WIP: Software Engineering Competencies in the Age of AI

Abstract

A university education is meant to fully prepare graduates to enter and succeed in the workforce in their field. Accreditation bodies and professional organizations help to achieve this by publishing curriculum content, skills and competency models to outline the basics that universities must teach within a degree program. Although these curriculum guidelines and competency models are periodically updated to align university curricula with current industry needs, the needs of industry evolve rapidly and are often not properly reflected within the model, a situation which is occurring now with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in industry. This paper reviews literature describing the AI needs within industry to motivate two new AI competencies, AI Literacy and AI development, within the Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM). This work then analyzes the industry needs described in the literature to propose the necessary skill areas for these new competencies.