These questions expose a gap that is widening inside organizations. AI capabilities are evolving faster than the systems and people that are expected to use them. Companies can build agents and apps, but they still need people who know how to connect them to business needs, technical constraints and daily operations. At Mantu, we call them Hybrid Builders.
A Hybrid Builder is a professional profile that connects business knowledge and technical expertise. They turn a use case into a working solution and make sure it fits in with current workflows. They understand the business problem, build and test the technical response, often using AI technologies, and stay close to the teams who use it.
We spoke with Alizé Santini, Strategy and AI Transformation Director, and Alain Buzzacaro, Chief Information Officer at Mantu, to discuss the rise of Hybrid Builders and understand why they are emerging, what their role is about and how they can support organizations through their AI transformation.
An organizational challenge
Alain Buzzacaro started this conversation with a strong statement:
“AI is completely reinventing how we work: our gestures, our reasoning, our thinking. It’s a not just a technological revolution, it is a cultural shift.”
Indeed, at an individual level, professionals search, write, analyze and make decisions with AI that is increasingly present in their daily tasks. According to the Phygital Workplace Barometer, in 2026, 62% of employees say they used AI, up from 38% in 2024.
At a company level, AI also changes how work is organized: processes need to be changed, knowledge must remain accessible through new tools and a balance between human judgment and AI delegation must be found. In 2026, 40% of roles within large global organizations already involve working with autonomous agents, up from less than 5% a year earlier (Gartner). In professional services, the adoption rate of agentic AI has reached 20–24%. This shift is changing the game: it is no longer just mastery of the tools that sets profiles apart, but their ability to orchestrate, supervise and guide AI agents.
As Alizé Santini explained:
"Hybrid profiles are no longer an aspiration: they have become an operational necessity."
A team can build an AI assistant in a matter of minutes. But the organization may not yet have defined who owns it, how to check its answers, how to insure it is secure or how to respond when it fails or becomes obsolete.
Building an AI assistant is only the first step. Organizations also need to ensure that these solutions meet business needs, comply with requirements and remain reliable as they evolve. This calls for a profile that combines business understanding with technical expertise.
Who are the Hybrid Builders?
A Hybrid Builder is a professional that builds bridges between business context and technical expertise.
On one hand, the business context: understanding users and processes, identifying priorities and customer value, translating a business need into a workable use case, and understanding how to train users and support adoption.
On the other hand, the technical expertise: understanding AI systems, building tools with AI, delivering solutions and evaluating outputs.
Both sides matter equally, and mastering the two of them is what makes Hybrid Builders so important in this new phase of AI deployment.
Their role is not to do the work for business teams, but to help them become increasingly autonomous. They build solutions side by side with the teams, share knowledge along the way and gradually step back as the teams gain the skills to manage and improve the solutions themselves.
Alain Buzzacaro describes the profile as someone who “understands a business problem, builds a response with AI and knows how to embed it in a working system.” That requires more than knowing how to prompt a model or assemble a prototype. A Hybrid Builder needs to understand the process before changing it. They challenge the initial request, identify the right use case and decide how much automation makes sense. They then build and test the solution, work through technical constraints and stay close to the teams who will use it.
Alizé Santini developed the example of the HR agent: a Hybrid Builder does not only help create it, but they also knows how to improve it as they understand where its information comes from, how the HR team can flag a potential faulty answer, who can correct it and how the updated version reaches users.
The profile connects the people who understand the business with the product and IT teams responsible for the system.
As Alain Buzzacaro puts it:
This is what makes the profile hybrid. Both business understanding and technical depth are necessary. One cannot replace the other.
Building, connecting, and improving solutions over time
Hybrid Builders work across the whole lifecycle of an AI use case. Their role focuses on 4 phases:
1. Discovery and guidance
This first phase is about establishing that the problem is real, relevant and worth solving.
A team may ask for an agent to automate part of a process. The Hybrid Builder looks at the process itself to understand what questions people ask, where the information is, which answers can be automated, and which require a business professional. The answer may be to build an agent. It may also be to fix the way information is stored or to simplify the process before adding AI.
This step matters because building has become easier. The cost of creating a prototype can be low, but a prototype still needs a business owner, a defined purpose and a clear place in the organization. The Hybrid Builder helps the team make that decision before investing further.
2. Building
Once the use case is clear, the Hybrid Builder has to turn it into a working solution.
As Alizé Santini points out, the right solution is not always AI: in some cases, an AI solution works best; in others, a simpler automation solution may be more appropriate. Depending on the use case, this can mean building an AI agent, connecting it to company data or integrating it into an existing application. The work also includes building and testing prototypes, documenting their expected behavior, checking their outputs for errors and ensuring they meet security requirements.
In the HR example, the agent must retrieve the right information and know when it cannot provide a reliable answer. The team also needs a way to review its behavior before it reaches users.
The Hybrid Builder works with engineering and IT teams to address these requirements. The goal is to move beyond a demonstration and put a solution into production under clear conditions.
3. Optimization
The solution can work but still needs optimization. Improvements can be made based on usage, costs, quality, and output quality. Indeed, the data may change, a process may evolve or the user may find the solution irrelevant. For Alain Buzzacaro, this is why the Hybrid Builder absolutely needs to stay close to these operating conditions.
Imagine that the HR agent starts returning outdated information after a policy update. The Hybrid Builder can investigate the issue, identify the source, and carry out maintenance work with the right teams. They can also help the professionals understand what to report when an answer looks wrong.
This is where the profile connects technical maintenance to user adoption. Business teams need to know how to flag a problem. Technical teams need that feedback to improve the system.
Alizé Santini insists on the fact that Mantu's work continues beyond the initial build:
"Our differentiation lies in the Scale and Run phase."
4. Connection
Each solution that is built and improved over time needs a place in the organization. Hybrid Builders connect the use case to the right teams, systems and owners. The goal is to clearly define responsibilities and establish an operating model.
In the HR example, that means establishing how the HR team reports faulty answers, who checks them, and how the technical team corrects the agent. It also means making sure users understand what the agent can do and when they need to contact a person.
Without those connections, teams may stop using the tool or work around it. With clear ownership and a way to act on feedback, the organization can keep improving the solution.
These 4 phases make it clear that the work does not end at launch. It becomes part of how the company operates.
Making AI part of how organizations work
As more teams build and use AI, organizations need the ability to assess new opportunities, make technical decisions, manage risks and support adoption. They need people who can work across business and technology without losing sight of either.
As Alizé Santini puts it:
"The objective is to help organizations move beyond isolated AI initiatives and build the capability to keep adapting as technology changes."
That requires more than recruiting technical profiles. Business teams need to understand what AI can and cannot do. IT teams need to work closely with business owners. And the organization needs clear responsibilities for the systems it puts into production. Hybrid Builders help make those connections work in practice.
