Looking into 2025 and beyond, businesses will have an ever-growing appetite for technology as a primary tool for meeting organisational objectives, with this expected to drive soaring demand for new IT skills.
This is one of the key findings of the CompTIA IT Industry Outlook 2025, which identifies several areas where the role of IT skills will be central in 2025 and beyond.
This includes all things artificial intelligence-related (AI), the formation of data teams, changes in software development, and the growth aspirations of small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and managed service providers (MSPs).
The quantitative study conducted by CompTIA is based on two online surveys fielded to 1 016 IT industry professionals during October 2024.
According to the study, heading into 2025, there is some speculation that the global economy is in the midst of an AI bubble. If this is true, companies need to ponder over the type of investments to be made today to ensure a successful tomorrow.
It identifies two clear areas where non-capital investment will still be needed – workflow and skills.
Between highly specialised software applications and a greater degree of automation, there is potential to completely reinvent workflow in a digital economy, it says.
“The evolved workflow will drive demand for new IT skills. For several years, the imbalance between supply of digital skills and demand for expertise has been forcing companies to change their approach to talent acquisition and retention,” notes the study.
“While the details of future skills demand are difficult to predict, the general direction is clear. Businesses will have an ever-growing appetite for technology as a primary tool for delivering results, creating competitive differentiation and meeting organisational objectives. There will always be fluctuations in hiring and employment, but the long-term future is bright for technology professionals.”
As AI increasingly enters organisations through various applications, there will be different skill domains that emerge as complementary skill sets to existing acumen. Data, security, SysOps, architecture, auto coding and prompts are the primary domains where new skills are developing, the study reveals.
These domains will evolve over time and may even change completely as adoption matures, and companies will have to remain agile in their talent development plans to keep up with the shifting skill landscape.
Today firms are doubling down on automation efforts, tying together applications in a way that enables smooth workflow, connects to a collective dataset and provides holistic security. The end result of these efforts will be a conceptual platform tailored to the organisation.
“The reason talent development will continue to be a priority is that companies largely are not expecting AI to replace human effort. One of the most prominent challenges that businesses are currently facing or expect to face on their AI journey is balancing the results from AI algorithms with the experience and creativity of their employees.”
More than three out of four professionals in technical roles feel optimistic about their career potential. Tech skill demand remains high across all industries, and tech roles lend themselves well to flexible work arrangements. While companies struggle with their approach to cyber security or the shift away from a cost centre mentality, there is tremendous opportunity for IT pros to help their businesses accelerate digital transformation.
Gartner predicted worldwide IT spending total for 2025 is $5.75 trillion, which would represent 9.3% growth over 2024 spending if the forecast is accurate.
Competitive advantage
One discussion that will be getting more attention in the coming year is skills development among SMBs, both those in the IT channel and their customers, who mostly happen to be small too.
The primary method for closing the IT skills gaps continues to be training existing employees, with 66% expecting to provide training options in 2025, compared to 59% in 2024.
As technology continues establishing itself as a strategic business asset and competitive differentiator for all companies, the bar on skills development is rising for SMBs.
Many of these smaller firms are already starting to upskill their current tech employees for job roles or duties that feature cloud computing, software development, cyber security and data.
“Driving this quest to attain higher-level tech skills is demand for new skills. Channel executives today will tell you that even the smallest of customers is on high alert about cyber security or has pointed curiosity about AI’s potential for their company. And they want to know that their tech provider can help them.
“To maintain a competitive edge, more SMB channel firms should begin down this path of up skilling. First steps include evaluating their current skills, then identifying gaps and areas of demand, and finally making requisite investments in training.”
With the challenges companies are facing in building the technical talent they need, there has been significant effort on reimagining the processes for talent acquisition, development and retention.
The theme for most of these processes has been a skills-based approach, defining the specific skills needed for each job role and then developing a methodology for closing skill gaps.
The area where this approach has gotten the most attention is in hiring, with many companies dropping degree requirements in their job postings.
“Although this move away from degree requirements has had mixed results in actual hiring to date, it allows companies to begin exploring the changes needed in HR practices to support a skills-based approach.
CompTIA’s previously conducted Workforce and Learning Trends report has tracked HR attitudes and behaviour around a skills-based approach for several years, with the most recent report showing that 49% of HR professionals feel that a skills-based approach is a new and compelling method for talent management.
“Along with the initial cost of developing a skills taxonomy, companies will be reconfiguring the tools used to assess skills and drive workforce decisions. This activity will rapidly extend beyond the hiring process to include up skilling of technical talent and reskilling of other employees who may be seeking a career change.
“HR departments will look for new technology solutions to help organise and automate these activities, but those solutions will have limited use if the underlying workflow is not clearly defined and communicated throughout the organisation. Fitting in with the theme of cautious investing, organisations expect to mostly hold steady or drop slightly in their hiring plans, with 39% expecting to explore new hiring in 2025 compared to 41% who were expecting to explore hiring in 2024.”
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