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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- AI is having a big impact on the IT job market.
- Career-minded professionals need myriad capabilities.
- Get close to the business, be flexible, and stay curious.
It’s a tough time to be a young person in the job market. Research from Stanford University suggests workers ages 22 to 25 are seeing the steepest declines in employment, especially in fields most exposed to AI-enabled automation.
Software engineer jobs for workers aged 22 through 25 declined nearly 20% in 2025 compared to their peak in 2022. For IT professionals hoping to find work and then climb the career ladder, the rise of AI brings new obstacles to long-term career success.
Also: Need a new job? These AI roles are the fastest-growing in the US, says LinkedIn
So, how can next-generation IT professionals stand out? Here, five business leaders describe how you can develop critical skills for an age of AI.
1. Bolster your translation skills
Dominic Redmond, group CIO at recruitment firm PageGroup, said successful professionals can answer key questions about deploying AI.
“How can you drive value through this technology? Does deployment mean you need to look at your processes and business model? What is AI going to cost? What benefits will you create? How do you make sure you’re making the right choices and decisions?”
Redmond told ZDNET the good news is that many professionals already consider those questions. However, the difference now is the speed of change in an age of AI.
“The ability to make assessments as the technology grows quickly is where professionals need to be educating themselves and doing it in a way that allows their organizations to come to the right judgments,” he said.
Also: Turn AI chaos into a career opportunity by preparing for these 4 scenarios
Redmond suggested that the ability to work across business and technology will be a crucial skill for managing the speed of transformation, both inside and outside the IT department.
“So, your business analysts might become business systems analysts — they’ll have a bit of the technology specialist and a bit of the business analyst,” he said.
“People outside technology will also need to educate themselves on AI, data, and change — and some already do. That translation skill is something I hear quite a lot about in terms of what’s necessary.”
2. Create blended capabilities
Fausto Fleites, vice president of data intelligence at gardening specialist ScottsMiracle-Gro, said data savviness will undoubtedly be useful during the next few years. However, it’s not the only skill that will differentiate the best from the rest.
“The continued rise of AI is going to highlight other qualities,” he said. “I’ve seen PhD-level professionals who are good at math, but they don’t have a business mindset. They will fail in the future if they don’t have those other qualities that are needed, because a lot of what they do is going to be automated anyway.”
Rather than being exceptionally skilled in a single domain, such as data science or software engineering, Fleites suggested that top-tier professionals will boast blended capabilities: “I think the future is about someone who can play both roles.”
Also: 5 ways to climb the IT career ladder in 2026, according to those who made it
He told ZDNET that his team at Scotts has been successful because they speak with the business and rethink how people make decisions using AI.
“When we go to a proposal and explain to someone in the business, we don’t explain in terms of technology. We explain how this piece of information will help the business work differently and more efficiently, and they see the value of it,” he said.
“At different levels of the company, you need to have people who understand the technology and the business. I think, without the business side, your data skills are not going to be as useful.”
3. Hone your critical thinking
Diana Schildhouse, chief data and analytics officer at Colgate-Palmolive, said professionals can stand out by honing their critical thinking skills.
“As we’re building all these new AI-enabled tools that make things faster and information easier to access, what I look for, when I’m thinking about hiring, is that aspect of critical thinking and understanding and applying business context to what you’re seeing,” she said.
“With any of the tools or applications that we’re building, success is not just about answering, and then teams running off and executing. There are business considerations that need to be taken into account as part of the decision-making process.”
Also: 5 ways to grow your business with AI – without sidelining your people
Schildhouse told ZDNET that professionals who can analyze how AI-enabled insight might affect business activities will be in high demand.
“For me, critical thinking is a very important skill, and I think it will become even more so in the future, as AI makes so much information available so quickly,” she said.
“Being able to think through that information and ensure you’re applying it the correct way to your own business, or what you’re working on, is so important.”
4. Develop a sense of curiosity
Schildhouse said curiosity is also an important capability for professionals who want to stand out from the rest.
“That willingness to keep learning and to explore what’s out there, and how it might apply to us and drive some impact, is so important,” she said.
Colgate-Palmolive is considering how AI can be applied to a range of areas, including revenue growth management analytics, which covers pricing and trade promotions, and product innovation.
Also: Dreading AI job cuts? 5 ways to future-proof your career – before it’s too late
Schildhouse said it’s clear that the pace of AI-enabled development, whether through machine learning, gen AI, or agentic services, will continue to quicken. Professionals will need to adapt to this constant evolution.
“Sometimes that’s about being willing and able to unlearn and relearn as things change around us. The space is moving so quickly — the domains we focus on, the media landscape, what’s happening with digital and e-commerce; everything is changing rapidly,” she said.
“I focus, within our team, on curiosity, being willing to learn, and thinking about how technology can impact us, because the world around us is moving at a faster pace than ever before.”
5. Embrace a flexible approach
Richard Corbridge, CIO at property specialist Segro, said one of the most important factors for next-generation professionals to consider is the constant evolution of in-demand skills.
“Graduates need to know how to learn as they go,” he said. “The skills they start their education with will not be the skills they deploy in their first jobs.”
Corbridge told ZDNET that this flexible reality also places a requirement on bosses. “As leaders, we must find creative ways to support the evolution of skills on the job,” he said.
“Rather than a strategy of rip and replace, we must provide mechanisms to evolve the people around us, excite them about the future, and generate the corporate and industry knowledge and experiences, as well as the new skills we need.”
Also: 4 new roles will lead the agentic AI revolution – here’s what they require
Corbridge warned that, in many cases, gen AI has yet to have the level of impact on efficiency that justifies the investment.
A 30-minute daily productivity saving from tools like Copilot, for example, might make work a bit easier, but it won’t have a transformative impact on the business.
Bosses and their employees must consider how the coming together of human ingenuity and technological capability produces an impact.
“AI is only as good as the information we give it,” said Corbridge. “The most successful organizations will provide the best information to the AI that allows it to be effective.”