With the onset of Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the source of major disruption beyond traditional industries—it’s fundamentally reshaping the core of Information and Technology (IT) Services companies. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, highlights that AI is among the top drivers of transformation in tech ecosystems, leading to massive shift in workforce capabilities. For Professionals it’s an inflection point — one that’s igniting a re-evaluation of the skills needed to achieve ‘staying power’ in a challenging job market. They must cultivate a blend of technical prowess with human-centric abilities.
Below are the top 10 in-demand technical and soft skills that are already defining the AI-powered workplace and will continue through 2030.
Technical Skills
1. Big Data Analytics
Data is fuelling AI engines. IT services companies are increasingly integrating big data solutions to enable intelligent automation, real-time decision-making and customer insights. Big data refers to extremely large and diverse collections of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data that continues to grow with time. These datasets are so huge and complex in volume and variety, that traditional data management systems fail to store, process, and analyse them.
Roles like Data scientists, data engineers and data analysts are some of the hot jobs and highly paid professionals in the IT industry. These professionals are expected to have Skills in managing large data lakes, building ETL (Extract Truncate Load) pipelines, and performing predictive analytics. To keep up with the changing demands, many companies are now opting for AI courses for data analyst roles to enhance their ability to leverage AI for advanced data processing and business insights.
2. Technological Literacy
Technological literacy is no longer optional. It involves understanding, using, and evaluating technology effectively to accomplish tasks and solve problems. It is not only understanding AI frameworks and cloud-native development, but also being familiar with edge computing, cybersecurity, and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. In AI-integrated environments to build end-to-end solutions professionals must be fluent in the tech stack to deploy solutions efficiently and securely. As AI doesn’t operate in isolation; it needs scalable cloud architecture, secure endpoints, and compliant integrations—all requiring a high degree of tech fluency. Taking an AI course for business analyst roles can help bridge this gap by equipping professionals with the skills to navigate and contribute to these interconnected systems effectively
This is a core skill & is a necessity for all the different job roles in IT companies.
3. Systems Thinking
AI projects often span across departments and platforms—from back-end automation to front-end user experiences. Systems thinking is a way of analysing and solving problems by considering all the components of a system that interact. It’s a comprehensive approach offers you a bigger picture and assists in better decision making.
This skill is closely linked to job roles like Digital transformation & Process improvement consultants. Digital transformation Specialists are professionals who guides organizations through the process of integrating digital technology into all areas of their operations, focusing on improving business processes, products, and services through technology. To succeed in such similar roles professional will have to establish holistic problem-solving mindset and design solutions that align with the organization’s broader IT ecosystem and contributing to business transformations for clients of IT service providers.
As AI models generate data-driven insights, the ability to interpret these outputs and act strategically vital. Analytical Thinking is about breaking down complex issues into smaller, more manageable parts to understand the situation better and develop effective solutions. Like most of the skills we’re discussing here, it’s something that isn’t likely to be automated soon – AI isn’t necessarily going to be great at determining fake or real, and therefore, it’s a skill will continue to be valuable.
Employers are increasingly looking for professionals who can connect dots creatively, spot trends, and apply insights in innovative ways—especially when working alongside AI systems.
4. Intellectual Curiosity
AI is a rapidly evolving field. What works today might be outdated tomorrow. With the routine and mundane tasks managed by machines and AI, humans are expected to handle new and out-of-the-ordinary tasks, and that outlines consistently learning and keeping up-to-date with the changing world around us. This proactive learning culture encourages innovation and puts IT service teams ahead of the curve. The ability to take in new knowledge and use it to develop new abilities and competencies will be one of the most important skills.
Whether it’s trying out different GenAI tools to perform daily jobs, working on OpenAI’s new APIs or piloting custom large language models (LLMs) for clients, curiosity often leads to breakthrough innovations.
Essential Soft Skills
While technical expertise enables the what of AI, soft skills empower the how. Here are the soft skills that are equally—if not more—important in AI-transformed IT workplaces.
1. Flexibility & Agility
Flexibility is generally the ability to take in new information, feedback, or unforeseen changes. It entails to unlearn past knowledge & not being overly attached to preconception thus being open to learn advanced solutions & acquire new information.
Agility exemplifies the idea of responding promptly and competently to changes in work environment. It is the capacity to change plans, adjust processes, and change behaviours so that they meet current needs, add value, create opportunities and consume resources. Agile professionals will have to follow iterative approach to work. Break down complex projects into smaller, manageable tasks or iterations, allowing for frequent feedback and adjustments. This iterative process enables continuous improvement, reduces risks, and promotes adaptability throughout the project lifecycle.
As the employers expect demand for programming and design and user experience skills to decline. Workforce strategies aim to prioritize upskilling professionals like Software and Applications Developers, UX designers. They should be flexible & agile to learn new ways of coding in the AI era.
2. Empathy & Active Listening
Empathy and active listening are crucial for discovering the real needs behind client requests. IT services often involve understanding client pain points and translating them into scalable solutions. Empathy in specific is the ability to step into another person’s shoes and see the world from their point of view Also it is to ‘read between lines’ & ‘Reading a customer’s nerve’. Similarly, Active listening is where you focus on speaker, understand the message & respond thoughtfully only when inputs are required.
Job roles like Business Analyst or Product owners are directly connect to end customers, they bridge between business & technology teams. They should have empathy & active listening skills to deliver higher value for solutions. Understanding person’s thoughts and feelings and then processing them, this looks be a difficult task for machines to achieve in the near future.
When any IT solutions are built, the user experience is paramount. The skill of Customer Service Orientation overlaps with active listening & empathy. Whether designing virtual assistants, intelligent dashboards, or recommendation engines, professionals must focus on user satisfaction and usability. A customer-centric approach ensures not only AI & but other solutions deliver value consistently.
Unlike people, AI lacks emotional intelligence, intuition, and cultural understanding. These attributes are critical in everyday interactions, making it difficult for AI to fully replace face-to-face or even human-to-human digital communication which is very essential in customer communication.
3. Leadership & Social Influence
As we’ve seen, machines can be great at carrying out routine tasks and making mundane, minute-to-minute decisions, but one thing they aren’t very good at doing is inspiring people. Good leadership involves the very human ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to bring out the best in people. Whether you are managing a small project, a team, a department, or a business, leadership skills build on many of the other skillsets. Individuals who demonstrate these leadership qualities will always be valuable and appreciated by organizations.
Social influence are intentional and unintentional efforts to change another person’s beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour. Social influence by a professional is often more transparent including higher degree of reliance, while AI’s decision-making processes can be opaque. AI raise ethical concerns about manipulation, bias, and privacy. Organizations will always prefer to utilize the Social influential skills of human resources over AI for making positive impact.
4.. Resilience
As AI is taking over several tasks & getting integrated into daily lives. The change may lead to disruptions in the way a resource works or performs daily jobs. Productivity and a positive approach tackles challenges head on. Such an attitude is characterized as resilience. To rise from stressful situations or abrupt changes in life is a skill that certainly benefits employees, as well as the entire organization.
A lot of software industry professionals like Project Managers are involved in the problem of rapidly changing business requirements—largely driven by the continuous adoption of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence. While AI is opening up new opportunities and redefining the way organizations do business. When business priorities are redefined in the middle of the project, pressure spreads out to delivery timelines & change of scope. Thus, project manager should be able to reallocate resources, redraw milestones, and deliver the same amount of work without sacrificing quality.
To Conclude
AI is not just transforming technology—it’s revamping the DNA of IT services. From how projects are conceived and executed to how teams collaborate and clients are engaged, every facet of the industry is evolving.
By 2030, the most sought-after professionals in IT services won’t just be coders or data scientists—they will be empathetic business analyst, and agile leaders who can think systemically and deliver value through AI.
Invest in Lifelong Learning, Get Certified, Practice Empathy Daily & be agile to upskill yourself.
