Artificial intelligence is dominating the advanced technology industry in Spokane County and across the globe, with public awareness of its applications reaching everyday users this year, says Heather Stratford, CEO of Spokane-based cybersecurity training platform Drip7 Inc.  

"Just a few years ago, it was something that very few people touched or used on a daily basis," says Stratford. "With ChatGpt and some of the others, regular people in all kinds of industries are leveraging AI in ways we haven't seen before."

Supporters of AI tools are advocating for continued innovation that will incorporate more of the technology into people's daily lives, she says.

"Drip7 is bringing artificial intelligence to its platform," says Stratford. "We have it in beta stage right now."

Companies are adapting to new tools made possible by AI with a goal to increase productivity with a reduced workforce, she says.

"They're asking employees to do more and use more tools to hire less people and have more productivity," Stratford explains.

The advanced technology workforce has been saturated with workers who were laid off by some large West Side tech companies, but workforce demand remains for nontechnical and entry-level roles, she says.

Cybersecurity and privacy will remain top industry concerns again in 2024, and Stratford says she expects to see new laws address concerns next year.

"Privacy will become a bigger issue in 2024, especially with AI," says Stratford. "And we're going to see more regulation on it."

Mike McBride, business and industry analyst for Spokane Workforce Council, says his data supports Stratford's observations.

"Job posting data for the IT career has dropped significantly in this past year, compared to 2022," McBride says. "The kind of hiring craze that was going on for the last couple of years has certainly slowed down."

As a result, high-profile tech layoffs are causing a decline in the number of remote job postings in the Spokane area. 

Still, analytics show the high-tech workforce is growing about twice as fast as the overall job market. Computer occupation growth is expected to be double the growth rate of the overall Spokane economy in about five years, McBride says.

There are 5,500 advanced technology-related jobs in Spokane, that will climb to 6,200 in the next five years, he says. Software developers comprise the largest group of workers in computer occupations in Spokane County, and growth likely will continue for these roles going forward. 

Computer support specialists are the second-most in-demand workers in information technology, he adds.

The weakest demand in tech jobs this year is for computer programmers and coders, due to increasing complexities that have now fallen under the advanced capabilities of software developers.

Wages remain strong for workers in the high-tech industry, according to Lightcast workforce statistics provided to McBride for December. Lightcast is a labor market analytics company headquartered in Moscow, Idaho.

Of 942 advertised salaried postings, the median hourly wage is $39.08. Over 125 posts published an annual salary range of $120,000 to $300,000, Lightcast data shows.

The top three industries that post openings for tech-related workers here involve health care, information technology, and education, according to the labor analytics company.

"IT is one of those career paths that has very good wages locally," says McBride.