work between your people, your AI agents, and the technology itself. They learn how your team actually works, identify where an agente creates value and where it does not, and validate its outputs rather than simply trusting it. The goal is not to create dependency on the IT consultant, but the opposite: when the engagement ends, the knowledge and capability stay with the organization.
Structure before Technology.
The business manager protects the structure around the work, precisely where Gartner says many engagements can break down. That starts with understanding before implementation. At SYVANTECH, Understand is the first step: knowing the business, the workflows, the constraints, and what the solution actually needs to achieve.
Then comes the human side: who should be doing the work? When part of the team is software, getting the right people around it matters more, not less.
Why bring these roles together?
An IT consultant working inside the team cannot enforce the commercial and organizational structure required for a successful engagement on their own. A business manager working from outsider cannot delivery that outcome without a clear understanding of the technology, people, and day-to-day reality.
Together, they adress both sides of the problem. At SYVANTECH, we believe our role goes beyond delivering technology solutions. It is about helping organizations build the understanding, ownership, and capability to keep those solutions working, and especially evolving, long after the engagement ends.
