Employers are paying less for certain IT tasks: report

A recent analysis from the ADP Research Institute and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab has found that certain IT tasks have lost value since AI hit the scene.

When comparing pay between 2019–2022 (dubbed “pre-AI”) and 2023–2025 (dubbed “post-AI”), routine IT tasks such as diagnosing equipment problems and setting up computer systems and networks have depreciated in value, the report found.

Other IT tasks associated with lower pay included analyzing the performance of systems and maintaining technical equipment.

The findings are based on an analysis of payroll data from 7,000 IT workers, as well as “job posting descriptions of tasks and examined worker pay associated with the jobs” in the sample pool. ADP and Stanford identified 25 activities associated with IT jobs and estimated the wage premium or penalty associated with each task.

Pay up. The analysis found that “design and evaluation tasks” are often thought of as high-value IT work. Tasks associated with a higher wage included:

• Designing databases or electronic systems and equipment
• Describing the technical details of a product or service
• Directing technical activities

Changing times. The industry has also been examining how AI is impacting the role of the IT professional at a skills level. CompTIA VP of Industry Research Seth Robinson told IT Brew building skills has now become a “layered process” that requires IT pros to develop AI skills on top of the basic ones.

“If most of their job has been centered around only doing the core skill job part of it and they haven’t really extended beyond that, that’s where there’s more risk,” Robinson said. “There’s less risk if they can learn how to build on top of those core skills and then use technology to extend or augment the work that they’re doing.”

Caveat. While the findings are concentrated on the value of individual job tasks, it’s important to note that jobs encapsulate much more than that.

“[Jobs] can’t be broken down into these component parts. That’s not to say there isn’t value in understanding the component parts and where technology, whether that’s AI or any other kind of technology, could help,” Robinson said. “But I would hesitate on drawing a conclusion between identifying individual skills and identifying the impact on larger job roles.”