IT pros: the path ahead in career development

If change is the only constant, IT is a sector that has thrived by driving forward change. IT professionals need to adapt, otherwise they get left behind. Employment stability is very volatile, especially if the job for which they were originally hired has moved on. These days, it may not even be people’s ability to adapt quickly to changes that puts them at a disadvantage.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s AI Security Institute (ASI) has found that over the last three years, the ability for AI (artificial intelligence) to undertake complex tasks has improved significantly.

The research institute reported that AI capabilities have improved rapidly across and performance in some areas is doubling every eight months. The ASI noted that expert baselines are being surpassed rapidly. “We’ve found that AI systems are becoming competitive with – or even surpassing – human experts in an increasing number of domains,” the ASI said.

Among the domains it lists include cybersecurity, where AI systems are beginning to show that they are capable of completing complex, expert-level tasks that previously needed someone with 10 years’ experience. The ASI reported that AI systems can increasingly complete complex software and engineering tasks autonomously.

Undoubtedly AIops (AI in IT operations) will replace many IT admin tasks, which means IT professionals need to assess their personal development very carefully. For some, this may mean preparing for the next being thing, like quantum computing, even if there is no guarantee the technology will break through commercially. But working on quantum algorithms requires a different mindset to traditional coding and no one today is talking about AI and vibe coding replacing quantum algorithm scientists.

If IT is an agent of change, what it leaves behind is redundant skills. Job adverts used to specify the industry accreditation the employer was looking for in prospective candidates. But some of these certifications are becoming legacy as what is considered de facto moves on. An IT pro who has done all the training and hard work to attain industry accreditation in their chosen domain risks falling behind unless they keep their training current.

Even then, the ocean of opportunities that once existed for them may now have evaporated to a small puddle because vibe coding and AIops has soaked up most of the IT jobs people have been trained to do.

Nevertheless, all this change does have one positive impact for IT pros and that is the legacy of IT systems that continue to run as the industry moves on and they are no longer de rigeur. The good news is that technical debt, in all its forms, will keep IT pros gainfully employed for decades.