The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving rapid change in the IT job market and the skills required across the sector.
This is according to senior members of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), who say AI is transforming local IT workplaces and that organisations must focus on ethical adoption and upskilling human capital.
Last week, the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos focused on the impact of AI on jobs. A paper released on the sidelines of the meeting warned of the risk of AI creating a “lost generation” of young workers, noting that long-established job and skills profiles are being disrupted by frontier technologies such as AI, robotics, and automation.
According to the WEF, 53.3% of the global business community believes AI will displace a large number of existing jobs, while 23.5% believes it will create a large number of new roles.
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 at a critical turning point.
“AI has moved beyond a future prospect and is now fundamentally transforming business operations in South Africa,” says Makins. “The landscape is evolving exponentially. Cybersecurity professionals are increasingly focused on 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 conversational AI that is context-aware and references knowledge bases via retrieval-augmented 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 local IT job market, but in a way that is more evolutionary than eliminative.
“Roles in cybersecurity, software development, service desk operations, and IT infrastructure are shifting from manual execution towards oversight, judgement, and strategic decision-making as AI automates routine tasks,” he says. “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 cybersecurity roles.
“On the positive side, AI helps identify trends in large volumes of log and activity data, detecting patterns that were previously hidden or obscured by banner blindness,” he says. “On the negative side, it is increasingly being used by bad actors. AI, particularly with agentic add-ons, accelerates information gathering, attacks, and the monetisation of stolen data through multi-victim extortion. This makes attacks harder to defend against and far more difficult to contain.”
Palmer adds that large language models (LLMs) are also lowering barriers to entry for inexperienced developers while significantly boosting the productivity of experienced ones.
“Menial tasks become anyone’s domain, and there is a real risk of Shadow IT developing outside formal policies and controls,” he says. “While LLMs undoubtedly speed things up, whether they consistently lead to better products in terms of maintainability, interoperability, or efficiency remains to be seen. The most significant change may occur in business analysis, where traditional roles could be replaced relatively quickly by strong product owners, LLMs, and capable developers.”
Andrew Roberts, IITPSA Pr.CIO® and Chief Technical Officer at African Parks Network, notes that young career seekers can no longer rely on traditional technology career paths.
“Choosing conventional degrees or technology-focused tertiary education no longer guarantees the same opportunities,” he says. “Critical thinking and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world, scenario-based contexts remain essential. While AI can assist with sourcing ideas, research, and justification, implementation and contextual application are where the skills gap continues to widen.”
He adds that while AI can help less-experienced staff troubleshoot complex technical issues, success ultimately depends on engagement, change management, and applying knowledge within the specific context of an organisation.
Saba Rahimi, IITPSA Pr.CIO® and Chair of the IITPSA Gauteng Chapter, says that although automation may eliminate some roles, history suggests new responsibilities and job categories will also emerge.
“For South Africa’s resilient IT workforce, this means adapting to changing roles and rewiring long-embedded routines,” she says. “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 creates opportunities across cybersecurity, software development, and IT operations, where automation removes routine work and elevates the focus to oversight, decision-making, and problem-solving.”
Upskilling becomes crucial
Palmer believes organisations must create environments where employees can safely experiment with AI.
“You cannot stop people from using AI tools,” he says. “The focus should be on helping them understand the risks and providing clear boundaries within which experimentation is encouraged.”
He likens this approach to building a picket fence rather than a high wall. “The goal is to enable innovation through internal LLMs, ethical training, and awareness, while ensuring people understand the consequences of stepping outside those boundaries. This requires continuous upskilling and training.”
Rahimi cautions that AI also raises ethical concerns about knowledge, trust, and over-reliance on automation.
“Just as GPS can erode our ability to navigate independently, excessive dependence on AI can weaken core cognitive and technical skills,” she says. “The real challenge 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.”
Leadership readiness remains a key obstacle, according to Manyaka.
“Many organisations struggle not because of technological limitations, but because leadership has not kept pace with AI’s strategic, ethical, and human implications,” he says.
He argues that AI adoption highlights the need for continuous upskilling, AI literacy, and human-centred leadership grounded in transparency, fairness, and inclusion.
“Organisations that invest in reskilling, ethical AI governance, and adaptive cultures are better positioned to use AI as a productivity and innovation enabler rather than a threat to employment,” says Manyaka. “South Africa’s competitiveness will depend on leadership-driven approaches that embed ethics, skills development, and governance into AI integration from the outset.”
Makins agrees, adding that as automation takes over routine IT operations, the industry’s priority must be people.
“We must aggressively foster AI literacy and skills to ensure our teams do not merely survive this transition, but shape it,” he says. “The future of South Africa’s digital economy is defined not only by the AI and machine learning systems we deploy, but by how well we prepare people to lead with them.”
Pr.CIO is a professional designation of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) and is SAQA Registered and IFIP IP3 accredited. To learn more about the Pr.CIO designation, visit https://www.iitpsa.org.za/professional-cio/
