Abstract

This thesis examines how early-career IT professionals integrate AI-related skills into their T-shaped competencies within an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) company. The T-shaped competency framework combines deep specialized expertise with broad interdisciplinary knowledge. Using a mixed-methods case study approach with an ERP company in the Czech Republic, the research combines a quantitative questionnaire completed by 55 early-career professionals who joined within the previous two years with semi-structured interviews involving 13 early-career professionals and one hiring manager. The study investigates how these professionals use AI tools in their work, how their education prepared them for AI technologies, how the organization supports ongoing AI skill development, and how these factors impact the T-shaped profile in the ERP context. Findings reveal widespread AI adoption, with 82% of respondents using AI to understand difficult concepts during university studies and around 75% using AI tools daily at work. Universities have shifted from restricting AI to actively encouraging its use, though self-study emerged as the dominant learning pathway. The analysis reveals that AI supports breadth more than depth in the T-shaped profile: AI helps cross-functional knowledge acquisition more effectively than primary discipline expertise development in the ERP context. The research suggests that AI provides a temporary capability boost, enabling higher-level outputs with foundational knowledge, though this does not translate into retained expertise. While productivity has increased, the path from junior to senior remains largely unchanged, as deep contextual knowledge is still required. The study provides recommendations for educational institutions to strengthen AI integration, as well as recommendations for the company. …víceméně