By Ryan M. Sutton, Executive Director, Technology, Robert Half
Technology continues to accelerate at a rapid pace, and the skills required to support it are evolving just as quickly. While the technology skills gap has been a significant issue for many years, challenges are growing as organizations need to maintain proficiency in core, existing systems while also building new skills to support growing modernization efforts and priority projects, like security, AI and data.
Recent Robert Half research shows just how concentrated these gaps have become. 72% of technology leaders report a skills gap within their department, and 77% say the impact of the skills gap has increased. What’s more, almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents say it’s more challenging to find skilled professionals today compared to one year ago.
Left unaddressed, critical tech skills gaps can jeopardize a company’s ability to meet customer needs, deliver value to the organization and capitalize on new opportunities in today’s fast-moving business environment. They can also make it more difficult for tech teams to achieve their priority initiatives. In fact, with 93% of tech leaders reporting that their teams lack the staff and skill sets required to deliver on their priority initiatives in 2026, skills shortages are less of a hiring challenge and more of a fundamental barrier to progress.
How employers can close tech and IT skills gaps
What is the tech skills gap?
Before we look at some practical strategies to help tech leaders identify and address a tech skill shortage in their organization, let’s define what the gap is and why it’s a concern for organizations.
For tech departments, the tech skills gap reflects the widening mismatch between the modern capabilities IT organizations need to help the business operate and innovate and the skills their teams currently possess. As technologies like AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity continue to evolve, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find professionals with the up-to-date expertise needed to implement and manage them effectively.
That’s why the IT skills gap isn’t just a staffing challenge for tech leaders—it’s a strategic concern. This gap contributes to slow processes, can strain existing teams and hinder a company’s ability to scale. It can also undermine companies’ efforts to modernize their IT or transform digitally at the pace required to stay competitive.
In our latest research, the top execution challenges for modernization initiatives that tech leaders face are hiring specialized talent and closing skills gaps in existing staff. Similar challenges are prominent for security, data and AI projects. As many organizations contend with shortages in critical areas like AI, IT operations and cloud architecture, it is even more difficult to keep pace with evolving business demands.
Where tech skills gaps are most evident in IT organizations
Where are tech leaders facing the most acute skill shortages? According to recent Robert Half research, these are the top six areas:
AI and machine learning: 45%
IT operations and infrastructure support: 36%
IT governance and compliance: 25%
Cloud architecture and operations: 24%
Data engineering and analytics: 23%
These are not fringe capabilities by any stretch. And as AI becomes increasingly embedded in business processes and cloud environments continue to expand and become more complex, tech and business leaders are under increasing pressure to ensure their teams have the right skills—both to innovate and keep all existing systems running.
To identify the skills gaps on your team that could put critical tech initiatives at risk, compare your team’s capabilities against current and upcoming project demands, starting with the projects that drive the most value for the business. As technology and business needs evolve, evaluating your team’s skills and talent strategies regularly is essential to helping your team stay ahead.
4 strategies to overcome tech and IT skills gaps
With that urgency in mind, here is an overview of four strategies that can help you create an action plan for meeting the tech skill shortage head-on and addressing IT skills gaps in your organization.
1. Foster a learning-driven work environment
To accomplish their priority projects this year, 65% of tech leaders said they need to upskill their current team members. Empower your team to stay ahead of the curve by providing them with access to certification programs, hands-on workshops and online courses in high-demand areas like AI, cloud architecture, data analytics and cybersecurity. Align learning opportunities with business needs and individual career goals to help foster engagement and retention.
Support upskilling and reskilling efforts by giving your employees the time and resources to grow into new roles or those with expanded responsibilities. Mentorship programs—traditional, reverse or peer-based—can also accelerate knowledge-sharing across your team.
Also, working to equip nontechnical teams in the company with foundational tech skills, from AI quality assurance to basic coding, can build cross-functional digital fluency and boost productivity and efficiency across the organization.
2. Encourage experimentation and cross-departmental collaboration
Urge your team members to view complex problems—like reducing technical debt or navigating enterprise resource planning (ERP) project challenges—as opportunities for innovation. Foster an organizational culture that rewards creative problem-solving, supports experimentation and treats occasional missteps as part of the learning curve. For example, consider assembling an internal task force of select team members to responsibly experiment with new tech, like AI, to explore the value it could bring for your business.
Promoting cross-departmental collaboration can also broaden perspectives and drive more creative and strategic solutions. By exposing IT staff to other functions and roles through targeted cross-training, you can deepen their understanding of how departments interconnect. This can spark fresh thinking, improve coordination and increase the impact of enterprise-wide tech initiatives.
3. Recruit for potential, not just experience
To help expand your talent pipeline and mitigate a tech skill shortage in your IT organization, prioritize the recruitment of promising candidates instead of holding out indefinitely for professionals who meet all your ideal requirements. Look for potential hires who are adaptable, curious and have a solid track record of learning quickly and continuously. These are the professionals who can guide and support your company’s current and future innovation.
As technologies like AI are evolving rapidly, assessing candidates’ proficiencies in the hiring process isn’t always straightforward. Professionals may not have several years of experience with specific new technologies on their resumes. Be sure to ask how they’ve learned and tested new technology, either in recent roles or in their spare time, to gauge their ability to pivot, experiment and build new skills on the fly.
4. Adopt an adaptive and flexible talent model
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A flexible talent model helps tech leaders stay agile by providing access to specialized skills when needed and preventing core employees from becoming overloaded. By supplementing your permanent team with contract professionals or consultants, you can better respond to shifting priorities and keep your critical projects moving forward. More organizations are moving in this direction. In fact, 55% of tech leaders say they plan to increase their use of contract or temporary professionals in the first half of 2026.
Working with a talent solutions firm like Robert Half can make it easier to scale your IT team with in-demand expertise, especially for hard-to-staff roles or initiatives involving AI and other advanced technologies. Many experienced professionals in the technology field choose to work on a contract basis because they enjoy the diversity of work. We often see employers decide to keep contract staff in place for full-time engagements or invite them to become part of their permanent team because they are such valued contributors.
If there was a quick fix to address the tech skill shortage, I would gladly offer it here. The reality is it will take years of focused effort and hard work by schools, businesses, the technology community and others to drive change and make a meaningful impact. Until progress is made, tech leaders can apply the four strategies outlined above to help ease current IT skills gaps in their organizations and start building a next-gen tech team that will be more than future-ready.
Ryan M. Sutton is an executive director at Robert Half, leading the technology practice for the firm. He joined the company in 1999 as a recruiter and has been promoted multiple times to roles of increasing visibility. Prior to joining Robert Half, he worked in public accounting.
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