State of IT jobs: AI sparks rapidly changing market for skills

In the past year, IT professionals have weathered significant transformation in the workplace at the hands of AI. The technology has shifted demand for skills, altered several IT career paths, and disrupted day-to-day operations in nearly every business as leaders and employees adapt workflows and processes to incorporate AI.

With layoffs once again making headlines, companies have shifted to hiring for specific skillsets they need to implement, adopt, secure, and make the most of AI, while upskilling employees internally to meet those same needs.

Heading into 2026, top priorities in the hiring market include skills such as IT security, AI and ML integration, data analytics, governance and compliance, software engineering and development, and AI governance and ethics. However, a significant skills gap remains between what organizations seek and the skills candidates have on their resumes.

Here is a look at the state of IT jobs today and how IT hiring and training strategies are evolving to address a quickly changing market for talent.

A push for skills-first hiring

The past year has seen a significant shift towards organizations hiring for skills over experience, education, and background. While those traditional criteria remain relevant, IT leaders are looking to hire specifically for skillsets the organization needs or is lacking. This new focus is also seen as a way to open talent pipelines to candidates who may have been filtered out in the past.

According to data from Robert Half, 65% of IT leaders had more difficulty finding skilled IT professionals for open roles in 2025 than 2024. This year, 61% say they plan to increase permanent headcount in the first half of 2026, while 55% will increase contract and temporary hiring in the same time frame.

Roles that have seen “above-average sequential growth and consistent demand” over the past year include AI/ML engineer, cybersecurity engineer, data analyst, data scientist, DevOps engineer, ERP business analyst, IT project manager, network/cloud engineer, software engineer, and systems administrator, according to Robert Half.

The recruiting agency’s survey of IT leaders identified the following as the most apparent skills gaps:

• AI and machine learning (cited by 45% of respondents)
• IT operations and infrastructure (36%)
• IT governance and compliance (25%)
• Cloud architecture and operations (24%)
• Data engineering and analytics (22%)

Demand for AI skills continues to grow

Job postings that require AI literacy skills are growing at a rate of more than 70% year over year, according LinkedIn’s AI Labor Market Update report, which identified AI agents as the fastest-growing AI skill of 2025. Moreover, demand for AI skills such as prompt engineering are extending beyond IT to include roles in marketing, sales, and design.

Other AI skills that grew the most in 2025 include Azure AI Studio, AI productivity, Spring AI, custom GPTs, prompt flow, large language model operations (LLMOps), AI strategy, OpenAI API, and automated feature engineering, according to LinkedIn.

This marks somewhat of a shift from 2023, when the fastest growing AI skills included model training, hyperparameter optimization, and other skills considered vital to building AI tools. In just a few years, organizations are shifting to hiring and training workers skilled at getting the most from AI tools, as well as those who can help develop them.

As AI increasingly takes on technical tasks, demand for soft skills is growing, according to Robert Half. To help oversee and guide AI-driven solutions, IT leaders are looking for workers with the skills to ensure AI is effective in supporting business goals, including:

• Critical thinking and problem solving (72%)
• Adaptability and continuous learning (69%)
• Creativity and innovation (65%)
• Communication (36%)
• Emotional intelligence (22%)

Tech salaries remain strong in 2026

In the coming year, Robert Half projects a 1.6% average salary increase across IT roles, with a 4.1% increase for AI/ML engineer and data scientist salaries, a 2.3% increase for software and applications development roles, and a 1.7% increase for consulting and enterprise systems roles, along with data engineering, analytics, and reporting positions.

Additionally, 87% of IT leaders say they will typically offer higher salaries to candidates who possess specialized skills over those without them it, with 52% “willing to negotiate a higher starting salary with a candidate if the role supports a critical business need.”

However, 69% of IT leaders express concerns about keeping pace with candidates’ pay expectations. To get ahead of this, leaders are prepared to not only increase starting salaries but also to add benefits and perks and to include salary ranges in job descriptions.

The skills leaders say they’re most willing to boost salary for include:

• AI, machine learning, and data science
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud computing, cloud security, and cloud architecture
• Software and applications development
• Data analytics, business intelligence, and reporting

RTO mandates sparking employee dissatisfaction

A report from Ivanti found that 64% of IT professionals say they have “experienced pressure to return to the office during the last 12 months” whether that’s a strict RTO requirement or “encouraged” by management, despite the fact that RTO mandates can spark talent turnover and decreased morale, as employees continue to value flexibility.

Among the top cited reasons given for RTO mandates are improved productivity (41%) and stronger company culture (37%). Cybersecurity is also often cited as a reason, though more than half of IT professionals (56%) say security isn’t enough to justify strict RTO mandates. Moreover, while leadership seeks improve productivity via RTO mandates, 82% of workers say they are “at least as productive as, if not more” when working at home compared to the office.

Still, employees expressed increased willingness to return to the office if offered a higher salary (75%); of those, 69% said a salary increase of 10% or more would be needed to consider it, according to Robert Half.

Retention once workers return to the office is another concern, with 48% of respondents to the Ivanti survey reported feeling “resenteeism,” which is when workers dislike their jobs but stay despite the negative feelings. And 37% say they engage in “presenteeism” — coming into the office to be seen working, rather than to be productive.

AI continues to reshape the IT job landscape

In the Future of Jobs Report 2025 from World Economic Forum, 60% of employers say they expect AI to transform their business by 2030. The report noted that 63% of employers report that skills gaps are “categorically considered the biggest barrier to business transformation,” and 85% have plans to prioritize upskilling their workforce. Additionally, 70% of employers say they expect to source skills by hiring new staff, 40% plan to reduce staff as skills become redundant, and 50% plan to “transition staff from declining to growing roles.”

Employees are largely adopting AI in the workforce, with 80% of respondents in the 2025 Indeed Workforce Insights Report, reporting they save at least one hour per day using generative AI. Additionally, 37% of tech professionals say their role has been “redefined or restructured due to gen AI in the past two years.” As AI takes over more menial, repetitive tasks, organizations are redefining IT roles to make way for the future of AI in the workplace.

Organizations are increasingly offering courses on prompt engineering, AI fundamentals, and other skills that will help employees get up to speed on effectively using AI to boost productivity and efficiency. Training and upskilling can also help organizations avoid falling into pitfalls of “AI workslop,” which occurs when employees use AI in ill-advised ways, ultimately creating more work for coworkers who have to revise or edit AI-generated content. To make the most of AI investments, organizations will need to continue focusing on providing training and upskilling opportunities to employees within the organization.