The ongoing shortage of skilled workers, and the subsequent burden of long hours
and employee burnout, continues to be a top challenge for IT departments and network
administrators. Compounded by tool sprawl and rapidly evolving technology, the talent
gap, argued executives at Auvik in its 2025 IT trends report, has led to the rise of “IT
generalist,” defined as IT professionals who must possess knowledge across a very
broad range of IT functions.
“With an increasing eye on end-user experience, remote IT delivery and advancing
AI tools, there is a lot on IT professionals’ plates,” said Auvik researchers.
Moving forward, the gap in IT expertise is only likely to get worse. According to
Auvik’s findings, IT professionals with more than 10 years of experience and the Ba by
Boomer generation currently experience the longest work weeks. Whereas 42 percent
of Baby Boomer IT professionals work more than 40 hours per week, for example,
just 29 percent of Gen Z IT professionals do the same.
“A generational disparity in the workload is rapidly exacerbating issues around
burnout,” continued the Auvik report, “since as many as 10,000 Baby Boomers will
turn 65 and retire every single day between now and 2030, leaving even more work
for remaining IT employees.”
Source: Auvik
Certainly, AI and automation will help with workload burdens and burnout by taking
over many of the repetitive and reactive tasks that IT and network professionals admit
take up an inordinate amount of time. Beyond the more mundane, however, the rise
of IT generalists, “who are limited in the time they have in their day for researching
the field,” suggests a growing need for advisor specialists who can assist with the more
strategic outcomes of supporting the productivity of employees, securing resources
and expanding their technological possibilities.
“With a continuing talent gap and increasing tool sprawl, IT professionals don’t have
the bandwidth to develop deep expertise in any one area of IT,” continued the Auvik
report. “They must be able to manage a broad range of tools and IT functions, while
relying increasingly on AI and automation to complete the more menial, routine tasks
that historically have been major time commitments.”
Where will these IT generalists likely be seeking guidance and expertise? A look at
respondents’ “wishlist” of network-related activities provides some insight as to where
attention will go once automation frees up brain space, since the lack of time and
insufficient human-power are the primary reasons wishlist items are not implemented.
In terms of specific technology categories, IT professionals listed cybersecurity
planning, cloud computing, automation, backup and disaster recovery and wireless
networking as top areas in which they would like to dedicate more time and resources.
Far and away, the top wishlist item among IT professionals was “researching new
technology” that helps them drive greater value and productivity and a better user
experience, Auvik’s data showed.
Is your advisory firm ready to provide IT generalist with this expertise?
