97% of orgs lack the talent to run key IT functions, study finds

Most organizations lack talent with the right skills to effectively implement or maintain one or more key IT functions, according to newly released research by Pluralsight.

In a survey of 1200 tech executives and practitioners, only a fraction of respondents (3%) reported having the right skills to operate all their key business functions. 

By far, cybersecurity was the largest gap area, with more than a third (37%) saying they did not have the necessary talent to currently operate this function, at a time when cybercriminals are leveraging AI to conduct more sophisticated attacks at scale, putting more pressure on defensive teams.

Notably, cybersecurity gaps were actually larger at organizations pulling in more income. When it came to businesses pulling in $100 million or more in revenue, these cybersecurity skill gaps jumped to 41%, rather than being reduced.

This is likely because at larger organizations, cybersecurity teams must protect larger and more complex IT infrastructure from vulnerabilities and threats. Meanwhile, bigger organizations are more likely to break into silos, making it harder for cybersecurity teams to oversee staff behavior and ensure governance. 

Cybersecurity is certainly not alone in the talent struggle. Nearly a third of respondents (32%) said their organization lacked the skills to properly run their cloud operations. This is significant, given that most modern organizations run a majority of their workloads in the cloud, whether public or private.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, technology executives said that cloud computing and cybersecurity were the two most important growth areas for their business in 2026.

The annual study, conducted in July 2025, found one silver lining: the cybersecurity skills gap used to be significantly worse. In the same survey run the year before, nearly two in three organizations (65%) had reported struggling to implement or maintain this function. 

However, the number of organizations struggling to run at least one IT function remained unchanged, signalling an ongoing struggle by organizations to fill IT areas with properly skilled talent.

According to executives in organizations where talent shortages had gotten worse, more than a third of the time these struggles were due to simply not having the required skills (36%), as opposed to staff turnover or challenges with technology.

Overall, the study’s findings point to the need for widespread and continuous IT upskilling within organizations. Being unable to effectively run even one of these functions, especially cybersecurity and cloud operations, can significantly impair an organization’s mobility, competitiveness, and even continuity, should they be subjected to a large-scale cyberattack or disruptive service outage.