Brownfield Code Keeps Outsourcing Alive

AI tools excel at building new, well-architected software but struggle to replace human labour when systems are old, undocumented, and tightly integrated. That gap means many firms will keep hiring outsourced developers and consultants to manage, integrate and extract value from AI in legacy environments. — This reframes debates about AI job loss and industrial policy: automation forecasts that ignore legacy-system complexity will overstate displacement and understate demand for consulting and integration services.