How IT Pros Can Reduce Their Risk of Being Replaced by AI

If you’re in IT, you’ve probably had many late-night thoughts along the lines of, “Could AI do my job someday?” With all the hype around generative AI, automation, and machine learning, it’s a fair question. But here’s the good news: IT pros who stay proactive don’t have to worry about being replaced—they can position themselves as irreplaceable.

So, how do you reduce the risk of AI creeping into your job description and quietly pushing you aside? Here are five solid steps you can take.

1. Stop Competing With AI—Start Using It Instead

The quickest way to fall behind is to treat AI like the enemy. The truth is, AI isn’t here to completely wipe out IT roles—it’s here to handle repetitive, boring tasks. Think log parsing, patching, and monitoring routine alerts. You know: the stuff you don’t like doing anyway.

Instead, embrace those kinds of AI tools and learn how to make them work for you. Now, when the boss gives you the annual “do more with less” speech, you can actually comply. That makes you more valuable, not less.

2. Do the Things AI Can’t Do

AI is fast, but it’s not creative (despite what you may have seen with things like video generation). It’s great with patterns, but not so much with judgment calls. And it definitely doesn’t handle tricky conversations with frustrated users or nervous executives. It has no intuition. 

So the more you sharpen your “soft skills”—like communication, leadership, and problem-solving—the harder it is to replace you. Machines can’t build trust or reassure a client when the network goes down. You can.

3. Level Up, Rather Than Give Up

Some IT pros are more at risk than others. If your day-to-day work revolves around manual tasks that can be automated, that’s a red flag. But instead of throwing in the towel and trying to learn how to be a TikTok influencer, start leveling up. 

Learn cloud architecture, cybersecurity strategy (or a subset of security, like ransomware), DevOps, or AI integration itself. Companies will always need IT pros who can design, secure, and scale systems—not just maintain them. 

Think of it this way: if AI is the shiny new toolbox, you want to be the expert who knows how and when to use each tool.

4. Get Comfortable With Change

Technology has always been about change. Remember when virtualization sounded scary? (As the founding editor of Virtualization Review magazine, I do.) Or when cloud computing was supposed to wipe out sysadmins? (Spoiler: it didn’t.) The IT pros who adapted became cloud specialists and built entirely new careers. 

The same thing will happen with AI. If you make adaptability a priority, you’ll be ready