Lisa Morgan, Freelance WriterNovember 20, 20248 Min ReadEgor Kotenko via Alamy Stock Digital transformation changed the nature of the IT/business partnership. Specifically, IT has become a driving force in reducing operating costs, making the workforce more productive and improving value streams. These shifts are also reflected in the way IT is structured."When it comes to recruiting and attracting IT talent, it is time for IT leadership to shine. Their involvement in the process needs to be much more active to find the resources that teams need right now. And more than anything, its not the shiny new roles we are struggling to hire for. Its [the] on-prem network engineer and cloud architect you need to drive business outcomes right now. Its the cybersecurity analyst, says Brittany Lutes, research director at Info-Tech Research Group in an email interview.Most organizations arent sunsetting roles, she says. Instead, theyre more focused on retaining talent and ensuring that talent has the right skills and degree of competency in those skills.It takes time to hire new resources, ensure the institutional knowledge is understood, and then get those people to continue learning new skills or applications of the skills they were hired for, says Lutes. We are better off to retain people, explore opportunities to bring in new levels or job titles with HR to satisfy development desires, and understand what the new foundational and technical skills exist that we need to grow in our organization. We have opportunities to use technology in exciting new ways to make every role from CIO to the service desk analyst more efficient and more engaging. This year I think many organizations will work to embrace that.Related:Brittany Lutes, Info-Tech Research GroupBusiness and Technology Shifts Mean IT Changes?Julia Stalnaya, CEO and founder of B2B hiring platform Unbench, believes IT hiring in 2025 is poised for significant transformation, shaped by technological advancements, evolving workforce expectations and changing business needs.The 2024 layoffs across tech industries have introduced new dynamics into the hiring process for 2025. Companies [are] adapting to leaner staffing models increasingly turn to subcontracting and flexible hiring solutions, says Stalnaya.There are several drivers behind these changes. They include technological advancements such as data-driven recruitment, AI and automation.As a result of the pandemic, remote work expanded the talent pool beyond geographical boundaries, allowing companies to hire top talent from diverse locations. This trend necessitates more flexible work arrangements and a shift in how companies handle employee engagement and collaboration.Related:Skills-based hiring will focus more on specific skills and less on traditional qualifications. This reflects the need for targeted competencies aligned with business objectives, says Stalnaya. This trend is significant for roles in rapidly evolving fields like AI, cloud engineering and cybersecurity.Some traditional IT roles will continue to decline as AI takes on more routine tasks while other roles grow. She anticipates the following:AI specialists who work across departments to deploy intelligent systems that enhance productivity and innovationCybersecurity experts, including ethical hackers, cybersecurity analysts and cloud security specialists. In addition to protecting data, they will also help ensure compliance with security standards and develop strategies to safeguard against emerging threats.Data analysts and scientists who help the business leverage insights for strategic decision-makingBlockchain developers able to build decentralized solutionsHowever, organizations must invest in training and development and embrace flexible work options if they want to attract and keep talent, which may conflict with mandatory return to office (RTO) policies.Related:The 2024 layoffs have had a profound impact on the IT hiring landscape. With increased competition for fewer roles, companies now have access to a larger talent pool. Still, they must adapt their recruitment strategies to attract top candidates who are selective about company culture, flexibility and growth opportunities, says Stalnaya. This environment also highlights the importance of subcontracting.Julia Stalnaya, UnbenchGreg Goodin, managing director of talent solutions company EXOS TALENT expects companies to start hiring to get new R&D projects off the ground and to become more competitive.Dont expect it to bounce back to pandemic or necessarily pre-pandemic levels, says Goodin. IT as a career and industry has reached a maturation point where hypergrowth will be more of an outlier and more consistent 3% to 5% year-over-year growth [the norm]. Fiscal responsibility will become the expectation. Hiring trends will most likely run in parallel with this new cycle with compensation leveling out.Whats Changing, Why and How?Interest rates are higher than they have been in recent history, which has directly influenced companies' hiring practices. Not surprisingly, AI has also had an impact, making workforces more productive and reducing costs.Meanwhile, hiring has become more data-driven, enabling organizations to better understand what full-time and contingent labor they need.During the pandemic, companies continued to hire, even if they didnt have a plan for what the new talent would be doing, according to Goodin.This led to a hoarding of employees and spending countless unnecessary dollars to have people essentially doing nothing, says Goodin. This was one of many reasons companies started to reset their workforce with mass layoffs. Expect more thoughtful, data-driven hiring practices to make sure an ROI is being realized for each employee [hired].The IT talent shortage persists, so universities and bootcamps have been attempting to churn out talent thats aligned with market needs. Companies have also had more options, such as hiring internationally, including H-1B visas.Technology moves at a rapid pace, so it is important to maintain an open mind to new ways of solving problems, while not jumping the gun on a passing fad, says Goodin. Continue to invest in your existing workforce and upskill them, when possible. This will lead to better employee engagement [and] decreased costs associated with hiring and training up new talent into your organization.Soft-skills such as communication, character, and emotional quotient will all be that much more coveted in a world utilizing AI and automation to supplement human-beings, he says.IT and the Business IT has always supported the business, but its role is now more of a partnership and a thought leader when it comes to succeeding in an increasingly tech-fueled business environment.By 2025, I believe IT hiring will reflect a new paradigm as the line between IT and other business functions continues to blur, driven by AIs growing role in daily operations. Instead of being confined to back office support, IT will become a foundational aspect of strategic business operations, blending into departments like marketing, finance, and HR. This blur will likely accelerate next year, with roles and responsibilities traditionally managed by IT -- like data security, process automation and analytics -- becoming collaborative efforts with other departments, says Etoulia Salas-Burnett, director of the Center for Digital Business at Howard University. In an email interview This shift demands IT professionals who can bridge technical expertise with business strategy, making the boundary between IT and other business functions increasingly indistinct.In 2025, she believes several newer roles will become more common, including AI integration specialists, AI ethics and compliance officer, digital transformation strategist and automation success managers. Waning titles include help desk technician and network administrator, she says.Stephen Thompson, former VP of Talent at Docusign says the expansion of cloud services and serverless architectures has driven costs up, absorbing a growing portion of IT budgets. In some cases, server expenses rival the total cost of all employees at certain companies.Enterprise organizations are actively seeking integrations with platforms like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and SAP. The serverless shift and the continuous need for integration engineers have required IT departments to evolve, becoming stronger engineering partners and application developers for critical in-house systems in sales, marketing, and HR, says Thompson in an email interview. As a result, 2025 may resemble the 2012 to 2015 period, with new technologies promising growth, and a high demand for scalable engineering expertise. Companies will seek software engineers who not only maintain but also optimize system performance, ensuring a significant return on investment. These professionals turn the seemingly impossible into reality, saving IT departments millions in the process.Green Tech Will Become More PopularFrom smaller AI models to biodegradable and recycled packaging, tech is necessarily becoming greener.We are already seeing many companies review their carbon footprint and prioritize sustainability projects, in response to climate change [and] customer and client demand. CIOs and other tech leaders will likely face more pressure to prove their sustainability and green plans within their IT projects, says Matt Collingwood, founder & managing director at VIQU IT Recruitment. This may include legacy systems needing to be phased out, tracking energy consumption across the business and supply chain, and more. In turn, this will create an increasing demand for IT roles within infrastructure, systems engineering and development.In the meantime, organizations should be mindful about algorithmic and human bias in hiring.Organizations need to make sure that they are hiring inclusively, says Collingwood. This means anonymizing CVs to reduce chances of unconscious bias, as well as putting job adverts through a gender decoder to ensure the business is not inadvertently putting off great female tech professionals.About the AuthorLisa MorganFreelance WriterLisa Morgan is a freelance writer who covers business and IT strategy and emergingtechnology for InformationWeek. She has contributed articles, reports, and other types of content to many technology, business, and mainstream publications and sites including tech pubs, The Washington Post and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Frequent areas of coverage include AI, analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility, software development, and emerging cultural issues affecting the C-suite.See more from Lisa MorganNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeReportsMore Reports