Technologies and Skills
LEADSx2030 has developed an AI-powered data model to analyse and forecast the demand for advanced digital skills in Europe, based on online jobs postings.
It processed a total of 3M job advertisements, identified 200 thousand that met basic criteria, including reference to advanced digital skills, from which it analysed a wide sample of 10 thousand.
Categorised by technology area Skill pockets defined
ADS demand by tech area 2025
Data science, cybersecurity and AI top the chart for 2025, with more than 110 thousand job postings requiring relevant skills.
ADS demand by tech area 2025
Some notable changes from 2021 are the drop of Robotics, IoT and Cloud Computing, as well as the rise of Cybersecurity over AI.
These changes do not necessarily reflect the (de) growth of the respective tech areas, but can be rather influenced by preceding hiring booms, e.g. during the Covid pandemic.
In the LEADSx2030 data model, ADS are intelligently aggregated into skills pockets, which group together similar or complementary skills.
Top skills pockets 2025
| Skill Pocket | Rank 2025 | 2025 |
| Information Security | 1 (2) | 58977 |
| Data Protection | 2 (0) | 56656 |
| Data Analytics | 3 (-2) | 54864 |
| Information Systems | 4 (7) | 52397 |
| Data Engineering | 5 (0) | 46294 |
| Business Analytics | 6 (11) | 43637 |
| Data Management | 7 (-3) | 38428 |
| Programming | 8 (-2) | 34549 |
| Systems Engineering | 9 (17) | 33394 |
| Software Development | 10 (4) | 32650 |
| Cloud Services | 11 (2) | 32282 |
| Experience Design | 12 (9) | 32215 |
| DevOps | 13 (-5) | 31416 |
| Business Technologies | 14 (-5) | 31199 |
| Machine Learning | 15 (12) | 31102 |
Cloud security
22nd (+18)
Biggest riser
2023 – 2025
33rd (-21)
Biggest loser
2023 – 2025
Quality security
Information Systems Index
Information systems is a broad skills pocket which applies across several tech areas.
Its major presence perhaps indicates that generic IT skills are being referenced in job ads, while industries seek to define new emerging skillsets.
Overall, there is a notable trend for the increase in security solutions, data management and governance skills, with a corresponding drop for the more infrastructure and less engineering-based skills pockets. Such examples including testing, UX, knowledge and applications.