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As technology rapidly evolves, so too will the roles of those who lead its implementation. By 2030, tech leaders may find their roles significantly reshaped—not just by the tools they manage, but by the expectations placed on them as strategists, collaborators and ethical stewards of innovation.
Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share new, key roles they believe tech leaders will need to navigate within five years. From managing AI teammates to keeping up with global data laws, here are the important ways tomorrow’s tech leaders will shape industries and workplaces.
1. They’ll Optimize Tech Stacks
By 2030, IT leaders will spend most of their time optimizing a collection of services, orchestrating their interconnection and optimizing for end-user experience, security and cost. Experience-level objectives (or XLOs) will drive IT decisions and will align the goals of IT and the business. – Mehdi Daoudi, Catchpoint
2. They’ll Be Strategy Translators
By 2030, AI will democratize access to information and pattern recognition, making reps and deep discipline less essential. Tech leaders must excel at strategy translation, people leadership and staying deeply connected to evolving tech and customer trends. – Zoe Lu, Helium 10
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3. They’ll Be AI Ethics And Trust Architects
In five to 10 years, tech leaders may evolve into AI ethics and trust architects, not just innovation drivers. As AI integrates deeper into products and decisions, leaders must balance speed with responsibility, ensuring transparency, bias mitigation and human-centered design. The shift? From building tech fast to building it right—ethically, inclusively and sustainably. – Manav Kapoor, Amazon
4. They’ll Lead Automation Through AI Agents
The role will focus a lot more heavily on streamlining and automation, mostly using AI agents and engines, like Azure AI or AWS AI/ML. The main focus will be replacing outdated and manual processes with automated ones as much as possible. Thus, a tech leader will need to know how to leverage AI companies and service providers and understand the nuances. – Sabrin Freedman-Alexander, Cloudvoid
5. They’ll Guide AI Governance And Compliance
Tech leaders will be essential in guiding organizations through the AI transformation that many are just beginning to embrace. The importance of their role is considerable, particularly as it relates to establishing a governance framework related to AI usage. – David Culbertson, Computer Services, Inc.
6. They’ll Oversee Human-AI Collaboration
By 2030, tech leaders will shift from being primarily technology strategists to becoming leaders of human-AI collaboration. They will need to lead their organizations through an environment where AI, quantum computing and decentralized systems fundamentally reshape roles, hierarchies and even the shape of their products. – Apeksha Jain
7. They’ll Ensure AI Is Leveraged Effectively
Today, a tech leader spends a lot of time focused on technology. As AI becomes more capable, their team will need to work at a higher level of abstraction—more as the conductor of an AI orchestra rather than humans playing an instrument. More time will need to be spent understanding the needs of human customers and ensuring they’re leveraging AI effectively to satisfy those needs. – Dave Todaro, Ascendle
8. They’ll Become Fluent In Data Accuracy
Poor data costs companies nearly $13 million annually. Tech leaders must go beyond collecting data—they need to understand it. Reliable automated and AI processes start with proper setup, consistency and accuracy. In the next five years, leaders must be fluent in both data and the systems that power its collection. – Charles Crouchman, Redwood Software
9. They’ll Need To Be Hands-On Contributors Again
AI will automate many traditional tech leadership tasks in the coming years. The unexpected shift? Tech leaders may need to be hands-on contributors again, acting as technical product architects who deeply understand both the tech stack and AI-driven workflows. Their value will lie in bridging product vision with real-time, evolving technical feasibility. – Saurabh Sarkar, Chicory AI
10. They’ll Redesign Organizations Around AI
By 2030, agentic AI will redefine product development. Tech leaders, especially CPOs, must shift from scaling teams to scaling judgment. As AI takes on tasks from architecture to backlog grooming, success will hinge on designing organizations that harness AI as a teammate and restructuring roles around strategy, ethics and oversight, rather than execution alone. – Nick Burling, Nasuni
11. They’ll Act As Geopolitical Strategists
As technology becomes deeply entangled with global regulation, data sovereignty and digital borders, tech leaders might need to act as geopolitical strategists. They will be navigating fragmented internet laws (a post-GDPR world with multiple regional “splinternets”)—building infrastructure that complies with conflicting laws in the U.S., EU, China and so on—and making decisions based on political risks, not just technical ones. – Stefan Gogoll, andagon Holding GmbH
12. They’ll Manage Continuous Workforce Transformation
One unexpected shift for tech leaders by 2030 could be dealing with significant skills obsolescence driven by AI. While upskilling is already a focus, the speed and the scale at which AI might make some technical skills irrelevant could force leaders to manage continuous, rapid workforce transformation. This would demand an emphasis on adaptability and fostering a culture of ongoing learning. – Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk
13. They’ll Face A New Culture Of Engineering
Each new generation of technology typically lasts between five and eight years. We’re well-centered within the generative AI wave, which is disrupting not only how the average platform is built, but also the actual foundations of software engineering and, notably, the craftsmanship within the field itself. By 2030, tech leaders will be facing a whole new cultural dimension of work. Have you heard of vibe coding? – Venkatesh Jayaraman, ModMed
14. They’ll Evolve Into Generalists
By 2030, I believe all tech leaders will evolve into generalists. With AI making building a commodity, the edge will be in planning and cross-functional thinking. Tech leaders will need to deeply understand other disciplines—and other execs will understand tech just as well. The era of siloed expertise is ending. – Su Belagodu
15. They’ll Curate Rather Than Build
By 2030, the CTO may become less of a builder and more of a curator. As autonomous agents take over execution, leadership success won’t hinge on scaling headcount but on scaling judgment—knowing which lever to pull and when to leave it alone. The edge won’t come from doing the work yourself, but from having the understanding to decide what matters and letting machines do the rest. – Kamal Nahas, pap!
16. They’ll Handle AI-Induced Diagnostic Challenges
Some organizations will likely make “authoring code” faster at the expense of “diagnostic ability.” At the end of the day, it’s a human who takes responsibility to correct a malfunctioning system, and the significant adoption of AI tools to build systems will likely place a higher burden on technical leadership to figure out the root causes when things are not operating correctly. – Martin Snyder, Certara
17. They’ll Shift Away From General Decision-Making Positions
People assume only repetitive and rule-based tech jobs will be replaced by AI in the next few years, but that’s not the whole picture. Many high-skill roles will be subsumed, and leaders will need to adapt. Future team roles will include things such as supervision of AI agents, training AI models and human oversight of critical decision-making, rather than more general decision-making positions. – Hugo Farinha, Virtuoso QA
18. They’ll Illuminate Truth In An AI World
By 2030, tech leaders won’t just drive innovation—they’ll be truth investigators. As AI amplifies both information and misinformation, leaders must validate sources, discern facts from “plausible hallucinations,” and guide teams through a fog of noise. Leadership will hinge on discernment, trust and navigating a world where knowing what’s real is harder than ever. They’ll illuminate truth. – Teri Thomas, Volpara Health
