IT TALENT TRENDS 2026

The Human Edge in an AI World

CIOs face an inflection point in the IT talent landscape

The year 2025 brought unprecedented rapid change, from surging skills gaps to the rise of embedded AI, forcing a reevaluation of how IT organizations attract, develop, and retain talent:

42% of IT professionals were actively or passively job seeking.

76% of IT managers had moderate or increasing stress levels.

89% of IT leaders were anticipating restructuring their IT organization.

95% of IT professionals acknowledged that major skill changes will be required to keep pace with technology by 2030.

Source: Future of IT Survey, 2025; n=404

It was a tipping point for IT talent. Converging factors made it clear that the old normal in IT workforce management has ended. The challenges faced by IT in 2025 highlighted that continuing business as usual in IT talent strategy would be riddled with risk.

In 2026, IT leaders need future-ready talent strategies that address these shifts head-on. CIOs must continuously scan the horizon and realign IT talent strategies as conditions change.

This trends report will walk you through emerging themes in four areas:

01 The Rise of Enabling Skills: Prioritize the Human Advantage in a Digital Era

02 Learning Agility as a Core Capability: Embed Learning Into the Flow of Work

03 The Convergence of Talent and Transformation: Design Hybrid Teams for the Future

04 Adaptive Culture as the Change Engine: Hardwire Adaptability Into Leadership and Team Practices

Heather Leier-Murray
Research Director
CIO, People & Leadership
Info-Tech Research Group

Disruption and uncertainty will continue in 2026

In 2026, CIOs are leading in an environment where uncertainty and disruption are ongoing, not episodic. Rapid changes in AI and emerging technologies, shifting regulations, talent shortages, and cyber risks continue to reshape how IT work gets done. While this creates pressure, it also creates opportunity. IT leaders have a chance to rethink how teams work, strengthen leadership, and help people build skills to adapt faster. By focusing on learning, trust, and teamwork, CIOs can turn uncertainty into a source of momentum.

Source: World Uncertainty Index, 2026

2026 will be disruptive

Respondents identified the top factors that are likely or highly likely to disrupt business in the next 12 months:

1. Government-enacted regulatory changes
2. Talent shortage
3. AI and emerging technologies
4. Industry-enacted standards or regulation changes
5. Cybersecurity incidents

Source: Tech Trends 2026, Info-Tech Research Group; n=525

Skills gaps and business expectations underscore the need for a new approach

IT is being challenged to find efficiency, while also leading technology innovation for their organization, with minimal headcount increases.

CIOs and CxOs agree that, in the future, IT should drive innovation and transform their organizations to create new business models and lines of revenue. CIOs and CxOs also agree that IT is currently at the support level, focused on keeping costs low and keeping the business happy with minimal downtime and quick response to tickets.

The challenge to CIOs is clear: Find ways to improve efficiency in existing budgets and headcount so cost savings can be reinvested into the innovation initiatives that the business demands.

Perspectives on the role of IT:
Now and in the future

Source: CEO-CIO Alignment benchmark, 1 Aug 2024-31 July 2025; n=94

CIO: Large headcount increase (more than 16%)
26%

CxO: Large headcount increase (more than 16%)
16%

The talent debate: Four trends, many perspectives

Before exploring the four defining IT talent trends for 2026, it's worth acknowledging a truth: not everyone sees the future the same way. There are strong, and sometimes polarizing, perspectives on what matters most, what's changing, and what's hype. Below, we've captured the spectrum of thinking we've encountered in our research. Most organizations sit somewhere in the middle, aware of the need for change but still navigating the complexity of execution, and the current state of uncertainty complicates this. Some are leaning into more radical reinvention. As you read this report, consider: Where do you sit today? And where do you need or want to be?

Which best reflects your leadership team's mindset?

Where do you stand in the talent debate?

Are soft skills becoming obsolete, or are they the most critical?

Perspectives on the role of human skills in IT are shifting. While some still see them as secondary to technical expertise, others are reimagining them as the core of future-ready IT roles.

"It's likely that jobs you do on a computer... computer-related jobs will go. And as robots are developed, physical jobs will go as well."
- Roman Yampolskiy, Associate Professor, University of Louisville¹

"...Learn to collaborate and create, because these are things that you'll still need to do no matter how many of our jobs the robots take away."
- Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon, CEO at Stemettes, Author, Speaker, and Presenter²

AI will replace most human roles; soft skills won't matter much.

Human skills are the new "hard" skills. Emotional intelligence will be more valuable than coding.

INFO-TECH INSIGHT

Enabling skills have shifted from being a nice-to-have to being a fundamental strategic focus within IT. As technology advances, technical expertise no longer distinguishes IT professionals. Instead, it is the uniquely human abilities that technology cannot mimic that make the difference.

Sources:
1 - "Superintelligent AI," Digital Disruption, 2025
2 - "Is AI Eroding Identity?" Digital Disruption, 2025

Why enabling skills matter more than ever

Automation will continue to rebalance what work humans versus machines do in IT. As certain tasks become automated, the demand for employee skills changes. Employees are needed for the tasks that demand higher-order thinking and creativity.

Organizations are recognizing a need for a shift in the skills required to successfully carry out many IT roles, breaking from the legacy model that rewards static technical expertise with a short shelf life and embracing the increased importance of various business, leadership, and human skills.

IT ROLES ARE EVOLVING; SKILLS SHOULD TOO

IT roles are evolving from isolated technical execution to business-aligned advisory roles, requiring interpersonal and cognitive capabilities such as problem framing, communication, negotiation, and systems thinking. IT employees who historically worked in isolation will increasingly need to seek out requirements from the business and help them problem-solve using technology.

The "human edge" is the primary differentiator of high-performing IT organizations. Forward-looking CIOs are designing talent strategies around cultivating enabling skills, not as nice-to-haves, but as critical infrastructure for navigating emerging technological change, especially AI-driven change. Organizations that understand this and invest in building human-centric enabling skills will access the talent advantage in the digital transformation of work and outperform competitors in 2026.

Employers are moving away from hiring purely for technical knowledge

82% of organizations are prioritizing "human-intrinsic" traits over technical skills when hiring.

Source: SightsIn Plus, 2026

AI amplifies the importance of enabling skills

We are far from rendering people obsolete, but the rise of AI is making enabling skills (e.g. communication, problem framing, business understanding, change leadership) more essential. Forward-looking IT leaders recognize that they need to redeploy people toward high-value business problem-solving.

AI IS SCALING QUICKLY

94% of respondents expect AI to have a positive organizational impact.

Source: Info-Tech Future of IT Survey, 2026; n=472

87% plan to adopt, continue to use, or increase use of AI through 2026.

Source: Info-Tech Future of IT Survey, 2026; n=525

When AI scales

• Automation handles execution.
• Complexity and ambiguity increase.
• Value shifts to human judgment, context, and communication.

AI SUCCESS DEPENDS AS MUCH ON PEOPLE SKILLS AS ON TECHNOLOGY SKILLS.

• Strong communication and understanding of needs are highly correlated with business satisfaction with IT (0.91 and 0.90 respectively).

Source: Info-Tech CIO Business Vision diagnostic, 2020 to 2026; n=1,061

• IT leaders continue to invest in AI, but value is realized through how people apply it.
• Technical skills remain essential but are no longer sufficient for IT professionals to thrive.

The important next step is to ensure your team's success by supporting their development of enabling skills.