Work stress, the pressure to improve user experience, and a lack of AI strategy are preventing IT professionals from upskilling and learning new technology, research shows.

A new report from Auvik has revealed several trends that are contributing to a new age of IT generalists as tech professionals are stalled from developing specialist skills, despite the rampant push for AI.

II professionals suffer from a range of stressors, with nearly half (47%) citing reactive work due to a lack of tool purchase involvement, followed by workload (43%), management expectations (38%), and lack of resources (31%).

About 78% of respondents to the Auvik’s survey said that these work stressors were preventing them from upskilling.

One of the top contributors listed has to do with a lack of involvement of IT workers in the purchasing of new tools and technologies they then have to work on. Nearly half (47%) of IT pros are asking to be consulted earlier on new tools so they can be better prepared to adopt them, or guide their company’s buyers on making better vendor selections.

IT professionals are still being judged rather narrowly, with around half (48%) judged primarly by the quality of the end user expeirence rather than their own performance.

While this can provide IT professionals with a good frame of reference for how they will be critiqued, it leaves little room for their won development or improvement as being beneficial to their performance reviews.

Further, despite the pressure to adopt AI, about a third (34%) of IT teams report not knowing or not having an AI strategy in place.

In addition, while AI may be improving productivity, a lack of a strategy often means that IT professionals are still depended on by their end-users.

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As emerging technplogy is adopted, tool sprawl is reaching new heights – one in two managed service providers noted using more than ten tools for a single business role.

The demands of the job are are also stopping 44% of IT professionals from researching advancements in the field, leaving room for the AI skills gap to widen.

All of these various demands and challenges are contributing to burnout, with three in five (60%) reporting feeling burnt out.

Despite this, 84% reported confidence in management, meaning that most IT workers feel supported. However, when it came to AI, this figure fell by 20%.