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Tech skills are rising in importance for non-tech roles too I happened to be scrolling through job postings on Indeed just the other day and ran into this line: “Must have experience using Generative AI tools for XYZ.” What struck me wasn’t the AI skills requirement itself, but the fact that the role being advertized wasn’t connected to tech in any way. In fact, the organization hiring for the role wasn’t even a tech employer. But this is not a unique situation. About “51% of job postings requiring AI skills are outside IT and computer science occupations, with explosive 800% growth in generative AI roles across non-tech industries since 2022,” Lightcast’s analysts report. As our world and global workplace becomes increasingly digitized, we’re finding more roles that are traditionally non-tech occupations, have requirements for tech skills such as artificial intelligence fluency and tools (applied AI), data literacy, and even aspects of software and web development. 5 High-Income Skills To Include In Your Resume In 2026 Think about it. Roles like: Digital marketing manager HR manager/talent acquisition lead Project manager Head of operations Healthcare administrator Compliance officer Retail director and many more, require some level of proficiency in at least one or more of these tech skills, which are now non-negotiable to include on your resume: Software development Cybersecurity This is because the roles I listed (especially management and leadership-level roles) will require digital and human collaboration, or at the very least, management and awareness of these systems so you can effectively lead your team and engage with stakeholders. MORE FOR YOU And beyond this, even as an entrepreneur, freelancer, start-up founder, or business leader in a small business setting, these skills are even more essential as your headcount will literally be a team of one or just a few to begin with, and you won’t be able to outsource this expertise right away. Furthermore, each of these five skills have strong job growth potential in themselves, according to BLS data, and they’re also high-income skills. As examples: AI skills pay up to a 47% salary premium when paired with regular jobs. Cloud skills pay $148,067 when you’re a cloud architect, according to Coursera. Software development skills give you an average salary of $129,326 in the United States according to real-time data from Salary.com, and you can earn significantly more in senior-level roles. IT ops managers in the United States can make as much as $161,290 on the higher end of the salary range, and about $147,390 on average. Cybersecurity skills pay $136,692 yearly in the United States, and the salary goes up as you become more specialized. And finally, if you didn’t realize just how critical cybersecurity skills are, even outside of tech and the cybersecurity industry, you can check out my recent article on the recent AWS outage here. 5 Certifications & Courses To Put On Your Resume To combat the tech skills gap and to ensure professionals have expertise from trusted, vetted industry professionals, different organizations like Adobe, Coursera, Codecademy, LinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight have expert-led courses and certifications. You can include these certifications within your resume to demonstrate your proficiency and familiarity with specific tech skills and tools. I decided to pick one of these, Pluralsight, and include below five Pluralsight courses (which guide you to relevant certification tracks) to help you learn each of the five tech skills listed earlier in this article (taken from their website): AI: Generative AI Foundations: Prompt Engineering Learn how to interact with AI models and tools effectively. Cloud: Exploring Amazon Q Developer Understand how cloud-based AI assistants streamline work across roles. Developer: JavaScript Fundamentals Build foundational JavaScript skills by mastering data types, asynchronous programming, and modular code organization. IT Operations: Getting Started with Kubernetes Learn how to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes and its core components. Cybersecurity: Incident Response: Detection and Analysis Learn the basics of identifying and responding to cybersecurity threats. Some courses are paid, and come with certifications. Others are free, and are a fantastic entry point to help you achieve baseline tech literacy “and a broad introduction to the various tech domains,” Chris Herbert, Pluralsight’s Chief Content Officer, explains. “Our free library gives learners an opportunity to take control over their own learning by demystifying the lingo and explaining the tools and disciplines that exist within tech, and then they can use that knowledge to pursue further upskilling and reskilling.” The on-demand courses are expert-led, meaning they’re taught by professionals “who have at least 10 years of experience in their fields on average, and many authors have much more,” he says. “Our authors have built professional careers across various sectors within business and government, so we can help individuals gain insight into the skills that are in demand by employers across the board.” Gaining a certification or completing an online upskilling course is nothing without hands-on practice, so I asked Herbert, “How do the hands-on labs work?” “Labs offer hands-on experience to accelerate the learning process,” he said. “These are safe environments that are disconnected from an organization’s critical systems so that technologists can practice their skills without putting their organization’s operations or information at risk. Our labs enable learners to develop a stronger proficiency in a specific skill or technology through step-by-step instruction, practice exercises, and projects. Everyone learns differently, so we offer a variety of ways to learn, but labs help users practice and demonstrate their skills in an environment that simulates real-world working conditions.” More managers and leaders will need to be tech-savvy, especially in cloud, software development, AI, and cybersecurity The main takeaway here is that you don’t need to directly work in tech to need tech certifications and skills on your resume. If you want to stand out in the job market, effectively lead your team, operations, and technology, and boost productivity and revenue while raising your own salary ceiling, pick up one of the courses and certifications from the providers I mentioned earlier (Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, etc.) and start mastering these skills. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
