1st December 2016

Almost half of tech professionals expect their job to be automated within ten years

45% of technology professionals believe a significant part of their job will be automated by 2027 – rendering their current skills redundant. Changes in technology are so rapid that 94% say their career would be severely limited if they didn't teach themselves new technical skills.

That's according to the Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2017, representing the views of more than 3,200 technology professionals from 84 countries.

The chance of automation varies greatly with job role. Testers and IT Operations professionals are most likely to expect their job role to be significantly affected in the next decade (67% and 63% respectively). Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Vice Presidents of Information Technology (VP IT) and Programme Managers expect to be least affected (31% and 30% respectively).

David Savage, associate director, Harvey Nash UK, commented: "Through automation, it is possible that ten years from now the Technology team will be unrecognisable in today's terms. Even for those roles relatively unaffected directly by automation, there is a major indirect effect – anything up to half of their work colleagues may be machines by 2027."

In response to automation technology, professionals are prioritising learning over any other career development tactics. Self-learning is significantly more important to them than formal training or qualifications; only 12 per cent indicate "more training" as a key thing they want in their job and only 27% see gaining qualifications as a top priority for their career.

Despite the increase in automation, the survey reveals that technology professionals remain in high demand, with participants receiving at least seven headhunt calls in the last year. Software Engineers and Developers are most in demand, followed by Analytics / Big Data roles. Respondents expect the most important technologies in the next five years to be Artificial Intelligence, Augmented / Virtual Reality and Robotics, as well as Big Data, Cloud and the Internet of Things. Unsurprisingly, these are also the key areas cited in what are the "hot skills to learn".

"Technology careers are in a state of flux," says Simon Hindle, a director at Harvey Nash Switzerland. "On one side, technology is 'eating itself', with job roles increasingly being commoditised and automated. On the other side, new opportunities are being created, especially around Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Automation. In this rapidly changing world, the winners will be the technology professionals who take responsibility for their own skills development, and continually ask: 'where am I adding value that no other person – or machine – can add?'"

Key highlights from the Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2017:

AI growth: The biggest technology growth area is expected to be Artificial Intelligence (AI). 89% of respondents expect it to be important to their company in five years' time, almost four times the current figure of 24%.

Big Data is big, but still unproven. 57% of organisations are implementing Big Data at least to some extent. For many, it is moving away from being an 'experiment' into something more core to their business; 21% say they are using it in a 'strategic way'. However, only three in ten organisations with a Big Data strategy are reporting success to date.

Immigration is key to the tech industry, and Brexit is a concern. The technology sector is overwhelmingly in favour of immigration; 73% believe it is critical to their country’s competitiveness. 33% of respondents to the survey were born outside the country they are currently working. Almost four in ten tech immigrants in the UK are from Europe, equating to one in ten of the entire tech working population in the UK. Moreover, UK workers make up over a fifth of the tech immigrant workforce of Ireland and Germany.

Where are all the women? This year's report reveals that 16% of respondents are women; not very different from the 13% who responded in 2013. The pace of change is glacial and – at this rate – it will take decades before parity is reached.

Tech people don't trust the cloud. Four in ten have little or no trust in how cloud companies are using their personal data, while five in ten at least worry about it. Trust in the cloud is affected by age (the older you are, the less you trust).

The end of the CIO role? Just 3% of those under 30 aspire to be a CIO; instead they would prefer to be a CTO (14% chose this), entrepreneur (19%) or CEO (11%). This suggests that the traditional role of the CIO is relatively unattractive to Gen Y.

Headhunters' radar: Software Engineers and Developers get headhunted the most, followed closely by Analytics / Big Data roles. At the same time, 75% believe recruiters are too focused on assessing technical skills, and overlook good people as a result.

Supporting data from the survey (global averages):

Which technologies are important to your company now, and which do you expect to be important in five years' time?

Agree or disagree? Within ten years, a significant part of my job that I currently perform will be automated.

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