In recent years there has been quite a bit of talk regarding the jobs of the future, and preparing those currently in school with the necessary digital skills to fulfil roles that are yet to be fully realised.

In the more immediate future this is something that government Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in particular will need to be cognisant of, especially if Gartner’s latest research is to be believed.

The firm estimates that by 2023 half of the roles within government IT departments will be ones that don’t currently exist.

This according to their recent CIO survey, which also shows that the transition to a digital government is being to gain momentum.

More specifically Gartner found that 53 percent of government’s digital initiatives have moved from the design stage to the early stages of delivering outcomes, which is up from 40 percent from last year.

As for which digital initiatives governments will be looking to spend, it’s cloud services that’s the clear leader, with 39 percent of organisations delegating the largest chunk of their 2019 funding to that aspect.

“These findings demonstrate that leadership has become more comfortable with cloud delivery models and has moved away from concerns regarding security and data ownership,” says Cathleen Blanton, research vice president at Gartner.  

This move to greater digital proficiency also means that government’s IT departments need to address the necessary skills required.

“In many governments, roles of chief data officers and cloud architects are already present. However, it is worth noting that 38 per cent of government respondents did not introduce any new roles in 2018 due to insufficient resources, skills and cultural issues,” adds Blanton.

It will be down to the CIO to lead such changes within their respective governments says Gartner.

For example, as cloud services become more prevalent, the number of data centre management roles will decline. Added to this, the emergence of digital product management is changing how governments think about their services, and this will lead to the emergence of digital teams internally to design and deliver products, the research firm explains. 

“Government CIOs must employ experts to model and explain how citizens and businesses will need to respond to regulations and policies, and what impact that will have on society, the economy and government revenues,” concludes Blanton.