Nobody really knows what the IT department of the future will look like. Some experts say it won't exist, having been outsourced entirely. Others say IT will be too fundamental not to retain in-house expertise. Choose anywhere between the two extremes and you can make a sound argument.

The only certainty is that the IT profession is set to undergo a period of extended uncertainty.

Two weeks ago, we ran a special report looking at companies that outsourced but have now brought some or all of those functions back in-house (Computing, 12 May). We clearly struck a chord: the number of letters we received was well above our typical mailbag.

Is this just a cyclical response to the outsourcing trend of the past few years, or does insourcing give us an insight into the future?

Perhaps not. Gartner this week says that there will be 15 per cent fewer tech workers by 2010, as non-IT staff use IT skills as a basic part of their job. The analyst predicts that six in 10 workers from today's typical IT department will have a business-facing role by the end of the decade.

But IT organisations that do not adopt a model that is more process-oriented will see their services outsourced at a rate of 25 per cent per year.

We have pushed for greater co-operation between IT and business for many years. Now the lines between the two are increasingly blurring.

Nearly 40,000 13- and 14-year-olds last month completed an online test of their practical IT skills as part of an e-assessment trial.

They are part of a generation that considers IT to be as much an everyday part of what they do as reading and writing. When they reach the workforce, they will apply that knowledge in the context of their business needs, and the traditional concept of the IT professional will become very different.

That is a change that today's experts must espouse. The forward-thinking IT director will recognise the shifts that lies ahead and be preparing for them now.