IT leaders must remember that in our ever-changing world, keeping employee skills sharp and ensuring they have the resources they need to stay current is key.

Growing corporate pressure

First, recent PwC research found a record jump in pessimism, specifically a six-fold increase in CEOs’ expectations for slower global GDP growth. Trade conflicts, political upset, and a projected slowdown in global economic growth have increased uncertainty and decreased confidence in revenue prospects. And these concerns aren’t unfounded, either. The need for creative, cost-effective technological solutions are a must in the digital age we live in. This puts the pressure squarely on CIOs, who will be expected to successfully implement such emerging technologies to drive business results.

For example, I was involved with prioritizing such a creative and cost-effective solution at a Fortune 500 company that was considering the construction of a fully equipped physical site to serve as a standby in case of disaster. It would have been expensive, and it might never have been used. The creative solution: a cloud-based standby site that provides greater capacity and flexibility at a lower cost. That kind of strategic thinking, which is valuable today, will become vital, especially if the economy turns south.

Skills to thrive

A second signal came last year via InformationWeek’s report that most company leaders (in tech-heavy sectors) expect deep learning to be a central aspect of their work in the future. That, combined with the fact that leaders see the main obstacle to implementing deep learning as a “lack of skilled people,” raises the possibility of a technological train wreck. The shortage of workers with skills could limit technologists’ ability to increase efficiency and deliver what end-users expect and demand.

The Business Roundtable, a non-profit group promoting a strong economy, also sent a signal last month, declaring a company’s obligations go beyond maximizing shareholder profits and include greater consideration of workers and suppliers. Considering the shortage of skilled workers, the statement has implications for CIOs seeking to recruit and retain tech workers or weighing the costs and benefits of outsourcing. This isn’t just a problem that HR faces.

Signals received … now what?

The broadening of the corporate mission, addressing talent shortages, and the possibility of an economic downturn all raise important questions for CIOs. How can their organizations find people who can clean, integrate, and extract value from big data so the company can move beyond baby steps toward artificial intelligence (AI)? How can they work with current employees to identify and automate work that is repetitive and routine? What technology investments should, and shouldn’t, be made today, given the potential for lower revenues and slower global GDP growth in the future? All these questions should be top-priority for CIOs.