South Carolina tech leaders face AI workforce challenges

Technology in some form drives both daily operations and ongoing innovations in nearly every segment of the business world, and in the first quarter of 2026, members of the SCBIZ inaugural class of SC500  who work in the tech industry see a range of challenges and opportunities facing their sector.

“We are at an important inflection point in South Carolina and across the country,” said Reyna Thompson, North American president for TD Synnex in Greenville. “In South Carolina, we are a growing hub for advanced manufacturing, logistics, health care and financial services — industries that are all increasingly dependent on digital transformation, cybersecurity, data and AI. The talent coming out of our universities, combined with the strength of our business community, gives South Carolina a real opportunity to lead in applied technology, where innovation is tied directly to real-world outcomes.”

Thompson is uniquely positioned to see the challenges facing the tech sector because of TD Synnex‘s role in the industry. The company serves as a global “middleman” of sorts for the IT industry, connecting major technology manufacturers with businesses that sell or use their products. Her company distributes hardware, software and cloud services to resellers, while also offering support services such as financing, training and technical support.

“I see pace as the biggest challenge — technology is moving faster than many organizations’ ability to adopt it responsibility and at scale,” Thompson said. “Skills gaps, cybersecurity risk and the complexity of integrating new technologies into existing operations are very real concerns. There’s also pressure on small and mid-sized businesses to do more with fewer resources, which makes trusted guidance and strong partners more important than ever.”

Thompson said leaders in tech-related companies are concerned about new technology, particularly artificial intelligence, and the challenge of both having enough employees to work in the tech sector and enabling employees in other companies to receive the training they need to use the technology available to them.

Like many other sectors of the business world, the tech sector is facing a labor shortage. There simply aren’t enough students emerging from the academic pipeline to fill the constant need for tech workers.

“There is a restricted pipeline of new students, but also a gap between industry requirements and the educational institutions — this isn’t new and has been going on for years, but with technology accelerating even faster it’s not getting any better,” said Frederique Pirenne, CEO of Charleston-based OhmIQ, a company which works to advance sustainable heating technologies through its patented Ohmic Array Technology.

Part of the problem exists in the way existing tech education programs colleges and technical schools structure their course work, Perenne said.

In some cases, coursework doesn’t match the needs of local and regional companies looking to source employees from nearby tech programs. In others, the programs are structured in such a way that students aren’t exposed to enough material in the time they have, or focus on one project for too long, not allowing for exposure to a wider range of material.

Pirenne said one solution would be for more and better integration between how institutions plan course offerings and the ongoing needs and requirements of companies they partner with for internships and other programs. He also encourages tech education programs to focus on more frequent assignments of shorter duration.

“They must get higher paced than current cycles that often think students should have one large project that runs throughout an entire semester or even academic year,” he said.

Companies, meanwhile, must realize that working with area colleges and universities to source employees requires a time investment in engagement, training and building relationships, he said.

The sudden increase of smaller tech companies statewide, especially in the Charleston region where tech grew slightly over 7%, also means increased competition for the resources that are already there, Pirenne noted.

“With the housing market being as it is in Charleston, hiring from outside gets harder as the entry barrier requires higher salaries, putting more pressure on these companies,” he said. “For software companies remote working can be an option, but for hard-tech such as OhmIQ it’s only slightly possible.”

OhmIQ is dealing with a labor force problem in a two-fold manner. The company is integrating AI into its processes where it can take up some of the more time-intensive, routine work necessary to company function.

Pirenne’s company is also constantly in talks with area tech schools, colleges and universities to gain access to tech students interested in gaining real life experience at OhmIQ and possibly work at the company after graduation.

“We hope we can find commitment from universities and colleges to enable their students to learn from real life examples, and for us to build our engineers for the future,” he said.

Another challenge related to the workforce comes when companies have outdated processes or untrained employees that leave them open to being left behind by the constant innovation in technology, according to Alex Bolan, president and CEO of Simpsonville’s DigitalThinker.

“About 70% of manufacturers are still on some sort of analog process for asset management, using paper-based processes or Excel spreadsheets,” Bolan said. “Some facilities are still on legacy software systems or using pen and paper. Not a lot of the company’s institutional knowledge is being captured, and as newer workforce enters the arena they don’t have a lot to work with.”

Bolan said companies dealing with outdated processes need to look for digital solutions where possible to quickly help new employees learn about how things work.

The fastest growing and changing component of the technology sector is artificial intelligence, and tech leaders see vast opportunities for its use across every sector of business, from simplifying daily operations to marketing and helping employees do their jobs better.

Using AI to help workers learn more about their industries is one of the brightest opportunities according to Gina Anderson, president and CEO of Luma Brighter Learning based in Mount Pleasant. Founded in 2008, the company specializes in customizable digital learning modules, particularly for the transportation and logistics industries. Its core offering, eNuggets, offers microlearning opportunities in topics such as driver safety.

“We’re exploring AI uses to help individualize learning for every need a worker might have,” Anderson said.

OhmIQ’s Pirenne sees a few primary challenges from AI. One is the sheer infrastructure required to meet the increasing energy demand of AI. Data centers which fuel AI greatly impact existing power grids as well as on other resources such as water, and while there are increasing efforts to build them in South Carolina, they are more frequently meeting pushback from local residents concerned about rising power bills and environmental impact.

Another challenge Pirenne sees is the potential errors some tech companies might make when implementing the new technology.

“The use of AI includes the danger of putting too much information out there, pressuring your competitive position,” he said. “When using it one must be careful about what information you feed into it and how it’s treated. There is a risk of information getting out too quickly, which ends up helping the competition.”

Anderson said AI also brings with it specific security concerns that need to be addressed, and he cautions against companies adopting it too quickly or thinking they can immediately use it to replace human workers.

“AI is a tool just like a calculator,” she said. “It’s never going to replace human thinking and decision making. It’s a great way to make processes and data management easier.”

TD Synnex’s Thompson said whatever challenges arise, companies have to make sure they remember the most important component of what they do — employees.

“The companies that will succeed are the ones that invest not just in technology, but in people and training to build the skills, partnerships and operating models needed to turn innovation into sustainable growth.”