What Data Skills Are In Demand?

The data sector is rapidly expanding. The global data market is expected to rise to $473 billion by 2030, as businesses look to increase the data they have and leverage it to inform operational and strategic decisions.

With organisations aiming to maximise outcomes from their growing volumes of data, many are making strategic hires for their data teams, with several particular data skills in demand by employers.

Why are data skills in demand?

According to the World Economic Forum, AI and big data are number one on the list for the top technological skills in 2025. Specifically, they “are projected to grow in importance more rapidly than any other skills in the next five years”. So, what is driving this demand?

The rise of data

Data skills are in demand by employers due to the exponential rise of data available to organisations over the past few years. By the end of 2025, the volume of data created and captured is projected to have grown to 181 zettabytes globally, up from 149 zettabytes in 2024. Many businesses are struggling to maximise their data reserves, with 79% of small businesses storing around 50 terabytes of data, which often exceeds their capabilities. For perspective, one zettabyte is equivalent to 250 billion DVDs worth of data.

The reason why there has been a sudden increase in data is a direct result of the proliferation of digital data that businesses collect. From online forms to cookies and online shopping data, organisations are gathering higher volumes of user data than ever before. Correspondingly, these lines of information are becoming increasingly valuable. By tracking customer behaviour and identifying trends and patterns, businesses can look to maximise profits.

Data has evolved from an IT function to a core operational metric for many organisations. Consequently, this demand has led to a greater need for data specialists within organisations.

Data-driven decision-making

Making data-informed decisions has become a priority for business owners, with 65% of leaders aiming to be able to do this effectively by 2026. Data-driven decision-making has been found to give organisations a strategic advantage through improving business productivity and increasing profits by 10% on average.

AI investment

Another key reason for the rise in demand for data skills is the growing investment in AI. Data sits at the core of AI, with AI tools and platforms being built on data and often utilising company data to provide bespoke and targeted insights. For most businesses, AI is a priority. In fact, 92% of companies plan to increase AI investment over the next 3 years, however, only 1% of organisations believe they are at AI maturity.

One thing that is holding businesses back from fully implementing AI into their systems is poor-quality data. Incomplete, flawed, or inconsistent data cannot be reliably interpreted by AI tools, leading to inaccurate outputs. If businesses want to utilise AI, they need to improve the quality of their data, which is achievable through hiring skilled data professionals.

What data roles are in demand?

While the data sector is experiencing high demand across the board, there are a few specific data jobs that are very popular among employers that want to leverage their data to their advantage. Some of the key jobs most often required by organisations include:

• Data analysts – to clean and analyse data in order to identify trends and patterns that can help make future business decisions.
• Data engineers – to design, build, and maintain data infrastructure and systems, so that organisations are able to continue collecting, storing, and processing data.
• Data scientists – to extract, interpret, and transform raw data within organisations into actionable insights.
• Business intelligence (BI) professionals – this includes analysts, developers, and engineers that focus on reporting, dashboard creation, and data visualisation. BI professionals typically work with structured data and are less focused on advanced programming or statistical modelling. BI professionals tend to be more generalist roles, preferred by smaller businesses.

Companies that have large budgets and resources to build entire specialist teams, may have multiple employees who specialise in different areas of data engineering, data science, data analysis, and machine learning. However, many businesses have much smaller resources and so will hire generalist data and business analysts who can cover several responsibilities in analysing and extracting data. Some companies choose to engage contractors with niche skillsets for specialist tasks and projects.

While overall, we are seeing demand rise for all data professionals, each individual business will have differing requirements regarding the type of data professional/s needed.

What data skills are in demand?

Although data specialists cover a wide range of responsibilities and tasks, there are several vital data skills that are increasingly sought-after across the sector.

Cloud platforms

Some of the most sought-after cloud platforms are Databricks, Microsoft Fabric and Snowflake.

• Databricks is a multi-cloud platform with big data processing and a code-centric approach.
• Microsoft Fabric is a SaaS platform that integrates with Microsoft’s other business insight platforms and low-code tools.
• Snowflake is a cloud data warehouse that focuses on SQL-based analytics and business intelligence.

Experience in these platforms is frequently requested by hiring managers, as they are essential for data specialists within data processing and analysis.

Python & SQL

Languages such as Python or SQL are clear market leaders in the data sector. SQL is often used to access and sort raw data, whilst Python is regularly utilised when analysing big datasets and in machine learning. Depending on the individual role, data professionals may be required to understand one or both of these languages.

Business Intelligence

Proficiency with BI (business intelligence) tools is a vital skill for many data specialists. BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau are fantastic for professionals to use for tasks on data visualisation, generating data insights, and supporting business intelligence initiatives.

Cloud Computing

As the data that organisations accumulate grows, many businesses need to rely on cloud platforms, such as Azure, GCP or AWS, to store their data, rather than on-site servers. This means that for data professionals, understanding cloud platforms and services is becoming increasingly more important.

Machine Learning

While machine learning is not an essential skill for all data professionals, as companies increasingly look to implement AI, having some understanding of machine learning and other AI skills can be advantageous to data professionals.

Soft skills

In an era of increasing automation, interpersonal skills, such as stakeholder management and relationship building, will be how data professionals can future-proof their careers. Since data can sometimes be complex and difficult to articulate to stakeholders, data professionals need creativity and storytelling skills to present business insights in effective and compelling ways.

Overall, as companies expand their data capabilities and prioritise making data-driven decisions, key data skills remain high in demand for many organisations. Depending on each data professional’s exact roles and responsibilities, certain skills will be more important than others. However, there are competencies commonly asked for across the sector that IT professionals should look to possess and employers should actively seek out.

Are you searching for data professionals with these in demand data skills? VIQU IT is a BI & Data specialist recruitment agency with connections with talent across the data sector. If you would like to discuss with our team how we can help you secure the best data professional, click here to get in touch.