Which IT Certifications Should You Get in the AI Era?
Artificial intelligence is changing what it means to build a career in IT.
For Zambia’s IT professionals, graduates and students, the question is no longer simply which programming language to learn or which certification to collect next. The bigger question is: where will human IT skills still matter as AI and bots becomes capable of doing more of the technical work?
AI can already generate code, write PowerShell scripts, analyse logs, create SQL queries, recommend firewall configurations and help troubleshoot systems.
That doesn’t mean IT careers are disappearing. It means the value is moving.
And for anyone considering IT careers in Zambia, this may be the right time to rethink both the certifications we pursue and, more importantly, the practical skills we develop alongside them.
Since AI can already generate code, write scripts, analyse logs, suggest firewall rules, create SQL queries, document systems and walk a technician through troubleshooting steps that previously required hours of searching. So an uncomfortable question is emerging for anyone building an IT career:
Which certifications are still worth getting in the AI era especialy if you live in Zambia?
There are several i can suggest but three stand out and these no one can take them away, they stood time since invetion of internet and networks:
- CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect
- CISA or CISM – for IT audit, security governance and management
There is a common thread connecting them. AI is very good at generating things. These certifications increasingly position you to be responsible for things. And responsibility is much harder to automate, actually we dont automate responsibility.
AI Can Give You the Answer But It Cannot Own the Consequences
Ask AI how to configure a firewall and it can produce commands.
Ask it to design an AWS environment and it can propose an architecture.
Give it a security log and it may identify suspicious activity within seconds.
But somebody still has to decide whether that recommendation should be implemented.
Someone must understand the organisation, assess the risk and eventually accept responsibility when things go wrong.
That distinction will become increasingly important.
The valuable IT professional of the AI era may not necessarily be the person who can remember the most commands.
It will be the person capable of asking AI the right questions, recognising when its answer is wrong and taking responsibility for the final decision.
That is why certifications such as CISSP, AWS Solutions Architect, CISA and CISM remain interesting.
They sit closer to architecture, security, governance, risk and responsibility than simply performing repetitive technical tasks.
But Zambia Has Another Problem
There is an important warning for the Zambian IT industry.
We must not confuse certification with competence.
We already have plenty of people collecting certificates primarily for career progression.
Someone gets a cybersecurity certification and immediately wants to become Cybersecurity Manager.
Another completes a Master’s degree and wants to become Head of IT.
Another collects several professional qualifications and expects to supervise everyone with fewer papers.
Nothing is inherently wrong with career progression.
The question is:
Boss over what?
A person can have an impressive cybersecurity qualification and still struggle to practically investigate a compromised computer.
They may understand risk assessments, incident-response frameworks and cybersecurity terminology extremely well.
Then a real incident occurs.
A server behaves strangely.
Accounts start locking.
Users report suspicious emails.
Network traffic suddenly looks unusual.
The organisation turns towards its cybersecurity people.
And the response is:
“We need to call an external consultant.”
There is nothing wrong with outsourcing specialised work. Even highly capable IT departments use external specialists.
The problem is when the person employed specifically for that responsibility cannot perform even the initial practical investigation.
A CISSP Who Cannot Troubleshoot Is Still a Problem
The AI era actually makes practical competence more important.
Imagine having CISSP on your CV but being unable to examine Windows Event Logs, understand basic network traffic, investigate authentication failures or identify why a machine cannot communicate with a server.
The certificate may help demonstrate theoretical knowledge.
It cannot troubleshoot the network for you.
The same applies to cloud.
An AWS certification becomes considerably more powerful when the person has actually deployed systems, configured networks, dealt with permissions, broken things and repaired them.
And CISA becomes more meaningful when the auditor understands the technology being audited rather than merely working through a compliance checklist.
Certification should validate knowledge. Practical experience turns that knowledge into capability.
Zambia Needs to Change How We Learn IT
The Zambian technology environment actually gives us an excellent opportunity to develop strong IT professionals.
Many local IT departments are small.
That means one administrator may encounter Windows Server, Microsoft 365, SQL Server, MikroTik, VMware, Linux, ERP systems, backups, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure in the same job.
Instead of seeing that as an inconvenience, young IT professionals should recognise the opportunity.
Build things.
Install Windows Server.
Create Active Directory.
Configure a MikroTik.
Build VLANs.
Deploy Linux.
Create an AWS lab.
Install SQL Server.
Break something deliberately and troubleshoot it.
Study cybersecurity, but also learn what an attack actually looks like on a machine.
Use Wireshark.
Read logs.
Understand DNS.
Understand TCP/IP.
Restore a backup.
Recover a deleted virtual machine.
Configure a firewall.
Then get certified.
That combination is considerably more powerful than collecting certificates alone.
Don’t Compete With AI at Memorising Commands
There is another reason practical understanding matters.
AI is rapidly becoming better than humans at remembering syntax.
Trying to build an IT career around memorising hundreds of commands may therefore become less valuable.
Understanding why you are running the command becomes more important.
AI might tell you:
Run this PowerShell command.
A competent administrator should still ask:
What exactly will it change?
AI might recommend opening a firewall port.
You should ask:
Why is that port required, who will be able to reach it and what security exposure does it create?
AI might generate a SQL statement that fixes your problem.
Before executing it against a production database, somebody needs to understand whether it could destroy data.
That somebody is you.
The Winning Combination: Certification + Practical Skills + AI
The argument therefore isn’t that certificates are becoming useless.
Quite the opposite.
But the formula is changing.
Certification alone = knowledge on paper.
Practical experience alone = useful technical ability.
AI alone = an extremely powerful assistant without accountability.
Put the three together and you have something much more valuable:
Certification + Practical Experience + AI = Modern IT Professional
Get CISSP if security is your direction.
Get AWS Solutions Architect if infrastructure and cloud architecture interest you.
Consider CISA if your direction is IT audit, controls and assurance, or CISM if you are moving towards information-security management.
But don’t collect them simply because the letters will look impressive after your name.
Use them to deepen skills you are actually developing.
Because the future IT manager shouldn’t simply be the person with the most certificates in the department.
It should be someone capable of understanding the technology, using AI intelligently, challenging its recommendations and taking responsibility for the decisions that follow.
AI Still Needs Someone on the Ground
AI can analyse.
AI can recommend.
AI can generate.
AI can automate.
But every serious IT system still needs somebody responsible for keeping it running, secure and aligned with the organisation.
That is where the opportunity lies.
Don’t collect certifications simply to become the boss.
Build practical competence until you understand what you are becoming the boss of.
And don’t compete against AI.
Learn to leverage it.
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