Developing a Skills-Ready Technology, Media, and Communications Industry
With the new frontier in AI comes an increasing need to aggressively upskill.
The technology, media, and communications industry is characterized by breakneck innovation and the organizational need to always be one step ahead of the competition. It is also currently characterized by an oversupply of talent, both due to high volumes of workers flocking to higher education, and by expansive remote work capabilities. Salaries and working conditions of this field have remained attractive. However, organizational leaders also need to ensure continuous upskilling, as well as remaining competitive among all other industries, which are quickly evolving technical needs.
Risk Factors
1.93
Occupation Risk Score
As companies invest more in digital transformation, demand for cybersecurity specialists is surging, and cloud computing and AI growth create competitive pressures for professionals experienced in these fields while early talent needs to gain more advanced skills. Although the prime-age workforce in critical roles like software developers, database administrators, and information analysts are not diminishing as quickly as critical roles in other industries, they are declining by about 16%, which is risky considering the comparatively more aggressive demand.
2.14
Market Risk Score
San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. are among the riskiest regions to access the prime-age workforce, as 21% of the total workforce is aging out or leaving the region. With housing costs 80% higher than the national average, workers under 55-years old are opting for more affordable locations, reducing access to the general workforce. And even as tech companies relocate to Austin, Tex., New York City, N.Y., and Dallas, Tex., the situation is not much better. For technology, media, and communications enterprises to obtain and sustain workers with the skills needed to bring big ideas to market, they must consider remote work as a viable, long-term strategy.
1.00
Industry Risk Score
Although there is a large need for technology, media, and communications workers year-over-year, this industry benefits from many levers to pull that can fill workforce gaps. The local workforce continues to pursue degrees in these fields, and younger workers are increasingly more adept at technology, making upskilling more fluid. This industry has also had an ample supply of foreign-born workers, and has globalized operations wherever there is internet access. As the main driver of AI and automation innovation, these technologies are not only filling talent gaps, but displacing some tech workers.
1.34
AI Skills Gap Score
Unsurprisingly, this industry has the lowest risk of AI skills gaps among all industries, as this is where the rapid development is occurring. To innovate AI, automation, and robotics, this workforce must deeply understand and heavily use these technologies. Across all critical roles, AI skills are heavily exposed with the highest rate of acceleration. However, auxiliary roles, such as finance, legal, HR, and sales or customer service roles, have a slight lag—upskilling these roles in emerging AI trends and practical applications can further benefit innovation and go-to-market plans.
Technology, Media and Communications Organizations in the Fortune 1000
In the Workforce Risk Outlook, Lightcast found little correlation between workforce risk exposure and their Fortune 1000 ranking. C-suite leaders must align their workforce strategies with their quadrant position, as opposed to assuming their revenue makes them immune.
High Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant face significant risk of being disrupted in their industry, but also have the financial resources to reduce their risk if they are proactive. These organizations should invest in AI-driven coding and content, expand workforce training in emerging technologies like blockchain, and develop global talent acquisition strategies to stay ahead of industry shifts.
High Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations within the riskiest quadrant are lower on the competitive ladder and have less resources to address their incoming risk. Innovation is critical—these companies must focus on skills-based talent growth that can create flexibility to pivot as tech evolves and focus on niche markets where they can differentiate from larger competitors.
Lower Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant may not face immediate workforce shortages, but should remain proactive to maintain and reduce their exposure to risk. Investing in AI-driven personalization, strengthening cybersecurity to protect digital assets, and fostering cross-disciplinary skill development among employees can help sustain long-term workforce stability.
Lower Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant, if they are proactive, have a chance to be the disruptors. Specifically, they can disrupt industry competitors in the High Risk/High Scale quadrant. They should leverage agility, explore immersive technologies, and optimize workforce efficiency through remote collaboration and AI-assisted content development.
See the Full Fortune 1000 List by Lightcast
Ready for Lightcast to prepare you for the storm?
Solving Technology, Media & Communications Workforce Management
Talent Analyst
Expand the Talent Pool with a Skills-First Focus
Delaying a skills-based workforce planning strategy is no longer a luxury technology and communication businesses can afford. Expecting talent with “fully loaded” resumes is not realistic; instead, companies will need to compete for skills beyond degrees or prior job experience, and look at skills gained from boot camps, vocational schools, industry associations, and project-based or freelance experience to uncover diverse talent with core skills that can be continuously developed as innovation evolves. By looking at skills as the building blocks of talent-driven innovation, organizations can explore unconventional paths to grow their business strategies.
How Software Leaders are Reaching Skills Beyond Degrees
A global software leader serving across construction and engineering markets shifted its workforce planning focus to understand talent “skilled beyond degree” in both its workforce and its clients'. Using Talent Analyst to identify in-demand skills, emerging roles, and career pathways across global markets, it mapped the skills needed related to its products, analyzed trends in internships and entrepreneurships, and forecasted disruptive skills among shifts in automation and AI. These insights have driven strategies to benchmark its own certificate offerings against skill shifts, identify potential strategic partnerships, including industry associations, and progress its DEI initiatives.
Talent Transform
Skills-Based Growth as a Retention Strategy
Continuous learning is a critical part of the technology and communications industry, though to retain valuable talent, businesses will need to also continuously benchmark skills against the broader market to ensure their workforce’s skills keep pace with competitors. Organizations must offer clear career paths, boosting employees’ skills at key moments to engage in meaningful projects. While automation can reduce some labor pressure by handling routine tasks, workers currently performing these tasks should not be thought of as “displaced,” but considered for upskilling or reskilling paths to take on higher-skilled roles where human expertise is still critical.
The Right Upskilling at the Right Time, In Action
For a supply chain platform, defining role-specific skills, establishing career paths, mapping job titles to industry standards, and implementing a standardized skills framework has been at the center of a skills-based workforce planning strategy. Using Talent Transform, it mapped job titles to the external market to define skills frameworks for critical roles. Through comparing skill profiles against competitors and gaining an understanding of career path trends in an innovative space, it has implemented development paths to guide employees through upskilling, particularly at career inflection points that are at risk of attrition, to improve retention.
