Forrester has produced a report entitled “Predictions 2020: CIO” in which it predicts what the year ahead will mean for chief information officers. The report highlights a number of key opportunities that CIOs can seize during a year of economic uncertainty, but also notes that the gulf between leading CIOs and average CIOs will be remarkably big.
CIOs will automate 10 percent of their IT tasks and look to upskill displaced personnel
Forrester believes that economic volatility will influence CIOs to focus on cost control measures of their departments. The company’s report goes on to say that it does not believe that IT departments will lay off workers, as it predicts flat IT staffing forecasts for 2020. A more likely outcome, Forrester posits, is that CIOs will train their teams to do more complex tasks associated with Agile and DevOps. The report notes, “While automation technologies erase a net 1.2 million jobs in the United States alone, CIOs will first look at IT jobs that are highly standardized and repetitive, such as first level technical support and simple technology provisioning. For example, a financial services CIO we spoke with plans to automate all level one technical support.”
