The volume of investment that is flowing into artificial intelligence technologies worldwide is changing not only everyday life for each individual (for example, learning and working opportunities for students and lecturers), but also the opportunities available to those that are the closest to artificial intelligence - programming specialists.

To perform tasks of a certain level of complexity until now required experienced programmers who had worked in the field for at least ten years. Today, artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini make it possible to create complex solution source code that can be integrated into various IT systems and achieve the same results using a different - less experienced - workforce. Young specialists are able to adaptively learn, understand, and apply these tools. The changes taking place makes us reflect on the creation of new study program directions and new employment opportunities.

This is also confirmed by a 2025 survey conducted by the world’s most influential and popular online question-and-answer website for aspiring and practicing programmers, “Stack Overflow”. According to the survey, 84% of professional developers have used artificial intelligence tools, and around 50% use them daily. More than 49,000 participants from 177 countries took part in this year’s survey (https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025), with the largest shares from the United States, Germany, and India, and 62 respondents from Latvia as well. Compared to last year, the increase in the use of artificial intelligence tools is significant - 76%.

The main conclusion that can be drawn from the latest survey is that artificial intelligence is among us, and we are training it. Student himself / herself will be able to create artificial intelligence models that simplify everyday development processes. Another point is that the top programming languages align with what we teach here in Latvia - Python, JavaScript, Java, and others - so we can be confident that we are keeping our finger on the pulse and can offer appropriately trained specialists to the labor market.

Most professional developers indicated that last year they used Google Gemini and Claude Sonnet - artificial intelligence models used, respectively, to provide functionality similar to the well-known ChatGPT.

Following the latest trends in artificial intelligence development, the Turība University has licensed a master’s program in Information Technology that can be pursued by anyone who has already obtained a bachelor’s degree in any other field of study. By studying for just one additional year, and without prior education in IT, it is possible to obtain a professional master’s degree in information technology within three years, with the qualification of “systems analyst”. Those who have already studied information technology at the bachelor’s level can obtain a master’s degree in one and a half years, earning the qualification of “lead software engineer”.

Turība is the first private higher education institution in the Baltics to obtain an SAP University Alliance license, aimed at strengthening students’ digital competencies and providing practical insight into business digitalization. It means that upon obtaining a master’s degree, a graduate can work as support staff or a developer for one of the world’s largest enterprise resource planning systems, SAP ERP, which is also used by leading companies in Latvia. The education acquired enables graduates to develop websites, artificial intelligence solutions, and complex programs capable of analyzing existing systems and integrating various enterprise resource planning system models.

It is no secret that many foreign IT companies’ branches in Latvia offer their workforce to other countries - approximately 10–15% of the total workforce is exported, with people working remotely. For specialists working in Latvia, this presents an opportunity to earn higher salaries without changing their place of residence. Data from the Stack Overflow survey show that 32% of programmers want to work remotely, half as many prefer to work on-site, and this closely aligns with the fact that companies today are seeking programmers, developers, and systems analysts in other countries. Twenty percent of respondents said they are ready to work in a hybrid manner (both on-site and remotely).

It is clear that the best approach for a company is to grow and train a newly graduated student. The pandemic already demonstrated that in certain sectors, such as IT, remote work is cheaper and more efficient, as it is possible both to properly monitor and fairly evaluate work results by creating a hiring algorithm with specific criteria-higher education, an English language test, programming assessments, and more. It does not matter which country you are from; the main thing is that the work is done with high quality in accordance with the company’s guidelines.

Some may find it surprising that so many professional IT specialists use artificial intelligence. However, practice shows that artificial intelligence is the next smartphone. It is the next technology that will remain part of our everyday lives and will be just as self-evident as literacy.