It’s not news that the IT industry suffers from a serious skills gap. What’s new is how the industry is closing that gap. Because of AI, new approaches to skilling are leaning toward a reconfiguration of traditional networking and cybersecurity roles.
While industry reports expect a third of enterprises could automate more than half of their network activities by the end of next year, organizations and network professionals must prioritize continuous learning to stay ahead of the curve.
Here, Kyndryl Network and Edge Global Practice Leader Paul Savill shares how network professionals can prepare for what’s next.
Why the drive to develop cross-disciplinary skills?
At every level and role, everyone in an organization must broaden their view beyond just their piece of the business. Without that mindset, silos and other types of organizational friction will always inhibit growth. People on the business side need to understand what’s happening on the technical side, and vice versa.
As networking and cybersecurity converge, professionals must understand technologies like SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access), Network Operations Centers (NOCs) and Security Operations Centers (SOCs). Network and security teams must speak each other’s language to work effectively. At the same time, the integration of operational technology (OT) with IT demands cross-domain skills to manage connected digital and physical systems. This combined expertise helps close talent gaps and enables teams to build secure, resilient infrastructures that support automation and data-driven decisions. Ultimately, both network and security operations are critical to business continuity.
How can network engineers support AI adoption?
AI skills are a top priority. These tools are essential to streamline operations, improve customer engagement and stay competitive. Once one enterprise deploys AI successfully, others must follow or risk irrelevance. Yet, despite widespread implementation, most organizations aren’t leveraging AI for transformative use cases, according to Kyndryl’s People Readiness Report. Only 21% of leaders use AI in products and services, and just 4 in 10 apply it to decision-making or growth. In fact, 45% of CEOs think most employees are resistant or openly hostile to AI.
That’s why network professionals must master cross-disciplinary skills to thrive in this new era of operational and cybersecurity convergence. They need to help their organizations capitalize on innovation. Platforms like Kyndryl Bridge can help companies without in-house talent overcome the AI skills gap and potentially save millions annually.
21%
of leaders use AI in products and services
4 in 10
report they apply AI to decision-making or growth
45%
of CEOs think most of their employees are resistant or even openly hostile to AI
Source: Kyndryl People Readiness Report
Why are cloud networking skills important?
A shared understanding of cloud infrastructure and services helps reduce security breaches and wasted cloud spend. Unfortunately, network professionals often don’t communicate regularly with developers and cloud engineers. This disconnect has led to misconfigurations that enabled nearly one-third of malicious cloud incursions in early 2024, according to Google Cloud’s Threat Horizons Report.
Kyndryl has addressed skilling issues from the start. Our services delivery experts have earned over 41,000 hyperscaler certifications and more than 8,000 Cisco certifications, including IOS, data center, security and more. Our teams understand cloud architecture, deployment models and the management tools needed to design and manage network infrastructures for cloud-first and hybrid environments.
What’s next for network professionals?
As the future of IT core infrastructure moves toward delivering AI-native capabilities across the edge, cloud and data centers, network professionals and their organizations must double down on training and certifications. This isn’t optional. It requires a cultural shift toward continuous learning and a mindset of curiosity and growth. Alongside workforce development, we must also build and maintain trust in all matters related to AI.
The organizations that embrace automation and people as key enablers of AI to unlock growth will lead in the digital economy. Closing the skills gap will require an “all of the above” approach: nurturing in-house talent, committing to ongoing skilling and working with trusted partners. For network professionals, the goal is to combine hard and soft skills. With technical expertise, the ability to collaborate across IT functions and the curiosity to keep learning, they will remain indispensable as their roles evolve.
Join us at Cisco Live 2025, booth #2635, to meet Kyndryl experts and explore how we’re combining Cisco’s modern infrastructure with Kyndryl’s consult and managed services to help organizations become future-ready in the age of AI.
