Digital technologies have a strong impact on the workplace, causing a demand for professionals who are experts in the field. These technologies help connect people and also help promote decisions to implement transformational structural changes in organizations.

Consequently, the professions that are in greatest demand in recent years are those related to technological change.

Adapting to change will be key

In view of the changes that are coming, the way people work and the structure of companies themselves will take on an important role. More flexible and dynamic forms of organization will be prevalent, ones that leave behind hierarchical structures and are capable of responding with agility to the changing demands of the market. Within the company, small working groups will be be the norm to put teamwork into practice for a time long enough to allow employees to develop other projects within the company.

In order to respond to constant technological advances, continuous training will be essential to respond to the problems that may arise and avoid being left behind.

New professionals for new realities

The change of paradigm, with the progress of technology and its effect on the labor market, has always concerned society. This has caused pessimism, since many think that we are inevitably doomed to general unemployment caused by technological progress.

But this is not entirely true, since, as the more traditional tasks decline, we can see how technologies have also changed professional profiles: people are needed who are capable of performing tasks that are not very predictable or codable, in some cases involving reasoning that some robots or algorithms are not able to perform.

Technological unemployment

It is estimated that around 85% of the professions of the future have not yet been invented and that, today, many job profiles, even those involving high qualifications, do not adapt to technological requirements. This trend has been called “technological unemployment”.

For example, the demand for factory workers has decreased because many of those activities can be performed by an automated system (reducing costs, but also a requiring increased commitment to occupational risk prevention). However, now people are looking for specialists in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, process automation and marketing, among many other areas.

The impact does not stop there, however. It also affects how people are hired: more and more online job portals or companies are looking to recruit using digital platforms.

A growing demand for technology professions

Companies are demanding technology professionals for three main reasons:

• the advance of new technologies,
• the growing trend towards digitization of productive processes and
• demand for highly qualified labor.

For all these reasons, technological studies and training are becoming a safe bet for employability: IT- and technology-related workers in general are becoming highly valued by organizations, which is also reflected in the average wages paid.