Data, software, and AI engineering roles used to be distinct. EY's AI leader says that's changing.

Software engineering roles aren't going away anytime soon — but they are converging.

At least that's the case at the Big Four firm EY, according to Dan Diasio, global consulting AI leader. Diasio said software engineers are able to accomplish and build a lot more quickly than they were previously.

The shift has pushed the consulting giant to move beyond traditional software engineering lifecycles and toward product development lifecycles. That means training engineers to operate more like end-to-end product builders rather than pure coders.

Diasio told Business Insider that roles that were once split across data engineering, software engineering, and AI engineering are now overlapping.

Those used to be three "completely different professions," Diasio, who is also EY's Americas consulting CTO.