Future of jobs: Employers rank ICT skills above all else

Demand for ICT skills is emerging as the most defining feature of Kenya’s labour market, with a new nationwide research showing that three out of every four employers now rank digital capability as their top recruitment priority.

A local skills gap study conducted jointly by the Mastercard Foundation and online job-listing firm BrighterMonday, across multiple sectors, indicates that 75.9 percent of employers prioritise ICT skills above all other technical competencies.

The findings, which signal that Kenya’s employment landscape is transitioning into a digital-first model faster than policy and curriculum reforms can adjust, align with wider global labour patterns observed in recent forecast publications.

“The study established that digital and ICT-related competencies emerged as the most demanded technical skills among employers surveyed. An overwhelming 75.9 percent of employers cited digital and ICT skills as critical for their sectors,” noted the study that interviewed youth employers, trainers, and NGOs.

“This finding reflects the digitisation wave sweeping across sectors such as finance, education, logistics, creative industries, and public service. Employers emphasised the importance of these skills in navigating modern workplace systems, managing data, operating digital tools, and maintaining competitive relevance.”

Multiple contemporary projections have shown that technological adoption, automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data-driven production will continue to shape both the fastest-growing and fastest-declining occupational classes.

Global analysts have warned that while advanced and middle-income economies are reporting accelerated uptake of generative AI tools among professionals, lower-income countries risk remaining on the margins of this transformation without deliberate national alignment in digital capabilities.

In Kenya, the shift is not limited to the technology and software industries.

The latest skills gap report shows that employers across industries spanning agriculture, logistics, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, financial services, among others, are increasingly operating on digital systems ranging from platform-based transactions and customer engagement channels to digital payments.

Other rapidly-expanding use cases include automation of back-office processes, inventory management technologies, digital traceability systems, data analytics, digital HR systems and AI-supported workflow tools.

This, the study notes, has fundamentally altered the profile of what constitutes job readiness in the country.

Where degree specialisation or sector experience once acted as the primary recruitment signal, employers now emphasise functional digital output as the more reliable predictor of workplace productivity.

Hiring teams reported that the historical advantage conferred by academic credentials is narrowing sharply, as technology continues to rapidly evolve and workplace tools become more specialised, automated and dynamic.

The survey findings come at a time Kenya is entering a phase when automation systems and AI models are increasingly enhancing their capabilities of processing repetitive or manual tasks, with the digital capacity of the workforce becoming the differentiating advantage in value-add roles.

Globally, robotics and autonomous systems adoption continues to report steady annual growth, with AI research forecasts suggesting that long-term productivity gains will be achieved where technology is applied appropriately alongside human capabilities.

Earlier in January this year, the Future of Jobs 2025 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) projected that broadening digital access would be the most transformative trend in business growth and expansion this year, with advancements, particularly in AI, robotics and automation, among others setting the pace.

According to the report that incorporated employer views, the top three fastest growing skills in the year would include expertise in AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity as well as general technological literacy.

Additionally, technology-related roles that would drive the fastest jobs growth in percentage terms would include Big Data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and machine learning specialists as well as Software and application developers.

In Kenya, the concentration of software engineers relative to population is Africa’s sixth highest, with 1,095 techies in every one million people, highlighting the country’s rising digital talent momentum.

Kenya’s concentration of techies is placed behind Tunisia, which has 4,120 developers per a million people, South Africa (2,234), Mauritius (1,345), Morocco (1,345) and Egypt (1,224).

The fast expansion of engineering talent places Kenya in a stronger regional competitive position to capture higher-volume outsourcing value of work on the international stage, rather than remaining a consumption market for global technology systems.

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