Which skills are IT staff most in danger of losing to AI, in your opinion? Are you concerned about the possibility of widespread skill loss on IT teams?
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AI is reshaping the landscape for all knowledge workers as it becomes embedded in business and IT processes.
Several traditional tasks are already being automated. Tasks like drafting agendas/minutes, pulling action items, and summarizing threads are already being automated with AI. No‑code/low‑code agents are absorbing a lot of the quick Python/PowerShell/Excel work IT teams used to do to clean data, generate charts, or assemble one‑off reports. Conversational agents (internal or vendor) are moving into FAQ, runbook lookup, and “how do I” guidance. AI is accelerating a lot of IT “document triage” (Vendor SOWs, change logs, user guides).
For IT, this shift demands a reimagining of workflows by moving away from routine execution toward higher-order competencies such as data governance and security, AI platform integration, and strategic enablement.
My largest fear is that IT staff will lose the ability to think on their own. I remember interviewing a candidate for a Field Support role many years ago. I asked a question regarding an IT skill which he hadn't specifically listed on his resume. His answer is what landed him the job - he didn't know how to do the thing, but, he said, he would google it and read what other people had done to see if I could figure it out. He was able to demonstrate his ability to research and think critically through the steps to troubleshoot the problem I posed.
Today I see reliance on AI to simply ask for the answer, vs using AI as a search tool and research. As organizations push for the ability to produce results faster, through automation, AI, or other tools, I am afraid an unintended consequence will be the use of AI for speed without the exercising critical thinking skills to find complex answers.
I have also witnessed more widespread use of AI for simple coding tasks. Business outcomes may be faster as time goes on and we measure better declining numbers in the percentage of code that needs to be touched or modified. But this is the training ground for the next up-and-coming programmers, coders and engineers. Where will these early career people find the experience that trial and error gives, to answer to all those job reqs out there that require "deep knowledge" of something? Deep knowledge are two words found on almost every job req, yet that is built over time and experience. I am concerned about that early foundational knowledge of IT skills as AI becomes more prevalent.