Top Tech Skills for 2026: What Employers Will Demand
â–Ľ Summary
– Spiceworks previewed its 2026 State of IT report showing positive trends for IT professionals, with projected job growth and increased investments.
– IT occupations are projected to grow 9% from 2024-2034 with median salaries twice that of other occupations, despite AI advancements.
– Cybersecurity skills are considered crucial by 92% of surveyed IT professionals, while AI prompting skills importance increased 53% from last year.
– IT budgets are projected to increase 11% year-over-year from 2025, with cybersecurity accounting for 13% of infrastructure spending.
– While 52% of businesses have implemented AI, 58% aren’t increasing AI spending due to concerns about return on investment from current initiatives.
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The technology sector continues to offer robust career opportunities for IT professionals, with new data revealing which specialized abilities will be most sought after by employers in the near future. Despite concerns about artificial intelligence automating technical roles, the field is actually expanding, creating demand for workers who can blend traditional IT expertise with emerging technological capabilities.
During the recent SpiceWorld conference in Austin, technology community Spiceworks offered an early look at its forthcoming 2026 State of IT report. This comprehensive study, produced by Aberdeen Research, gathered perspectives from more than 800 IT specialists working across small, medium, and large enterprises. The findings paint an encouraging picture for technology careers, highlighting both growing employment prospects and increasing organizational investments in IT infrastructure.
Peter Tsai, Head of Technology Insights at Spiceworks, emphasized the need for continuous skill development. “Technology never stands still, which means the people working with it must keep advancing their knowledge,” he noted. “The overall outlook for IT remains positive, provided professionals commit to evolving their capabilities.”
While intelligent AI systems have sparked worries about job displacement, particularly in technical fields where they excel at coding tasks, government labor statistics tell a different story. Projections indicate that computer and IT occupations will grow by 9% between 2024 and 2034, significantly outpacing the 3% average growth rate across all professions. Additionally, median salaries in IT roles currently double those in other fields.
Despite this demand, many organizations report difficulty finding qualified IT talent. The Spiceworks research identifies several key skill areas that will separate top candidates in the coming years. Cybersecurity expertise emerged as the most critical competency, with a remarkable 92% of surveyed professionals considering these skills essential for career advancement.
“If you’re looking to move forward in your career, cybersecurity capabilities will definitely give you an edge,” Tsai confirmed.
The expanding role of artificial intelligence is also reshaping which skills professionals value most. Approximately 63% of respondents now view AI prompting skills as important, representing a 53% increase over the previous year. Confidence in AI abilities is growing too, with 49% of professionals reporting they feel capable with these technologies compared to 42% last year.
Current AI applications span multiple business functions. Top uses include writing, optimizing, and troubleshooting software and scripts (46%), generating creative content (42%), and automating repetitive, high-volume, or algorithmic tasks (42%).
Beyond employment trends, the financial outlook for IT appears strong. Organizations plan to increase their technology budgets by 11% year-over-year from 2025, with more than half of companies expecting to allocate more resources to IT. Cybersecurity and compliance requirements are driving much of this spending growth. This year, security accounts for a median of 13% of IT computing infrastructure budgets, up from 11.2% last year.
Derek Brink, VP and Research Fellow at Aberdeen Strategy & Research, welcomed this development. “This represents real progress, security is finally receiving the attention it has warranted for years,” he observed. “Professionals have been advocating for proper security investment for two decades.”
Adoption of emerging technologies continues to accelerate. Currently, 52% of businesses have implemented AI solutions, doubling the implementation rate from 2024. Approximately 80% of organizations plan to launch at least one AI-related project within the next twelve months. The median number of active AI initiatives now stands at seven, though this ranges from one at the lower end to seventeen at the upper extreme.
This expanding adoption translates to increased AI investment. Data shows that AI software, including both on-premises and cloud-based solutions, currently accounts for 2.7% of median IT computing infrastructure spending. While this percentage might appear modest, it doesn’t include the substantial physical infrastructure required for AI systems, such as specialized servers, storage, and networking equipment.
Brink speculates that when these additional costs are factored in, the total AI expenditure could multiply by three, four, or even five times, bringing it much closer to cybersecurity spending levels.
When questioned more broadly about AI investment plans, 42% of organizations reported they would increase spending on artificial intelligence. However, this leaves 58% of businesses either maintaining or potentially reducing their AI budgets. According to Jim Rapoza, VP & Principal Analyst at Aberdeen Strategy & Research, this suggests some companies are experiencing hesitation about their return on investment from early AI initiatives.
“When nearly three-fifths of businesses indicate they won’t increase, or might even cut, their AI spending, it reveals that many organizations have launched AI projects but aren’t yet seeing sufficient returns,” Rapoza explained. “They’re unlikely to continue investing until these technologies demonstrate clearer business value.”
(Source: ZDNET)
