The widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence is driving rapid change in the IT job market and the skills needed within the IT space.

This is according to top Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) Professional CIOs (Pr.CIOs), who say AI is transforming local IT workplaces, and that organisations must focus on ethical adoption and upskilling of human capital. 

Last week, the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos focused on the impact of AI on jobs, with a paper released on the sidelines of the meeting warning of the risks of AI creating a ‘lost generation’ of young workers, and the WEF stating that long-established job and skills profiles are being shaken up by frontier technologies such as AI, robotics and automation. The WEF said 53.3% of the business community believed AI would displace a large number of existing jobs, while 23.5% said the technology would create a large number of new jobs.

IT workforce at a critical juncture

Antony Makins, Professional Member of the IITPSA (PMIITPSA®) Chair of the IITPSA SIGAIR and Acting CEO of TForge, says: “The South African IT workforce is standing at a critical juncture. AI has moved beyond a future prospect and is now fundamentally transforming business operations in South Africa. The landscape is evolving exponentially: cybersecurity professionals are now focusing on integrated AI-driven threat detection and prevention, software developers are becoming specialists in AI-assisted coding through integrated development environments (IDEs), and service desk functions are being redefined by advanced automated conversational AI, which is context-aware that references knowledgebases via retrieval augmentation generation (RAG).”

Karabo Manyaka, IITPSA Pr.CIO®, M.Inst.D and Senior Manager: Service Management and ICT Infrastructure at SITA, says: “AI is already reshaping the South African IT job market, however its impact is more evolutionary than eliminative, reshaping how expertise is exercised rather than erasing the need for it.”

He notes: “Roles in cybersecurity, software development, service desk operations, and IT infrastructure are shifting from manual execution toward oversight, judgement, and strategic decision-making, as AI increasingly automates routine tasks. AI-assisted coding, intelligent threat detection, and automated service desks are changing how work is done, not removing the need for skilled professionals.”

George Palmer, IITPSA Pr. CIO® and CIO at Coaxle, expects AI to have a major impact on the role of cybersecurity professionals.

He says: “On the plus side, it will help identify trends in large amounts of log or activity related data and help detect patterns that were not easily seen or hidden by 'banner blindness'. On the negative side, it is being used by bad actors. AI’s abilities (specifically with agentic add-ons) will help speed up information gathering, attacking and then monetising stolen data for multi victim extortion.

This is going to make it difficult to defend and even more difficult to manage the blast radius or fallout from an attack.”

Palmer adds: “LLMs are also opening up the world for inexperienced coders, and will be super useful for improving the productivity of experienced developers. Menial tasks become anyone's domain and there is a real risk of Shadow IT growing outside of policies and good IT controls. Do they speed things up? Yes. But whether they lead to a better product (in terms of maintainability or interoperability or even efficiency) remains to be seen. Where I believe the biggest change will happen is in the area of Business Analysts. Their roles will be replaced rather quickly by good product owners, LLMs and good developers.”

Andrew Roberts, IITPSA Pr.CIO® and Chief Technical Officer at African Parks Network, says on the impact of AI: “Young career seekers can no longer look to the traditional tech-stream career paths. This means that choosing traditional degrees and technology-related tertiary education does not guarantee the same opportunities.”

However, he notes: “The critical thinking skill and the ability to apply knowledge into scenario-based applications continues to be of great importance in tech jobs. While AI will continue to help source ideas, research and justify a proven technology, the application and implementation is where the divide continues to widen. AI can help inexperienced technology-skilled staff troubleshoot and resolve complex-technology challenges, but it is the engagement, change management and ultimately the application of the knowledge in the context of that organisation that becomes critical.”

Saba Rahimi, IITPSA Pr.CIO® and Chair of the IITPSA Gauteng Chapter says:  "While there is concern that automation may eliminate certain roles, history suggests that new processes, new responsibilities, and new job categories will also emerge. For South Africa's already resilient IT workforce, this will mean adapting to changing roles and rewiring long-embedded routines.”

“Just as the internet collapsed time and space through the digitisation and distribution of media, AI is beginning to reshape the distribution of knowledge itself. This presents exciting opportunities across cybersecurity, software development, and IT operations, where automation can remove routine work and elevate the focus to oversight, decision-making, and problem-solving,” he says.

Upskilling becomes crucial

Palmer notes that organisations need to create an environment where people are safe to experiment with AI. “You cannot stop people from using AI tools; they will use them anyway. The focus should shift to helping people understand the risks and providing a boundary context within which to experiment,” says Palmer. He adds that an analogy provided by a colleague is that we should not build huge boundary walls, as this stifles innovation, but rather a picket fence around a safe place: enabling innovation through internal LLMs, ethical training and awareness, for example, with a good understanding of what happens when you climb over it. “This requires constant upskilling and training,” he says.

Rahimi cautions: “AI does create ethical concerns about reality and what is accepted as knowledge. Organisations must guard against unintended consequences. Over-reliance on automation can erode critical thinking and technical depth. Much like GPS affects our ability to navigate independently, excessive dependence on AI tools can weaken core cognitive skills. The real challenge - and opportunity - lies in developing AI-literate professionals who use these tools to augment human capability rather than replace it, while retaining and growing scarce skills locally."

A pressing challenge in the AI era is leadership and skills readiness, Manyaka says.He notes: “Many organisations struggle not because of technology limitations, but rather due to leadership readiness that has not kept pace with AI’s strategic, ethical, and human implications.”

Manyaka believes that AI adoption exposes and emphasises the need for continuous upskilling, AI literacy, and human-centred leadership that prioritises transparency, fairness, and workforce inclusion. 

“Organisations that invest in reskilling, ethical AI governance, and adaptive cultures are better positioned to use AI as an enabler of productivity and innovation rather than a threat to employment. Ultimately, South Africa’s competitiveness will depend on collaborative, leadership-driven approaches that embed ethics, skills development, and governance into AI integration from the outset, ensuring technology augments human capability while supporting sustainable job evolution,” he says.

Makins adds: “As automation handles routine IT operations and infrastructure, the most pressing mandate for our industry leaders becomes upskilling of our human capital. We must aggressively foster AI literacy and skills to ensure our teams don't just survive this transition, but define it. The future of SA’s digital economy isn’t just about the AI, machine learning algorithms we deploy, but more importantly, it’s about how we prepare our people to lead with them.”