AI: A double-edged sword. Will it enable IT departments to reshape their value or turn them into a "layoff-prone" area?
With the continuous deepening of digitalization and the ever - changing market environment, the current situation of IT departments in enterprises shows a trend of polarization: On the one hand, the digital transformation is accelerating, and the strategic position of the IT department in some enterprises has been improved; on the other hand, the widespread application of new technologies such as AI and automation has led to the lay - off of IT positions in some enterprises, and the IT department is even facing reorganization and optimization.
As far as the author knows, many IT colleagues are facing such a situation: severe internal competition among departments, a significant reduction in IT budgets, and a very unclear career prospect... So in this article, let's discuss why the IT department seems to be a "supporting role" and is prone to lay - offs?
From the internal perspective of the enterprise, the IT department has an inherent impression of being a "cost center". Especially when compared with the business department, the IT department is defined as the "spending" department, while the business department is the "money - making" department. Compared with departments that directly generate revenue or drive core business innovation, the IT department not only has a lower "visibility" in financial contribution, but also the value it brings is difficult to measure with intuitive financial indicators. Therefore, when the company needs to control costs, these "invisible" values are more likely to be abandoned first.
From the external perspective of the enterprise, new technologies are developing rapidly. Currently, there are various software suppliers active in the market. For example, the popularization of services such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS has significantly reduced the management requirements for local servers, storage, and network devices, and service providers have taken on a large amount of basic operation and maintenance work. In addition, the continuously popular AI and automation tools (configuration, management, deployment, monitoring) are rapidly penetrating, greatly improving efficiency, further expanding the scope of IT's role, and at the same time bringing more tool options for IT. However, on the other hand, this also puts forward higher requirements for the capabilities of the IT department. How to make good use of AI has become an internal skill that the IT department must cultivate. From the boss's perspective, AI can effectively reduce the demand for repetitive, low - value manual operators and may promote personnel optimization. Especially for some basic and standardized operation and maintenance work, not only enterprise leaders but sometimes even the IT department itself tends to outsource it to professional service providers with lower costs. Objectively speaking, over - relying on AI and service providers is a "double - edged sword" for the IT department.
Another aspect that cannot be ignored is that the IT department has difficulty in demonstrating strategic value and often plays the role of a "firefighter" or a "work - order executor". If the IT department fails to actively understand the business, optimize processes, promote technological innovation, and ensure business continuity and resilience, its strategic value will be difficult to be recognized by senior management. If the CIO also has insufficient communication skills, it will further lead to the inability to effectively convey to the management the key contributions and value of the work done by the IT department to the business goals. Over time, the IT department is likely to be "marginalized".
For this reason, the IT department is often regarded as a "supporting role" in the enterprise. Once the enterprise is in trouble, its members often bear the brunt of lay - offs. The reasons for prioritizing staff reduction in this department may be as follows:
First of all, it must be admitted that laying off employees in the IT department, especially those in outsourced or junior positions, can quickly show a cost reduction on the financial statements. The cost is easy to quantify and the effect is "quick".
Secondly, from the business perspective, management may have such a perception: laying off IT department staff has an indirect impact on the business. Cutting IT staff will not immediately affect sales or product development.
In addition, for some traditional IT department staff, their skills are outdated, with a high degree of manual and local operations, and they are gradually being eliminated by new technologies and automation. Outsourcing also replaces some work to a certain extent, which promotes the lay - off of some IT staff.
Objectively speaking, in the face of increasing market competition, performance pressure may force management to pay more attention to short - term results. Therefore, many leaders give priority to reducing short - term costs and laying off the IT team. However, such actions may also bring long - term risks, such as a decrease in system stability, an increase in security risks, and greater resistance to innovation. Therefore, the value of the IT department still needs to be reasonably judged in combination with the actual situation of the enterprise.
Surveys by relevant institutions show that as of 2024, about 70% - 80% of enterprises in China have used at least one digital tool, and about 20% - 30% of enterprises (mainly large enterprises and some medium - sized enterprises) have achieved digital integration of core business processes. As the digital transformation enters a deeper stage, the value of the IT department is further highlighted.
Undoubtedly, the digital transformation of an enterprise must be based on stable, reliable, efficient, and secure IT infrastructure and applications. The IT department is the key force to ensure that this "digital foundation" does not collapse. In addition, the rapid development of various new technologies, such as the in - depth application of cloud technology, big data, AI, and the Internet of Things, requires a high - level support team for deployment, management, and optimization, and the IT department is the best choice.
The "Vipshop outage incident" back then also sounded an alarm for many enterprises. Ensuring business continuity and avoiding foreseeable risks are crucial for enterprises. Especially now that enterprises highly rely on system stability, any minor fault may cause business disruptions, resulting in immeasurable losses. Therefore, the importance of the IT department as the primary line of defense against and response to such risks is self - evident.
Of course, in addition to internal threats within the enterprise, external threats also deserve high sensitivity and attention from enterprises. Cybersecurity incidents occur frequently, and the IT team shoulders the heavy responsibilities of system reinforcement, vulnerability patching, security monitoring, intrusion detection and response, and log analysis. It is a key role in protecting the enterprise's core data and assets from attacks.
Now, one of the urgent tasks for the IT department itself is to get rid of the label of a "cost center" and transform into a "value center". Of course, the "value center" mentioned here does not mean that IT should directly participate in business and sales to create profits for the enterprise. Instead, it should provide impetus and means for the enterprise from multiple dimensions such as cost reduction, efficiency improvement, empowerment, and innovation.
As a strength of the IT department, it can help the enterprise improve resource utilization and avoid cost waste through resource optimization, manpower reduction, technology selection, etc. For example, building and maintaining a powerful internal developer platform to provide self - service capabilities for developers, accelerating application delivery and innovation; using software engineering methods to ensure system reliability, scalability, and efficiency, and balancing stability and innovation speed; deeply understanding cloud platforms, designing and optimizing cloud architectures, and continuously optimizing cost and performance; further improving the level of automation, improving efficiency, and reducing errors and inaccuracies caused by humans; deeply building a security system; actively understanding business needs, using technical means to solve business pain points, and participating in business process optimization...
It is certain that even though the IT department is currently facing many challenges, it will not be completely abandoned in a certain period of time, but its form and responsibilities have changed greatly compared with the past. The traditional IT department that played a "supporting role" in the past will eventually be eliminated by the times. Today, enterprises need a modern team oriented towards business value. The future winners will definitely be those IT teams and practitioners who can actively embrace change, continuously learn, transform from "seeking stability" to "promoting innovation", from "ensuring operation" to "driving business", and from "system guardians" to "engineers of the digital ecosystem".
The real crisis for the IT department actually does not lie in technological changes, but in the shrinkage of value. When the IT team can clearly prove its indispensability for business continuity, cost optimization, innovation speed, and security, it is believed that the curse of "laying off IT first" will be self - defeated.
This article is from the WeChat official account "CIO Development Center" (ID: cio - ileader), author: Wang Yu. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.