My answer is yes and no. The skills will absolutely exist — and become more valuable than ever. What I don’t think will exist is the job title itself.

Returning from a digital workplace conference a few weeks ago, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the future of the intranet and, more importantly, the future of our jobs.

Interestingly, most of the conversations weren’t really about SharePoint. They weren’t about Teams, Viva, Power Platform or even Copilot features. The discussion kept coming back to AI and what it means for the people working in digital workplace, information management and collaboration roles.

One question in particular has been rattling around in my head ever since: Will SharePoint Information Architects still exist in ten years?

Twenty Years, Same Problems

Over the last twenty years I’ve helped organisations organise content, improve findability, implement metadata, design intranets, establish governance frameworks and clean up years of digital clutter. Most Information Architects reading this will recognise the pattern. The technology changes, but the problems remain remarkably consistent.

Nobody knows who owns the content. There are multiple versions of the same document. Sites have been created and abandoned. Content has been uploaded and forgotten. Search results return everything and nothing at the same time.

Historically, organisations tolerated these issues because people found ways to work around them. They knew who to ask. They had links saved in favourites. They knew which folder contained the “real” version of the document. It wasn’t efficient, but it was manageable.

Can Copilot tell which document is correct? Can it distinguish between a draft and an approved version? Can it identify trusted content? Can it surface information without exposing something it shouldn’t? Can we trust the answers it provides?

The Great Plot Twist

What fascinates me is that many of these questions aren’t AI questions at all. They are governance questions. They are content ownership questions. They are knowledge management questions.

For years, Information Architects have been telling organisations that metadata matters, ownership matters, structure matters and governance matters. Most organisations understood those concepts in theory, but they rarely treated them as strategic priorities.

Now AI has arrived and suddenly everyone wants to talk about metadata.

AI Doesn’t Fix Messy Information. It Exposes It.

One misconception I hear regularly is that AI will somehow solve information management problems. Personally, I think the opposite is true.

If you have duplicate content, AI sees duplicate content. If nobody owns a document, AI doesn’t know who should own it. If permissions are a mess, AI can surface information that suddenly makes everyone realise their sharing practices weren’t as controlled as they thought.

Bad information has always been a problem. AI simply shines a brighter light on it.

SharePoint Isn’t Going Anywhere — It’s Going Invisible

At the same time, I don’t think SharePoint is disappearing. If anything, I think it becomes even more important. The difference is that it becomes less visible.

Today, people navigate to a SharePoint site and search for a document. In the future, they’ll simply ask a question. Instead of opening the HR site and looking for a policy, they’ll ask Copilot. Instead of navigating through document libraries, they’ll interact with an agent.

The user experience changes completely, but underneath it all SharePoint remains the foundation — storing content, managing permissions, applying metadata and providing the structure that AI relies on.

This is why I believe we’re seeing the beginning of a shift from content management to knowledge management.

The organisations that succeed with AI won’t necessarily be the ones with the most technology. Most organisations will have access to similar AI capabilities. The real differentiator will be how well they organise, govern and manage knowledge. The winners will be the organisations that can provide trusted answers quickly and confidently because their information foundations are strong.

My Predictions for 2035

So since we’re making predictions, here are mine.

By 2035, I believe SharePoint will become largely invisible to end users. Most people won’t know or care where information is stored. They’ll simply ask questions and expect answers. Intranets will evolve into AI-powered knowledge portals. Navigation isn’t going away — humans still like to browse and discover — but search and AI-driven experiences will become the primary way people consume information.

Most importantly: I believe information architecture will become a board-level discussion, because information itself will become recognised as a strategic asset.

The New Job Titles on the Horizon

I think we’re going to see a new generation of job titles emerge over the next decade. In many ways these are simply evolutions of the work Information Architects already do today. The technology changes, but the underlying principles remain remarkably similar.

The people who understand structure, governance, metadata, ownership and knowledge management are about to become some of the most valuable people in the room.

The question is whether we’ll still call them SharePoint Information Architects.

My guess is that we won’t.

What do you think? What job titles are missing from the list? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.