IT companies and employers who rely heavily on technology know better than anyone the repeat cycle of learning, unlearning, and relearning. As the most rapidly evolving industry with many changes arriving faster than your progress of the previous shift, the challenges many American corporations saw come with COVID-19 were nothing tech professionals couldn’t handle. However, the new standard of virtual-first companies that aim to stay people-centric begs to question what that may look like for the tech industry’s future.

“CEOs know they must accelerate the adoption of digital business and are seeking more direct digital routes to connect with their customers, but with an eye on future economic risks, they also want to be efficient and protect margins and cash flow.” –David Groombridge, VP Analyst, Gartner.

From the continued developments in Automation, Edge Computing, AI & ML, Cybersecurity, Robotics, etc., to the rapidly increasing hiring needs and remote work shift, we have compiled the ultimate guide to the latest IT industry trends and statistics for 2022.

*Research & statistics are courtesy of the industry professionals at Forbes, Simplilearn, Gartner, LinchPin SEO & more!

These Technology Trends Continue To Surge

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

While AI & ML are far from new, many industries are looking for new ways to grow their resources further to implement these revolutionary technologies. Highly regarded for its excellence in navigation apps and image and speech recognition, AI has made groundbreaking steps in providing critical insights into predicting demand and monitoring resource functions. Machine Learning generates enormous demand for skilled employees across all industries as a subset of Artificial Intelligence. Experts predict the AI market will grow to $190 billion by 2025 (MarketsandMarkets).

Breakdown: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is software designed to simulate human thinking. Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI that starts without knowledge and becomes intelligent (Red Marker). Automation is a type of software that follows pre-programmed rules to carry out repetitive tasks without human intervention.

• In addition to the rise of machine vision technology, low-code and no-code development platforms continue to emerge, allowing more users not to be limited by their coding capabilities.
• AI engineering’s direct focus on developing ML algorithms to learn, analyze, and predict will help streamline AI delivery.
• Autonomic systems which learn in real-time from their environments and construct new behavior will advance the capabilities in supporting regulations and situations yet to be seen.
• Generate AI will compile data to create new, unseen content, helping accelerate research and Development cycles in medicine.

As an AI-centric version of DevOps, AIOps is intently focused on leveraging large data from various IT tools and devices to automatically read and react while still providing historical analytics (BMC).

Along with Automation, AI & ML are expected to generate a 9% increase in new US jobs by 2025 (Forrester), ranging in programming, testing, development, and more. The industry also boasts one of today’s highest salary ranges. Enabling companies of all styles to improve efficiency and reach their goals quickly, continued advancements in automation are well on the horizon.

Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation is a business-driven approach to rapidly identifying and automating as many processes as possible. It is designed to help enhance remote operation and dependability and streamline business procedures.

Autonomic Systems

Autonomic Systems are self-managed physical or software systems that learn from their environments and dynamically modify their algorithms in real-time to optimize their behavior in complex ecosystems. These systems create an agile set of technology capabilities that can support new requirements and situations, maximize performance and defend against attacks (Gartner).

There are many promising developments of AI in healthcare, such as PathAI, dedicated to providing hospitals and patients with accurate diagnoses through deep learning algorithms. ML is also used to speed up drug development by predicting symptoms and infections of patients. Our recent industry guide covering Medical Devices touched on the connection between various technology trends and the healthcare industry.

2. Cloud Computing | Edge Computing

As more companies migrate to cloud solutions, edge computing has emerged as a high-rising technology trend. A cloud is an IT environment that abstracts, pools, and shares IT resources across a network. An edge typically involves large volumes of data being handled at the edge of the network to optimize processing further. While edge computing is used to process time-sensitive data, cloud computing is utilized to process data that is not time-driven. Thus, edge computing accommodates for the shortcomings of cloud computing, IoT being one of the greatest beneficiaries.

• Clouds are places where data can be stored, or applications can run. They are software-defined environments created by data centers or server farms.
• Edges are also places where data is collected. They are physical environments made up of hardware outside a data center.
• Cloud computing is the act of running workloads in a cloud.
• Edge computing is the act of running workloads on edge devices.
(RedHat)

More industries are designating a place for digital information and resources and prioritizing safety in the process. Driven by major companies AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure, cloud computing allows companies to improve work efficiencies in the digital space. According to Forrester Research, the global cloud computing market will reach $482 billion this year. By the end of the year, the global edge computing market is expected to reach $6.72 billion, establishing a wide variety of jobs.

“Though many companies are adopting edge computing and are predicting the end of cloud computing, Bernard Golden points out that this is not substantiated because there is currently no analytical framework to prove it. Edge computing is not the only solution for the challenges faced by IT vendors and organizations and does not handle all applications across every environment, thus, cloud computing will still remain a crucial part of an organization’s IT infrastructure.” – Simplilearn

Another rising form of computing technology, Quantum Computing, is identified as a top emerging trend thanks to its ability to analyze and act on data quickly. QC has made tremendous strides in healthcare through the development of vaccines and in finance and banking through trading and fraud protection. The capabilities that lie within Quantum Computing are marked by experts to be the greatest in computing innovation. By 2029, the quantum computing market is projected to surpass $2.4 billion (Simplilearn).

3. Cybersecurity

While cybersecurity itself is a more routine practice, new threats are constantly arriving, thus demanding that security technologies keep evolving. First seeing a spike in cyber-attacks as a product of the remote work shift, more industries and organizations gathered a better understanding of the threats that accompany their technological developments. From hackers illegally accessing data and finding new ways to invade networks, the importance of investing in cybersecurity is immensely evident. Gartner predicts by 2025, “60% of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements.” Experts forecast the global security market will grow from $217 billion today to $345 billion by 2026.

Cybersecurity has become immensely relied upon to quickly “verify identity content and policy adherence across cloud and noncloudy environments” (Gartner). Cybersecurity mesh also plays a tremendous role in modernizing organizations’ security architecture by enabling greater scalability, flexibility, and reliable cybersecurity control. “The security mesh enables core distributed policy enforcement and provides convenient composable tools that can be plugged anywhere into the mesh” (10xDS).

Courtesy of Gartner’s IT Contributor Kasey Panetta, check out these Eight Predictions For Cybersecurity in 2022 and Beyond.

4. Robotics

Similar to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the operations of Robotics aim to execute tasks typically performed by humans. Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is another technology automating jobs. RPA enlists software to automate repetitive tasks performed by humans, such as interpreting applications, processing transactions, reading data, and replying to emails (Simplilearn). As is the case with AI & ML, RPA will create many more jobs than it is replacing. By 2030, Experts predict the global robotics market could climb to $260 billion by 2030 (BCG).

Whether by taking the form of a human (physical) or a robotic application (virtual), the functionality of robots made a tremendous leap in 2022. The increased use of robotics in healthcare signifies the high demand for Robotics Engineers. Physical robotics highlight advancements in medical equipment, while virtual bots typically exist in software to automate customer service and sales tasks, overlapping with AI (LearnToCodeWithMe). Chatbots have also made significant improvements in the basic functions of customer service and their ability to resolve certain queries.

Courtesy of Automate.org, check out these Seven Trends and Predictions For Robotics in 2022.

Remote Work Shift –

The remote and hybrid work model is not going anywhere anytime soon. With the high productivity many US employers are experiencing, combined with the preferences of their employees, many organizations’ back-to-office plans have fallen by the wayside. PEW Research reports that 60% of US workers say their jobs can be done from home, while GoodHire found that 85% of US workers prefer job listings with remote work options.

TRUST Goes Both Ways – Employees seek to gain as much freedom and flexibility as possible. For employers wanting to stand out to top performers and highly coveted job-seekers, there is immense pressure to give in to these desires when plausible. In addition to technology growth, companies must prepare to invest in new health benefits, communication strategies, and overall holistic wellness to boost employee performance and retention.

While technology is constantly evolving and improving, the rise of remote work forced technology to improve in new, specific ways, accelerating the global need for technology. As a result, remote-friendly SaaS services, such as Trello and Asana, have taken center stage (Fast Company). One key example of this is the need for enhanced software and hardware connectivity. As hardware struggles to manage high longevity in technology, the decentralization of large office spaces puts added pressure on the countless individual workspaces that need stable connectivity.

Now that AI is more of a mainstream concept, many employers are seeking specific AI expertise in 2022, such as natural language processing (NLP) and automated speech recognition (ASR). Furthermore, 70% of C-level executives prefer that their non-technical employees have some automation and AI skills (LearnToCodeWithMe).

Today’s workforce continues to ask the big question: Are the latest tech advancements causing humans to lose their jobs to robots and computers? Technically, yes, but this shift has created far more opportunities in tech! Machines are not replacing humans; as ITOps teams develop new skills, new roles will materialize. While the World Economic Forum expects 85 million jobs to be replaced by machines with AI by 2025, the same report expects 97 million new jobs to be created by 2025. With the developments in Edge Computing, Software Engineers predictably be the greatest beneficiaries, followed by Cloud Reliability Engineers, Cloud Infrastructure Engineers, Cloud Architects, Security Architects, and DevOps Cloud Engineers (Simplilearn).

Across all industries, the sharp rise of remote work was the source of over 20% of cyber-attacks over the past two years. As a result, cybersecurity quickly became one of the most in-demand jobs and prioritized tech skills in 2022. Hired.com reports that the demand for Security Engineers has increased by 132%. In fact, the number of jobs available in cybersecurity is growing 3x faster than any other tech-related job.

Job-Seekers: Do you have a growing interest in getting involved in tech? The tech industry is desperate for workers in general, leading to many job opportunities opening up to job-seekers with little-to-no industry experience. There are many varying avenues you can push toward!

• Southern Careers Institute (SCI) reveals five entry-level tech jobs with no experience or degree required.
• Laurence Bradford, Creator of Learn To Code With Me, reveals 18 In-Demand Technology Skills for anyone looking to become a pro through online training!

Statistics, Facts & Growth Projections via Learn To Code With Me:

AI & ML:

• At least 43% of businesses today are leveraging some form of AI.
• Average salary: $125k average across various AI careers.
• The number of machine learning startups listed in Crunchbase increased by 8.2% since 2020 and 14.6% since 2019.
• There are over 180,000 open positions in ML listed on LinkedIn alone.

Cloud Computing | Edge Computing | Quantum Computing:

• The most in-demand cloud computing skills are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Java, Linux, software development, DevOps, Docker, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
• AWS has the dominant market share of the cloud computing industry worldwide, with an active customer base in 190+ countries.
• IBM is on the path to building a full-fledged quantum computer, saying it will create a 1000-qubit quantum computer by 2023.

Cybersecurity:

• 4 of the 15 top-paying IT certifications are focused on security.
• Demand for security professionals is far outpacing supply: the talent gap in this field in 2021 was an estimated 2.7 million unfilled positions.
• Information security analyst jobs are projected to grow 33% percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than average.
• Due to such a massive shortage, damage from cybercrimes is anticipated to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

Robotics: 

• LinkedIn reports that with the rise of both virtual and physical bots, the robotics industry has seen a 40% annual growth.
• It’s estimated that the US will need 12,500 robotics engineers over the next ten years.
• In 2021, Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Robotics orders had a 69% growth (RoboDK).
• The global market size of robots in healthcare will be worth $3.28 billion by 2025.

Learning About NexGoal

Want NexGoal to help you access the often-closed community of passive candidates and start sourcing top-performing employees for your organization? Filling positions in Engineering, Management, Sales, Customer Support, etc. across clients within SaaS, IT Consulting, IT Operations (and more), we are confident in our ability to connect you to proven talent. Contact our CEO, Kevin Dahl, at kevindahl@nexgoal.com to start putting this plan into action.

*Reference this article, and we will promote your job openings on LinkedIn and/or Indeed for free!

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