Resources and capability requirements

A very interesting question from the perspective of a professional body such as BCS is around additional resource requirements. The following chart shows the top-level answers. Perhaps the most telling answer is those who believe they have enough resources — at 8%, this is the lowest it has ever been in these surveys.

With BCS’ policy goals and royal charter aims in mind, it is also noteworthy that ‘enhanced IT capability and understanding in leadership team/board’ attracted 64% of IT leaders as an issue and 66% of IT professionals. Additionally, ‘increased digital literacy among general workforce’ is a requirement noted by 46% of leaders and 43% of professionals — slightly up on the 2023 report, where these numbers ran at 40%.

In answer to the additional resources respondents think their organisation would need to achieve their priorities, we got the following answers:

 

The gaps

In both identifying and filling the skills gap AI has a dominant — and rapidly expanding— role, with 59% identifying AI as a skills gap, and 33% suggesting AI/automation as an answer to filling it. The related data science area also shows strongly, with 32% citing it as a gap, after the ubiquitous cybersecurity. These are the results for ‘which of the following do you consider to be the capability gaps within your organisation’s IT skills?’:

 

Filling the gaps