Enterprise firms could hold the key to solving their own tech talent shortage by redesigning roles from the ground up, with a renewed focus on upskilling workers and thinking creatively about the automation of routine tasks, according to a new report from Pearson, the global educational services provider.

Pearson’s latest Skills Outlook report, Solving the Tech Talent Gap from Within, found that by integrating emerging technologies such as Large Language Model (LLM) chatbots and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) into their workflows, tech workers can save time for more innovative and high-value projects.

With two-thirds of employers identifying skills gaps as a key challenge, Pearson’s research suggests that businesses could make greater progress by reimagining traditional tech roles and investing in their existing workforce.

Focusing on five of the most highly valued tech roles across six countries, Pearson looked at how tasks within these jobs will change over the next few years due to thirty-four evolving technologies.  

For example, the study found that system software developers could save 5.8 hours per week within the next five years by using RPA for internal processes, including tasks such as correcting errors in existing software or performing maintenance, freeing them up to concentrate on designing innovative software solutions and improving user experience.

Likewise, LLM chatbots could see computer programmers save more than seven hours a week by performing tasks like rewriting programs and updating software packages, with AI allowing these workers to shift from routine coding tasks to more complex algorithm and system architecture development.

LLMs also have huge potential in reshaping the workflows of system engineers and architects, helping them to save around six hours a week by providing technical guidance, advice and troubleshooting, allowing workers to move onto long-term infrastructure planning and ensuring compliance with industry standards.

Pearson found that computer network architects could save even more time, potentially more than a working day every week, by automating tasks like project reporting systems and using RPA to perform file addition, backup, and deletion activities on networks.

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This might prove essential to future operations, with Pearson claiming that the time saved could go towards network design innovation, cyber resilience planning, or future-proofing infrastructure to accommodate the rapid evolution of cloud technologies, AI, and IoT.   

Rather than using new tech as a way to replace human operators, Pearson’s report argues that by automating routine tasks, businesses can bridge talent gaps and increase capacity without relying on external hiring.

It’s not only the tech talent shortage that stands to benefit, either, with the reinvention of ‘traditional’ tech roles potentially helping workers feel more secure in their jobs, crucial at a time when tech sector wages and morale are stagnating.