IGARSS 2026 Panel to Provide Update on Geospatial Workforce Preparedness in AI Era

Written by: Kevin Corbley

A featured panel at IGARSS 2026 will provide an update on the status of the geospatial workforce and a look ahead at what employers will expect in the coming years from individuals graduating with degrees in the geosciences, remote sensing, and related fields. This session is a must-attend event for students who will soon be seeking employment and for professors who need a better understanding of what employers are, and will be, seeking from graduates.

“Geospatial Workforce 2030: Industry Demand, Leadership Perspectives, and the Next Generation of Talent” will be held from 11 am to 12:15 pm EDT on Tuesday, August 11, at IGARSS in Washington, D.C. Moderated by Dr. Shawana Johnson, GISP, CEO of Global Marketing Insights, the panel will feature presentations by representatives of the government and industry sectors.

The session will present the latest details from a major ongoing Geospatial Workforce research study conducted by Dr. Johnson’s firm. She reported on initial results at GeoWeek 2026, which GRSS covered in this article, and will provide new insights during the IGARSS panel.

The Workforce research concluded the geospatial industry – like many others – is undergoing unprecedented transformation by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and unfortunately, current students are not receiving sufficient training in AI to meet the needs of both government and commercial employers once they enter the workforce.

“The geospatial workforce is 10 to 15 years behind where employers need it to be in terms of skills,” said Dr. Johnson in early 2026, adding, “IEEE GRSS and similar organizations are ideally positioned to rapidly help bridge the skills gap.”

Signs of Progress

Fortunately, the results of the Workforce study have been publicized extensively, and improvements have already been made. Dr. Johnson reports that many colleges and universities, especially smaller, more agile ones, took advantage of the U.S. government’s funding freeze and examined their own programs to see what enhancements could be made.

Overall, the Workforce panel at IGARSS 2026 will differ from earlier discussions that Dr. Johnson and her colleagues have presented over the past year or so.

“We’re going to set the stage for how the industry is already responding to the geospatial and the technical workforce shortage that we’re facing… they don’t want the professionalism of the geospatial talent to go away, the geodetic capabilities, the photogrammetric capabilities, and certifications of all the people, but they are making a very clear call for people that have AI skill sets,” said Johnson. “Our panelists will speak quite a bit about AI as a tool, not another piece of software that magically does your job for you.”

Pointing to signs of forward movement in academia, Dr. Johnson mentioned that several universities in the St. Louis area have teamed with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) on apprenticeship and other programs to create valuable educational pipelines preparing students to work in the “Cleared” environment of the U.S. Defense-Intelligence community.

The IGARSS Workforce panel includes:

Zorana Jelenak – University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Project Scientist working on contract to NOAA NESDIS is the Washington, D.C. area.

Timothy Leary – Defense & Intelligence Lead  for NV5, a private company working extensively with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

Grace Braver – Geospatial Analyst Summer Internship at ESRI, and recent graduate Summa Cum Laude, Master of Science, Geospatial Analysis, from East Tennessee State University.

This interdisciplinary panel will provide IGARSS 2026 attendees with a forward-looking assessment of the geospatial market through 2030 while candidly addressing one of the industry’s most urgent issues: how to attract, prepare, and retain the next generation of geospatial professionals.

Session attendees will learn the following:

• the current and projected economic outlook of the geospatial industry,
• major business growth sectors for remote sensing and geospatial analytics,
• workforce shortages and the evolving geospatial talent pipeline,
• hiring expectations from defense, intelligence, and commercial employers,
•  the disconnect between university curriculum and industry readiness,
•  the perspectives of emerging professionals entering the labor market, and
• actionable recommendations for businesses, universities, and professional societies to strengthen geospatial career development.

The Workforce panel is part of the IGARSS 2026 Technology Industry Education (TIE) agenda. Find more details at 2026.ieeeigarss.org/tie_events.php#geospatial-workforce-2030 .