Survey Reveals IT Pros’ Pain Points Amid Rapid Tech Changes

AI, job security, and shadow IT topped the list of concerns among IT professionals at small-to-midsized organizations.

JumpCloud, which provides a unified identity, device, and access management platform, recently released a report on the biggest hurdles IT professionals at small and midsized organizations say they are tackling as cybersecurity defense implementation and AI adoption loom large for most IT departments.

The report, “From Chaos to Control: Simplifying IT in the Fast Lane of Change” surveyed “hundreds of IT leaders” across the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, according to JumpCloud.

IT Professionals’ Major Concerns Amid Rapid Tech Changes

Shadow IT:

Ninety percent of IT admins surveyed are concerned about shadow IT, and they estimate that most of their organization’s employees are using one to five apps unauthorized by IT.

Thiry-eight percent complained of a lack of IT visibility, saying it was difficult to find out all applications in use in their organizations.

AI:

AI is another major worry. Sixty-seven percent of IT admins surveyed said they feared AI would outpace their ability to secure the technology. Thirty-seven percent said they were concerned that IT will eliminate their jobs.

However, those concerns about AI aren’t impeding adoption pace, according to the report. Forty-two percent of those surveyed said their organizations planned to invest in AI within the next six months. Seventy-seven percent said they plan to implement some form of AI within the next year.

Moreover, 49 percent of IT admins said they had an AI policy in place to guide employee usage. Forty-seven percent said they encouraged staff to use AI tools like ChatGPT.

Job Security:

IT professionals also expressed concerns about layoffs. Seventy-two percent of IT admins surveyed said they had gone through or anticipated layoffs within the next six months. Thirty percent said they have already experienced layoffs and anticipate more in the next six months.

IT professionals in Australia have the most concerns about layoffs at 81 percent having experienced them or anticipating them soon. Next, were IT admins from the U.S. at 69 percent, and then UK IT admins at 66 percent.

IT Budgets:

Despite some gloom, most surveyed said they remain positive about IT budgeting with 77 percent of IT admins saying they expect their IT budgets to increase over the next 12 months.

The survey also revealed the top areas of planned IT spending which include:

- Cybersecurity tools and services (48 percent)

- AI-related tools (42 percent)

- Cloud infrastructure (40 percent)

- IT service providers/MSPs (37 percent)

- IT asset management (35 percent)

- Additional IT staff (22 percent)

- Zero-trust technologies (16 percent)

IT Tool Sprawl:

Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said they would prefer to use a single tool for IT management. However, 48 percent reported using five to 10 tools to manage IT. Twenty-six percent said they use 11 or more tools.

Patching/Updates:

Keeping software updated was another cited hurdle. Thirty percent of survey respondents said that applying operating system patches took “hours” to rollout; 43 percent said it took “days”; 22 percent said “weeks”; and five percent said “months.”

Security:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 60 percent of respondents said security was their top IT challenge. Specific security concerns were software vulnerability exploits (34 percent), network attacks (33 percent), and unsecured network and ransomware worries tied next at 26 percent as among the top IT admins’ security concerns.

Seventy-two percent reported having a dedicated cybersecurity staff member on their team while 17 percent have access to one through an MSP. Ten percent reported having neither.

Read JumpCloud’s report in its entirety here.