Business Analysis and AI

Have you used Copilot? Are you using ChatGPT? Do you utilise Manus? Have you tried Lovable? The need to use artificial intelligence today is more and more presenting itself as an urgent need. We, as business analysts, have to use AI tools to improve our efficiency and the quality of our work. To do that, skills like prompt engineering have made their way in the training curriculum of BAs across the world, while a constant pressure to show that you use AI tools is making everyone participate in this gold rush without putting much thinking into the how (let alone the why). Just go out there, open Copilot and start typing! Create agents and start training them! Show results! Site y efficiency gains! And as in the gold rush in Klondike, the people who profit more are not the ones seeking gold but the ones selling the tools. Back then it was about shovels, but now it is about subscriptions and use credits. But even if the tools are now available and we c...

Have you written user stories?  Do you know how to write acceptance criteria?  Have you developed use cases? These topics might soon be obsolete as part of the introductory interviews for junior business analysts. Let me explain why... The advent of AI tools in the field of business analysis (and not only) means one thing: The role of a business analyst (BA) is shifting towards a more advisory role. The BA is not expected to be an expert in writing user stories properly, since this work will eventually be unrtaken by the AI tools. The BA is expected though to have deep knowledge of the customer and its needs, thorough understanding of the product (the business analysis role was for a long time now moving towards a more product-owner-ish role) and, last but not least, the ability to manage the new resources available. The latter, means that the BA will have a managerial role regarding the AI tools available. Like a manager has resources to use, advise and ...