Most leaders want to invest more in tech skills, talent in 2024

More executives see talent gaps as a key business risk in the next 18 months, compared to last year’s responses to a Capgemini survey.

Published Jan. 24, 2024

First published on

Dive Brief:

• Most executives plan to increase investments in talent and skills development because of shortages in key buckets of technology, according to a Capgemini survey published last week. The company surveyed 2,000 enterprise leaders in November. 
• The gap between talent availability and open roles is considered a top business risk by 59% of respondents, up from 35% in last year’s study. 
• Ensuring IT organizations can keep up with relevant emerging tech will lead to the creation of business cases and their rapid adoption, said Doug Ross, VP & US Gen AI lead at Sogeti, part of Capgemini.

Dive Insight:

CIOs will spend 2024 attempting to bridge a longstanding gap between talent need and availability. One strategy to support talent attraction and retention is devoting resources to training existing staff.

Ongoing generative AI adoption highlights new areas for enterprise skill development, too.

“Based on prior research, a large majority of business leaders believe there are significant talent gaps in several critical technology areas,” said Ross in an email. As enterprises infuse generative AI capabilities into operations, prompting strategies will become helpful skills across the organization, he said.

The interest surrounding generative AI also puts more pressure on filling positions related to the infrastructure behind its implementation, such as cloud and data analytics. Though software vendors are baking features into their systems, adoption will often hinge on using data to customize those offerings. 

The hype can help draw new people into the fold, according to LogicMonitor CIO Ryan Worobel. Training and development opportunities can also increase retention among existing staffers.

“If you’re giving them a path to career opportunities and career future, I think that goes a long way,” Worobel said. “In today’s workforce, especially younger talent … we’re seeing more people settling in a little bit, and saying ‘hey, if you want to invest in me, I’ll stick with you.’”