These are the new skills employers want

Kathy Gibson reports from the IITPSA Workforce Conference – With technology changing faster than ever, organisations can be conflicted about what ICT skills they should be employing.

AI is a relatively new entrant to the ICT skills gap lists, first being named in 2024 along with security. In 2026, we are seeing AI skills shortages filling a hiring category on its own.

Dinielia Pillay, Offerzen talent partner, says companies are asking for a range of job roles – but they mostly include AI skills.

ICT roles are hard to fill for 25% of employers, up from 10% in 2023, led by AI and cybersecurity.

The hardest to fill roles are AI/ML at 27%, information and cybersecurity at 27%, data storage at 22% and DevOps at 20%.

And these roles have all become critical post the AI era. “No-one wants researchers anymore, they all want people who have shipped AI into production,” Pillay says.

Employers says the top reason these gaps persist is weak foundational training at 26%. It is followed closely by the fact that skilled people are emigrating (24%); there are too few correctly-skilled new graduates (24%); and technology is moving faster than the curricula (21%)

New roles and new titles are appearing – and not only are expectations high, but the demand is spreading beyond the IT department.

Some of the new job titles include AI and ML engineers, data and platform engineers, cloud security specialists, and AI-fluent product engineers.

Organisations want senior skills, but the reality is that seniority in a new field is a very rare profile, Pillay says.

Senior roles that are in demand include senior AI/ML engineer, security engineers, DevOps and platform skills, data engineers, network and system engineers. And it takes time to fill these roles, Pillay explains

By 2030, 39% of workers’ core skills will change, Pillay says.

While 92-million new jobs are going to be displace, about 170-million new jobs will be created.

Against this backdrop, and the fact the 63% of companies say skills gaps are blocking transformation, 85% of employers plan to upskill their staff.

What to do next

Pillay advises professional to specialise. “Master a skill,” she says. “It is no longer enough to be a generalist. She recommends that tey use AI daily and build visible proof.”

Among other things, employers should aim to maintain a junior pipeline and define career paths.

Importantly, employers should stay rooted in reality. “I know you have a job description, but you will never find someone who fills 100% of the spec. So start hiring for potential,” Pillay says.

She urges educators to co-design curricula with industry, and build work into study programmes.

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