AI sprint could solve IT staff shortage in Norway

“Norway is losing the AI ​​race in the Nordic region,” ICT-Norway’s Øyvind Hasby wrote in his Digi column on May 28. He launched a seven-point plan to reverse the trend. The plan is good. However, there are two particularly interesting aspects that should be taken into account in the discussion.

Finland is at the top

Latest poll Amnesty International's Northern Frontier This is what Capgemini did among 271 managers from the Nordic countries, showing that Norway and Finland are the Nordic countries that will strongly increase the use of generative AI in the next six months. He could be our salvation.

The survey shows that Finland is the quickest to seize opportunities and consistently best at implementing AI solutions for service automation. In Norway, 87% of managers discuss generative AI. It lags behind Finland, but is still far ahead of Denmark and Sweden.

In fact, Norwegian business leaders have great confidence in the power of generative AI, and are among the most forward-looking leaders in the Nordic countries. Sweden ranks last in expected transformation effects, and corporate training is also not a priority. So, we're not last, but we're not leading the AI ​​race either.

Artificial intelligence automates information technology

This brings us to the next interesting relationship. Information technology has for many years been a big growth industry in Norway. IKT-Norge and Abelia have long fought for a sharp increase in the number of study places to fill the need and shortage of competent workers in this sector. The estimate of the IT staff shortage in Norway ranged from 30,000 to 70,000 man-years.

With AI comes big changes, and the way we work and our roles will be different. This also applies to the IT industry. Radical reductions in the need for new IT workplaces are a likely result of the efficiencies now being achieved with the help of artificial intelligence. As efficiency gains are significant in everything from programming to monitoring and maintaining digital solutions, AI is expected to reach workplaces within software and infrastructure first. This, according to Report of the main characters of Abelia From 2022, the two largest groups in Norway are IT workers.

A more balanced labor market

Based on Capgemini's major international IT projects, we've seen that the areas of IT development and IT operations can deliver savings of 15 to 45 percent. It requires that we use the opportunities provided by technology to automatically build software code, write documentation, manage infrastructure, perform testing, and control staffing on IT projects.

When used on a large scale, generative AI will be able to reduce 120,000 Norwegian IT jobs by up to 30,000 man-years if we take into account that some tasks are also on the margins of what can be improved. Some large public IT programs are particularly well suited to such efficiency and will be able to significantly change the need for more competent IT people. The result is a more balanced Norwegian labor market for IT employees.

Without a large skills deficit in the IT sector, we have the opportunity to catch up with Finland. If we want.