Show HN: Who Captures the AI Efficiency Gains in Software Outsourcing?
2 hours ago (kedehub.io)
For years, outsourcing contracts have been governed by a simple assumption: engineering effort roughly scales with people and time.
AI breaks that assumption.
I think software outsourcing will die with AI, since there's less and less reason to not just do everything in-house.
So the companies themselves that used to outsource before will capture the gains.
That assumes that outsourcing was all about coding/typing/manual work. I subscribe to the knowledge-centric perspective on software development, treating knowledge as the fuel that drives the software development engine.
Central to this perspective is the concept of the 'knowledge gap' - the difference between what a developer knows and what they need to know to effectively complete tasks.
Thus, outsourcing is not about manual work but about buying knowledge from vendors.