A global survey of 400 people with IT hiring responsibilities finds that despite concerns about the impact artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the future job prospects of IT professionals, net hiring is projected to increase 31% in 2026, including an 8% increase in entry-level positions.

Revealed this week at the Open Source Summit by the Linux Foundation, the survey projects net hiring will further increase 22% in 2027.

Clyde Seepersad, senior vice president and general manager for education at the Linux Foundation, said that while there have been a lot of layoffs of IT professionals at larger so-called Big Tech companies that have been attributed to relying more on AI, the survey makes it clear that AI is actually driving increased demand for IT expertise.

AI-specific roles show the largest net hiring effect at +60%, followed by software development (+28%), technical management (+22%), IT operations (+17%) and quality assurance and testing (+16%). In terms of where AI will add the most value, the survey identifies software development (55%), IT infrastructure optimization and monitoring (42%), customer service/help desks (38%) and data analysis and reporting (36%) as the areas where it will have the most impact.

The top three areas when organizations are looking for additional AI expertise include AI security and risk management (57%), IT operations and monitoring (57%) and cost optimization for AI workloads (54%).

Specific disciplines that are most understaffed include AI and machine learning engineering (47%), followed by cybersecurity and compliance (40%), FinOps and cost optimization (36%), platform engineering (34%), and cloud computing (29%). Across all five domains, however, perceived understaffing fell by an average of 14% when the same survey was conducted a year ago.

In general, a lot of the demand for additional IT expertise is being driven by mid-sized organizations with 5,000 to 20,000 employees (42%) that are looking to hire IT professionals who either have existing AI skills or at least can demonstrate an aptitude to learn, said Seepersad. The top three reasons cited for hiring outside talent are fresh perspectives/innovation (52%), candidates already have needed skills (43%) and to address a skill gap with precision (43%). The challenge is more than half of respondents (56%) said it takes them longer than four months to hire the right candidate.

The top challenges cited include finding the right skills delays projects (46%), recruitment is costly/time-consuming (40%), and verifying the technical skills of job applicants (35%), the survey finds.

Many organizations, however, are also recognizing they will need to invest in training, but even as Big Tech companies shrink, it’s still challenging to hire and retain IT professionals who have advanced skills.

The survey finds 57% plan to invest in upskilling/cross-skilling staff, with 44% investing in training inexperienced staff. In contrast, 49% are hiring new technical staff, with 44% willing to hire and upskill junior talent. Only 22% said they plan to rely more on hiring consultants.

The one thing that is clear is small to mid-sized enterprises are often more willing to invest in technologies that ultimately make them more competitive against larger rivals, he noted. The challenge is that many of these organizations are not going to pursue qualified candidates, but rather will prefer to engage with aspiring job candidates who make the effort to seek them out.