The impact of AI on ICT jobs will be a key focus of the 2026 edition of the ICT Skills Survey, which has gone live and is now open for industry input.
Employers of ICT professionals and individual practitioners are invited to take part.
The ICT Skills Survey is an industry-wide skills analysis conducted by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) and Africa Analysis, under the guidance of Adrian Schofield and sponsored by SoftwareOne Experts South Africa.
The survey includes online questionnaires that assess skills demand and supply from both corporate and practitioner perspectives. The objective is to identify the most pressing skills needs from a corporate perspective, balanced with practitioners' current skills capacity and their intentions for future development.
The survey was previously co-authored by Schofield, a professional member and fellow of the IITPSA, and the late Prof Barry Dwolatzky, an IITPSA fellow, emeritus professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits University, and director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering.
Kelvin Nhlapo, GM of the IITPSA, said the 2026 survey will examine the impact of AI on jobs from both employers' and employees' perspectives.
“Generative AI and agentic AI are now driving profound change within organisations, making it the right time to assess sentiment around the technology and look into how it is likely to impact ICT jobs in the short and medium term.”
The survey data will be reinforced with in-depth interviews on other topical issues affecting the ICT job market in SA.
The corporate survey will examine digital skills shortages and capabilities across key technologies in 20 industry sectors, as well as the ICT skills organisations expect to need in the next 12 months. This year, organisations will also be asked about their views on AI, including how it is expected to impact recruitment and staffing requirements, and what roles they expect to see automated or augmented by AI.
Nhlapo urged South African ICT practitioners and employers to take part. “By gauging the sentiments and experience of stakeholders in our industry, we will be better positioned to manage the changes AI will bring, and ensure that the South African ICT sector’s skills pool matches future demand.”
The ICT practitioner survey will assess practitioners' qualifications, skills development plans and how they are using AI in the workplace. They will also be asked about their sentiments regarding AI in the workplace, whether they feel AI poses a risk to their jobs, and how they intend to respond if they perceive AI as a career threat.
The two questionnaires are now live. All responses are anonymous and will be treated confidentially, with results reported only in aggregate. Respondents can take one or both surveys. The findings will be released in the third quarter of 2026.
Take the corporate survey here or the practitioner survey here.
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