According to a recent Gartner study, a whopping 81% of enterprise CIOs are preparing to bolster their IT teams in 2023. “Advances in AI? Who cares,” they scoff, “We need more humans!”
AI, Humans, and the Forever Dance of Who’s Doing the Real Work
Even with AI improving at a pace that gives Elon Musk night sweats, Gartner’s senior principal analyst, Jose Ramirez, predicts a fairly “neutral” global job impact from our robotic friends in the next few years. Largely due to those pesky “enterprise adoption lags, implementation times and learning curves” – you know, those mundane human elements that even the shiniest AI can’t speed up.
Sure, companies hankering for digital transformation are leaning on full-time IT workers. In fact, Gartner’s report suggests 56% of the work is being handled by these dedicated souls. Toss in another 21% by IT contractors or part-time employees, 9% from IT consultants and a modest 4% from the gig economy – we’re looking at a busy bee hive of human work.
We Need More Humans, Just Not You, You or You
The irony here is that as these IT leaders grapple with Godzilla-sized projects, they find themselves short-staffed. Some 67% of the polled CIOs plan to beef up their IT headcount by at least 10% to keep the digital transformation wheels churning.
Yet, in a plot twist that M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of, 41% of large enterprises reported a slowdown in IT hiring. A not insignificant 35% said that their overall IT budget has shrunk, while 29% confessed to a hiring freeze. “On one hand, we need more people. On the other, we can’t hire any more,” they seem to say.
AI and IT: A Frenemies Story
Despite OpenAI and the University of Pennsylvania sounding the alarm that AI is out for 20% of human jobs, a meager 4% of the surveyed CIOs are currently utilizing “AI-augmented workers”.
Ramirez puts a pin in the situation, noting: “While investments in AI technology and the need for AI skills are expected to grow significantly, there are concerns around the potential legal issues that may arise from generative AI, such as copyright infringement and confidential information breaches.”
Who You Gonna Call? CIOs!
To counteract the challenges, some CIOs are getting creative. They’re hiring from broader geographic areas or toning down some of their hiring requirements. But let’s be clear, the bar is still high. The most coveted IT skills remain: Cybersecurity, cloud platforms, and customer or user experience. And as always, a firm handshake and eye-contact still matter. Soft skills such as communication and relationship management are key, along with a cultural fit.
Fusion Teams: Avengers Assemble!
In an interesting twist, nearly half of the surveyed CIOs are investing in training programs to upskill and reskill IT staff, while another 46% plan to establish fusion teams. If you’re wondering what a fusion team is, it’s like the Avengers of the IT world – a blend of technical and business personnel who laser-focus on cross-disciplinary business success.
It might seem like an IT soap opera, but as Ramirez notes, this mix can “ensure that IT has relevant roles, skills and capacity to meet enterprise objectives.”
