New survey data from recruitment giant Indeed has revealed the disparity between certain tech roles, with new updates on which roles are most likely to be cut in AI restructuring – and software engineers take the lead.
This data has also shown which roles are facing both shortages in demand as well as surpluses, taking into account the changing demands of the now AI-centered market.
Which Jobs are Being Cut?
As reported by Business Insider, the four top roles that have been cut once companies engage in AI restructuring are:
- Software engineers and developers
- Quality assurance engineers
- Product managers
- Project managers
When it comes to engineers, this only solidifies what we have been observing for quite some time. At the end of last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced that no more software engineers would be hired by the company in 2025 due to productivity boosts from AI.
In fact, he explained that AI was the “only thing that really matters today.”
AI gutting middle management is also not a new phenomenon, as companies engage in what Forbes writer Liz Etling describes as “unbossing” – thinning out middle management layers. It’s something that companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have already done, and is likely to continue. In fact, research specialist Gartner predicts that by 2026, 20% of organizations will leverage AI to eliminate more than half of their current middle management roles.
Which Jobs Are Benefiting?
Indeed was also able to determine which role areas work was being reallocated to, with the top areas being:
- Cybersecurity
- Data analytics/analysis
- AI teams
With AI being such a key focus, it is no surprise that companies are now gearing towards developing full AI teams – even if they don’t have a concrete direction or structure yet. But a key part of these teams will always be data specialists, as, if you haven’t already heard, your AI is only as powerful as your existing data.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, network and cybersecurity skills are projected to be the second-fastest-growing skill category worldwide, with the Information Security Analyst role ranking as one of the top 15 fastest-growing professions globally through 2030. Organizations are picking up on the importance of AI security fast, which is a welcome sight after the first emerging AI security breaches and attacks.
Salesforce’s AI Job Market
The state of the Salesforce job market might just be the most interesting state it has been in for years, with demand slowly on the rise but discrepancies being felt across varying roles.
There is no doubt that AI is and has been reshaping the job market, as my colleague Tom Morgan explained in his analysis of 10K’s latest Salesforce Talent Ecosystem report. Many day-to-day tasks are now being performed by AI agents, and it is currently unclear as to how many current Salesforce roles will exist in five years.
However, this fledgling AI era that we are currently living through could spell out promising results for roles like architects, data strategists, and business analysts who can navigate complex data sets, understand AI’s impact, and troubleshoot effectively. This also aligns with Indeed’s data.
But Salesforce professionals should still take this data – and Marc Benioff’s words – with a pinch of salt. At the time of writing, there are currently 202 open positions matching the search term “software engineer” on Salesforce’s official career site, with some of the top results being ‘Senior AI Software Engineer’, ‘Technical Support Engineer’, and ‘Lead Android Software Engineer’.
Over on LinkedIn, over 100 positions matched the same search term for roles in the UK, and in the US, companies hiring for software engineers included Google, Microsoft, and Live Nation.
Not only that, but Salesforce also has 85 jobs that match the “product manager” search term, 65 that match the “project manager” search term, and 365 that match the “AI” search term.
These positions were found using these specific search terms on Salesforce’s career site, using quotation marks for accuracy. Job listing results for the wider ecosystem may vary.
Final Thoughts
As I have mentioned before, the good and bad news about Salesforce’s job market and the wider tech market’s response to AI is that it is somewhat unpredictable. Research is currently being conducted to establish a clearer understanding of what is actually happening in companies and with employers, but different data sets will likely tell different stories for a few years to come.
All we know for sure is that the market continues to adapt, evolve, and change as AI progresses and filters into our existing workflows. Does this mean that software engineer jobs have been rendered obsolete? That the future lies solely in the cybersecurity field? Not exactly. Engineer roles may not be as abundant as they once were, but they’re still very much important and are actively being hired for. Cybersecurity roles are rising in demand, but not every company will be at that stage in their AI hiring process yet.
Here, my advice remains the same: there has never been any harm in upskilling, and now I would actively encourage AI upskilling, even if it doesn’t seem relevant to your role yet. You may not know which job you want to move to or how your current role will change, but you can at least prepare yourself and give yourself the best chance of success that you can.
