In-demand technology skills to master in 2021

In-demand technology skills to master in 2021 

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Now that companies are moving beyond the fundamentals of AI , IT leaders are trying to find people with experience in integrating AI (AI) with other technologies like automation. Expertise in machine learning operations also will be in high demand as companies deploy more algorithms into production which needs ongoing care and feeding.

Leah Belsky, chief enterprise officer at Coursera, said many of the in-demand technology skills today will remain an equivalent in 2021. This includes AI , Python programming, and data storytelling. She predicts that what is going to shift significantly is who is learning technology skills and the way they're learning them. 

"As companies navigate accelerated digital transformation caused by the pandemic, we'll see an increased emphasis on driving technology and data science literacy across the whole organization, not just technical teams," she said. "Short, hands-on projects are going to be particularly effective for enabling immediate application of skills."

SEE: Inside UPS: The logistics company's never-ending digital transformation (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Tech experts and chief people officers predict that companies are going to be trying to find IT professionals with experience in specific areas of AI like tongue processing (NLP) and therefore the ability to attach AI operations with other business priorities like automation. For people that are new the tech world, low-code platforms offer tons of opportunities.

Here's a glance at the talents which will be most in demand in 2021.

Cloud native architecture skills

Companies do fewer lift-and-shift projects and building more products and services in cloud native architectures. For that reason, expertise in cloud foundations and containers are going to be more in demand in 2021, consistent with Accenture's Cloud First Global Lead Karthik Narain. 

"This demands various levels of coaching and certifications also as collaboration and engagement with partners," he said.

Accenture invests nearly $1 billion per annum to upskill people in new technologies, including cloud, AI , blockchain and data analytics, among others. Narain said that since March, the corporate trained over 70,000 people within the tech services division within the hot skills needed by clients. 

SEE: Top cloud providers in 2020: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, hybrid, SaaS players (TechRepublic)

"This training process includes 15- to 20-hour reskilling modules, which employees already conversant in cloud can fast-track by completing an assessment," he said.

Cybersecurity skills for the cloud

As more operations shift to the cloud, security concerns grow and alter also . Jon Clay, director of worldwide threat communications at Trend Micro, said the rapid pace of cloud deployments is making it difficult for organizations to seek out security professionals who can integrate with their DevOps team to make sure security is made at the beginning of each cloud project.

"In 2021, we expect to ascertain a pointy increase in demand for tech talent that features a unique skill set spanning both DevOps and Security operations," he said. one among the foremost important security skill sets in 2021 are going to be cloud platform-specific security tooling knowledge." 

Clay said that he has heard from clients that the introduction of cloud-based tools has changed the character of their work. 

Alyssa Miller, cybersecurity advocate at Snyk, said she expects the cybersecurity skills gap to shut as employers look to transferable skills over certifications. 

"Employers will begin to shift their mindset when it involves hiring and identify relevant soft skills that are transferable to the cybersecurity sector and specialise in hiring from those groups," she said.

AI and automation skills

Artificial intelligence is moving out of the first adopter phase and into more mainstream use. this suggests that companies need employees who can lead more complex AI projects. Tom Clancy, vice chairman of learning at UiPath predicts that automation and AI skills will become increasingly critical to succeed at work. 

"A recent survey we conducted found that 70% of C-level executives at large organizations require employees to have—and are seeking new candidates who have—automation and AI skills," he said. 

The UiPath survey also found that these skillsets end in business productivity also as increased employee satisfaction and enhanced career paths. 

"Our data also found that 44% of executives feel these skill sets directly correlate to increased employee responsibilities, 64% to increased salaries, and 67% to overall better career advancements within organizations," he said.

AI and tongue processing skills

Natural language processing is another skill set with the AI discipline which will be more in demand over subsequent year, consistent with Dialpad's Chief Revenue Officer Dan O'Connell. Dialpad may be a cloud communications company that focuses on conferencing and improving voice analysis. the corporate closed a $100 million in new funding in October to spend on its go-to-market strategy also as research and development. 

O'Connell said that Dialpad looks for people with experience in speech recognition and NLP and hires tons of latest graduates also . 

"We need more backend and front-end engineers to create out product features we've now, and our R&D focus is on the AI side," he said.

O'Connell said the corporate has an indoor educational program also but prefers to leverage existing talent within the market. That tactic has worked better this year thanks to the stress of the pandemic and therefore the results of a extended term investment across the tech industry in NLP skills.

"We search for people that have experience in working with very large datasets and are comfortable solving for the complexity of longform conversations," he said.

SEE: tongue processing: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)

O'Connell said he sees subsequent phase of AI tools supporting practical tasks, like identifying to-dos that come from a check-in meeting or making voice conversations searchable.

"These tools will leverage the cloud and therefore the speed of latest GPUs and access to immense data sets in ways in which solve practical problems," he said. "Voice is that the last offline dataset."

Growing need for operational ML skills

Anand Rao, global AI lead at PwC, said another sign of AI's move to the mainstream is that the growing need for operational talent to support machine learning projects.

In a perfect scenario, data scientists build the models and hand them off to an engineering operations team who will deploy the models and maintain them. This new job category will cover data operations and DevOps for machine learning.

"This may be a somewhat more complex role as software doesn't learn when the machine learning models do," he said.

SEE: Chatbot trends: How organizations are leveraging AI chatbots (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Rao said that ML projects need data scientists to create the models and engineers to manage the assembly work.

"You need someone to manage both tasks and to possess seamless transfer from the info scientists to engineering and operational people," he said.

Product managers always in demand

Someone has got to keep of these cloud and AI projects on target , which suggests that production management skills are going to be more important than ever.

George Abbott, head of product at Capital One, said these skills are a critical need for all great tech companies. to deal with that require , Capital One launched an indoor Product College this year to coach and connect the quite 800 product managers at the corporate . Employees take peer-led courses about strategy, tech, design, and leadership. 

Capital One also launched a Tech College to support a culture of continued learning and development. 

"The engineer-led learning hub gives our associates the tools and therefore the platform to realize and master deeper technical skills," Abbott said. "This will help us still challenge the established order and innovate the technology that powers our business."

The Tech College curriculum supports the company's most immediate business goals, including software engineering, mobile, machine learning/AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data. 

Expanding opportunities in low-code

Stephanie Louis, senior director of community and developer programs for Pegasystems, said there are many entry-level opportunities within the low-code market. Pega builds software for customer relationship management, digital process automation, and business process management. Louis said the expansion in low-code platforms has increased the necessity to interact a broader business and tech community about how this approach to putting together software are often helpful. 

"You don't got to have a computing background to try to to this work," she said. "It's an enormous opportunity for people and organizations to expand the impact and applications you'll build."

She said she looks for people that understand and appreciate the facility of technology and who are curious and willing to take a position the time to find out .

"We don't need the skill set such a lot , it's more the mindset," she said.

The company's Pega Academy offers free training for people that want to find out about low-code platforms.

Leon Adato, the top geek at SolarWinds, also said the foremost important skills in 2021 aren't necessarily tech-centric.

"2021 would require IT professionals to possess grit, patience, resilience, and a well-developed sense of humor," he said. "Along thereupon they're going to even be required to be ready to quickly change priorities, not wasting energy fretting about the time spent on the previous task."

Jamie Coakley, vice chairman of individuals at the IT support firm Electric, said she considers humanistic discipline majors and people who studied communications for entry-level roles because the corporate places a high value on communication within the workplace. 

"You don't got to have attended a tech or majored in computing to figure in IT; if you're a curious learner, communicate well, and luxuriate in working with people and solving problems, this might be a fantastic avenue to think about ," she said.

Credits:

Thanks, www.techrepublic.com from where I found this information