Sanjay K Mohindroo
As tech becomes embedded in every part of life, what does it mean for the IT industry? We explore the fall, rise, and shift of IT as we know it.
IT used to be an industry. Now it’s a layer. It’s no longer a vertical; it’s a baseline. As every sector becomes tech-driven, the old silo of "IT department" is vanishing. This post explores what happens when IT stops being a standalone force and becomes the water every industry swim in. We look at its fading borders, the shift from infrastructure to intelligence, and what leaders must do to stay ahead.
When IT Was an Industry
From Mainframes to Mission Control
There was a time when IT was a specialization. You needed a room full of machines, men in ties, and punch cards to get anything done. Being in IT meant managing servers, setting up email, and fixing broken printers. You had control, you had silos, you had jobs that started and ended in IT.
The IT department was a gatekeeper. It held the tools, guarded the systems, and had the budget to match.
But that world is gone. #DigitalTransformation #EnterpriseIT #TechHistory
The Tech Tsunami
Everyone Became IT
The arrival of the cloud, mobile, SaaS, and AI didn’t just change IT; it erased the walls around it. Suddenly, every team had access to tools that once needed specialized training. Marketing runs on data dashboards. HR uses AI to shortlist talent. Sales lives in CRM platforms.
The average person now uses more tech in a day than a network engineer did 15 years ago.
Tech stopped being a skillset. It became oxygen. #CloudComputing #SaaSRevolution #AIEverywhere
What Deindustrialization Looks Like
A Slow Fade, not a Sudden Fall
This isn’t a collapse. It’s diffusion.
The signs are all around:
• Fewer standalone IT projects. More cross-functional digital initiatives.
• CIOs shifting from tech ops to business strategy.
• Infrastructure teams are being replaced by cloud-native vendors.
• Startups are building tools that make traditional IT roles obsolete.
When tech lives inside every business function, the need for a centralized, traditional IT organization shrinks. What’s left isn’t the death of IT, but the spread of it. #CIOLeadership #DigitalWorkplace #TechStrategy
The Rise of Tech Fluency
Everyone Needs to Think in Code
In the old world, a few knew tech, and the rest relied on them.
Now? Tech fluency is expected.
Not everyone needs to code. But everyone must:
• Understand data.
• Make decisions with dashboards.
• Know when AI helps and when it hurts.
• Work with APIs, even if you never write one.
In a deindustrialized IT world, the edge comes from fluency, not function. #TechFluency #DigitalSkills #FutureOfWork
CIOs as Architects, Not Mechanics
From Control to Coordination
As the IT stack spreads across teams, the CIO’s job changes.
The CIO is no longer just a tech leader. They’re a translator, an integrator, a strategist. They don’t just choose systems. They align digital decisions across the company.
Power has shifted from control to context. From building to enabling.
Great CIOs no longer ask, “What can we build?” but, “How do we amplify?” #CIO #LeadershipInTech #EnterpriseDesign
Risks of the New World
When Everyone Owns It, No One Does
There are risks in this new shape of IT:
• Shadow IT grows.
• Data leaks happen in marketing decks, not just backend systems.
• AI models make bias faster and cheaper.
• Compliance becomes a cross-department job.
The biggest danger? Tech without governance. Fluency without ethics.
Leadership must build new frameworks. Not to bring back the old walls, but to define shared rules in this open space. #CyberSecurity #DigitalEthics #ShadowIT
What Comes Next
IT as Infrastructure for Thought
IT won’t go away. It will go quiet.
Like electricity, plumbing, and roads, tech will fade from sight and settle under our workflows. We will stop talking about "going digital" because it will just be the way things are.
But the leaders who get ahead will do something different. They will:
• Build tech culture, not just systems.
• Invest in people who can bridge code and conversation.
• Measure success not by uptime, but by insight.
The new tech stack isn’t software. It’s people + data + purpose. #FutureReady #DigitalCulture #TechLeadership
IT was never about tools. It was about leverage.
Now that leverage is everywhere.
If you lead a business today, you don’t need to "do IT." You need to understand the ways tech is reshaping the very idea of work, value, and competition.
So, let’s stop treating IT like an island. It’s the water we all swim in.
What are you doing to lead in this ‘post-IT’ world?
Join the conversation. Drop your thoughts below.