The Charity Digital Skills Report 2026 is out and one thing stood out more than anything else.
For all the conversation about AI, the biggest challenge facing the sector isn’t the technology itself. It’s skills.
79% of charities are now using AI in some form, yet limited skills and technical expertise is now the biggest barrier to making progress. At the same time, nearly half of charities don’t have digital expertise on their board, a third rate their board’s AI skills as poor, and training has become the number one funding priority across the sector.
From a recruitment perspective, none of this is surprising.
Over the last 12 months, I’ve seen growing demand for digital, data and technology talent, but I’ve also seen organisations wrestling with questions that aren’t solved by a single hire. How do you build digital capability across an organisation? How do you equip leaders and trustees to make informed decisions about technology? How do you create the capacity to move forward when budgets are already stretched?
The sector is clearly moving. More charities are making digital progress and AI adoption continues to grow. There feels to be a widening gap between organisations that have the skills, leadership and resources to take advantage of these opportunities and those that are struggling to keep up.
The report reinforces something I hear time and again when speaking to charity leaders and hiring managers: digital transformation is rarely a technology problem. More often, it’s a skills, leadership and capacity problem.
The charities that invest in people alongside technology will be the ones best placed to navigate what’s coming next.
Looking forward to hearing more from Zoe Amar FCIM on this….