‘No one who wants to work in tech can just stay in their lane anymore. This is at a different level. It’s about the way we work,’ says Ryan Barton, chief innovation officer at New Charter Technologies.
As AI transforms the way work gets done, executives at some solution providers say one disruption is a redefinition of the skills that matter in today’s labor market.
In collaboration with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Accenture developed the Wharton–Accenture Skills Index, a report measuring supply and demand for skills across roles and industries as well as how AI is redistributing value.
“We see a lot of labor impact right now, and there’s a pretty big shift in how the market is organizing,” James Crowley, global products industry practices chair at Dublin-based solution provider giant Accenture, and co-author of the Wharton-Accenture report, told CRN in an interview. “Specifically this notion and hypothesis that job titles will matter less and skills will matter more.”
One of the findings of the research is what Accenture, No. 1 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500, called a “signaling gap,” where leadership, communication and teamwork remain important, but there’s a shift being seen to more execution‑oriented skills. These include “contextual judgment, validation, technical depth, scientific fluency and the ability to apply expertise within real‑world environments,” skills the report suggest will become more valuable, not less, as AI takes on more work.
For solution providers, this means using AI to handle routine, repeatable cognitive work and using humans for judgment, coordination compliance and execution.
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Not all required skills are soft skills though. Solution providers like Accenture continue to see demand in data science, software engineering and AI infrastructure roles.
“If I was someone building skills this year, I’d want deep technical skill in AI infrastructure or agentic modeling, applied in an industry or functional context, and strong critical problem‑solving,” Crowley said.
But just as important is adaptability.
“The velocity at which skills are changing is quite fast,” he said. “Your ability to show that you can evolve, that you’re a self‑learner…that’s paramount.”
According to Mark Williams, the new must-have skill for hiring in an AI-native world is the ability to bridge technology and business outcomes.
“That’s the No. 1 requirement,” Williams, senior consultant, IPED, The Channel Company, told CRN. “It’s not enough to manage a network. You have to explain what the technology is going to do for the business, tied to workloads, tied to ROI. People don’t just buy agents to buy agents.”
IPED is the channel consulting arm of CRN parent The Channel Company.
“If you don’t train the next generation, you won’t have the next level of leaders,” he said. “People aren’t going away. The expectations are just changing.”
Internally, Accenture is re‑examining hiring, interviewing and performance management processes through a skills‑first lens and “investing heavily” in learning and development programs, according to Crowley. Leadership‑led learning also plays a role, with leadership expected to adopt AI tools in their own workflows.
“We’re taking this skill transition very seriously,” Crowley said. “Employers are educators of the future, but you have to create space for learning. We’re all running pretty fast.”
For Conduent, AI has moved from a capability to an expectation across the entire workforce.
“You can’t look at AI as a niche skill anymore,” Anthony Marino, chief administrative officer at the Florham Park, N.J.-based solution provider, told CRN. “It really has to be a necessary skill for all employees.”
Almost every role at Conduent includes a technical component, according to Marino, and much of that technology is embedded with AI. Because of that shift, HR leaders must now rethink how they hire, assess and reskill workers, especially as the pace of change accelerates.
“Heads of HR are trying to figure out, how do I reskill the workforce? How do I think about these skills when I’m selecting new candidates?” he said.
For 2026, Conduent’s hiring processes will emphasize digital fluency, learning agility and adaptability, not just familiarity with specific tools. “Everybody’s going to have to be a self‑paced learner,” said Marino (pictured above). “That means every one of us has to reinvent ourselves. If you’re known as a great problem solver and you use AI as a tool to enhance that, you’ll always be valuable.”
‘We Get To Paint Our Jobs In New Ways Now’
Another key skill is AI literacy. Both executives say the question is no longer whether employees will use AI, but how well they use it and whether they can translate that into business outcomes for customers.
“Every job is becoming an AI-enabled job,” Ryan Barton, chief innovation officer at Denver-based MSP New Charter Technologies, told CRN. “The question is whether you’re willing to step into that next suit and use it wisely.”
For Barton, AI literacy now sits at the foundation of hiring. His team works at the intersection of AI automation and client delivery, and a recent employee survey showed how strongly staff felt the tools enhanced creativity.
“We get to paint our jobs in new ways now,” he said.
He echoed both Marino and Crowley in that adaptability is a key skill he’s hiring for in 2026.
“It’s not just, ‘I want to learn the new technology.’ It’s, ‘I’m the person who makes this outcome happen, and I’ll creatively figure out how to do it,’” he said. “No one who wants to work in tech can just stay in their lane anymore. This is at a different level. It’s about the way we work.”
At Trace3, AI literacy is also expected across the organization. But for client-facing roles, the hiring bar is even higher.
“If we’re looking for someone to be client facing, we’re looking for a specific skillset,” said Melissa Maldonado, vice president of people and talent strategy at Trace3. “On the consulting and engineering side, we want folks who have experience designing and implementing AI solutions.”
For traditional IT roles, AI experience may not always be mandatory, she said, but it makes candidates stand out.
“If you have AI experience, it probably puts you right at the top of the candidate list,” she said. “But for general IT roles, it’s not always the leading necessity.”
Internally, the Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider has pushed for companywide AI engagement. Employees are encouraged to spend at least an hour a day working directly with AI tools. They even have interns majoring in AI.
But even as technical AI expertise becomes more valuable, executives still say human judgment and people skills are growing more important.
“There’s always that core of humble, hungry and smart,” Barton said. “People who can do the work well, be people-oriented and have good values. That’s becoming even more important in the age of AI because we really need to trust people’s discretion and decisions with this growing power.
“The ability to guide people through change because of AI, that skillset is going to be in massive demand,” he added.
