The 11 Hardest IT Roles to Fill in 2026 - and What's Changed
CIO.com, Monday, June 15th, 2026
AI and security roles stay hardest to fill, but demand shifts toward hybrid roles blending business and technical skills.
Organizations now prioritize hybrid roles combining AI expertise with business understanding and cybersecurity knowledge. The talent crunch has evolved from seeking specialized LLM engineers toward professionals who can operationalize AI at scale and manage its risks, with 60% of organizations saying skills gaps matter more than headcount.
New priorities include automation specialists who redesign processes, AI governance and risk experts, and senior security architects. Cloud architecture demand has eased as that market matured, and development has shifted toward AI-augmented engineers.
Internal upskilling now beats external hiring on speed, cost, and retention-Best Buy hired strong engineers then trained them on AI, broadening its candidate pool tenfold.