Due to the increasing importance of digitization, ICT and engineering sectors are also growing. In these sectors, there are a lot of high-qualified and well-paid jobs. However, despite the growing importance and popularity of digital solutions, one fact (at least) is, unfortunately, still very stable within the ICT and engineering sectors: When it comes to employees, there are still huge differences with respect to gender and gender stereotypes. (Commercial) technology development can be regarded as having masculine connotations both structurally and culturally. Therefore, we address these connotations, especially the roles of androcentric bureaucracy, which could be described as hierarchical, technocentric, and very controlling-oriented, and (the structural possibilities of) self-efficacy. We discuss, conceptually and empirically with a focus on software development, whether new management approaches like agile frameworks and new management roles like Feel-good Managers and Scrum Master could be seen as a cure for inequality or if there are new stereotypical gender-related ascriptions for specific activities or processes.

It is claimed that the technology of Artificial intelligence (AI) will change working life and conditions as we have known until now so drastically that the question arises of how people will work in the future. At least the medial discourse paints these dystopian forecasts (Frey and Osborne in Technol Forecast Soc Change 114:254–80, 2017; Cave and Dihal in Nat Mach Intell 1:74–8, 2019; Susskind and Susskind in The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. 2015) as AI has the potential to automate many processes and address many challenges in the field of engineering (Humpert et al. in Procedia CIRP 119:693–8, 2023). The discussions about the side effects of AI lack the perspective of experts from the field of engineering who provide a differentiated assessment of where the integration of AI could be supportive. An employee perspective is mostly missing in previous research (Giering in Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft 76:1–15, 2022) but might help identify the areas in labor suitable for integrating AI. To examine where and how AI could be implemented in German engineering this paper summarizes the perspectives of 11 employees from the field of German engineering and their views on AI. The findings focus not on the technical aspect of AI but rather on the employees’ requirements regarding their work. Even though the experts come from similar technical work fields the perspectives, evaluations, and possible application areas regarding AI differ very much. An individual evaluation of employees' perspectives seems crucial for integrating AI into a working environment to design supporting technology. Employees should be seen as co-creators and get the opportunity to co-determine from the beginning of such integration processes (Herrmann and Pfeiffer in AI Soc 38:1523–42, 2023). Furthermore, with this insight, indications about how this career field needs to be formed for future developments can be identified.

The Scrum board plays a vital role in empowering team-based work: agile teams use it to discuss, plan, and estimate their tasks and coordinate these on a daily basis as required. This chapter examines whether the Scrum board can be seen as a feminine tool. Is it a tool by means of which female empowerment is or can be materialized? Does it contribute to creating more gender equity in the world of work? In pursuing these questions, aspects of technocentrism, hierarchies, cooperation and emotions, and bureaucracy are analysed in the light of previous feminist research on the Scrum board, as well as the Agile Manifesto and its approach. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->