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Managers · code 1330

Information and communications technology service managers

AI can write code and monitor systems. Deciding what the business should trust it with is still an IT manager.

AI could take a fair chunk of three of the eleven tasks, including working out what tech is needed and keeping an eye on security. Leading the tech team and hiring are mostly out of its reach.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Information and communications technology services managers plan, direct and coordinate the acquisition, development, maintenance and use of computer and telecommunication systems, either as the manager of a department or as the general manager of an enterprise or organization that does not have a hierarchy of managers. Tasks include - (a) consulting with users, management, vendors and technicians to assess computing needs and system requirements, and specifying technology to meet those needs; (b) formulating and directing information and communication technology (ICT) strategies, policies and plans; (c) directing the selection and installation of ICT resources and the provision of user training; (d) directing ICT operations, analysing workflow, establishing priorities, developing standards and setting deadlines; (e) overseeing the security of ICT systems; (f) assigning, reviewing, managing and leading the work of systems analysts, programmers and other computer-related workers; (g) evaluating the organization’s technology use and needs and recommending improvements such as hardware and software upgrades; (h) establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources; (i) establishing and directing operational and administrative procedures; (j) overseeing the selection, training and performance of staff; (k) representing the enterprise or organization at ICT-related conventions, seminars and conferences. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Application development manager - Chief information officer - Data operations manager - Data processing manager - ICT development manager - Information systems director - Information technology manager (IT manager) - Internet service provider - Network manager

  • chief technology officer
  • ICT documentation manager
  • chief data officer
  • telecommunications manager
  • ICT vendor relationship manager
  • ICT project manager
  • chief information officer
  • ICT operations manager
  • ICT product manager

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

56 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 2

350 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 11 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 44 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 44 = 56.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 20.4 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Information and communications technology service managers 56

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Technology assessments.
  • Security monitoring.
  • Operations and workflow analysis.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Strategy and risk decisions.
  • Leading technical teams.
  • Managing vendors and users.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • AI governance and security.
  • Managing AI coding tools.
  • Cloud and AI costs.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

38 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 70 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

20 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 24 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

20 How
hands-on
24 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 28.6 · hand skill 28.6 · cramped spaces 14.3 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 56, against an average of 44. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 56

    Evaluating the organization's technology use and needs and recommending improvements such as hardware and software upgrades

    Medium
  2. 51

    Overseeing the security of ICT systems

    Medium
  3. 51

    Directing ICT operations, analysing workflow, establishing priorities, developing standards and setting deadlines

    Medium
  4. 47

    Directing the selection and installation of ICT resources and the provision of user training

    Low
  5. 44

    Establishing and directing operational and administrative procedures

    Low
  6. 44

    Formulating and directing information and communication technology (ICT) strategies, policies and plans

    Low
  7. 44

    Consulting with users, management, vendors, and technicians to assess computing needs and system requirements and specifying technology to meet those needs

    Low
  8. 44

    Establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources

    Low
  9. 40

    Representing the enterprise or organization at ICT related conventions, seminars and conferences.

    Low
  10. 35

    Assigning, reviewing, managing and leading the work of systems analysts, programmers, and other computer-related workers

    Low
  11. 31

    Overseeing the selection, training and performance of staff

    Low

11 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
70
AI does it for you
38

Sidekick wins, by 32 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1351

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

35
65

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.45% of the conversations.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should IT managers be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of the job are changing. Evaluating technology, security and directing operations are rated Medium; resources, procedures, strategy, requirements, budgets, representing and leading staff are Low. AI takes on more operations; strategy, risk and leadership stay human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 30 jobs in the “Managers” family, averaging 64. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →