5 skills DAM Managers need to master in 2026

24th September 2025

If you’re a DAM Manager or similar Digital Asset Management professional, you might’ve noticed that your day-to-day role has changed quite a lot in recent years.

Although you’ll still be doing many of the same tasks you’ve been doing your whole career, such as metadata tagging and auditing, user access management and creating asset collections, there’s no doubt that the scope of the DAM Manager has changed massively in the last few years—and this has had a big impact on the Digital Asset Management skills you need to master.

Why DAM Manager roles are evolving

A Digital Asset Management system is no longer a simple storage solution, but instead a complex ecosystem at the heart of an organisation’s sales and marketing efforts. 

As a result, the responsibilities of a DAM Manager has changed significantly, and they now find themselves having to manage integrations with the wider tech stack, ensuring compliance with licensing and privacy legislation, and managing user groups across multiple departments.

This has also led to a shift in the required skillset of DAM Managers, including a blend of strategic oversight and hands-on expertise.

5 Core technical skills for 2026

Let’s take a closer look at five of the core technical skills that DAM Managers need to master in 2026 to ensure they’re able to continue getting the best from their Digital Asset Management system.

AI & automation for workflow optimisation

DAM Managers have a lot on their plates, but artificial intelligence is offering workflow efficiencies across the entire asset workflow.

READ MORE: Exploring the ResourceSpace-OpenAI integration

From automated metadata tagging to faster asset discovery, AI adoption allows you to focus on the more complex projects that in the past were frequently delayed in favour of the day-to-day firefighting and admin tasks that dominated your time.

AI functionality is being rolled out by most of the major DAM platforms, (including ResourceSpace) and although you won’t need a qualification in coding to use these features, you should still spend the time understanding how it works and what its limitations are.

Interoperability and integration knowledge

As we already touched on, the DAM is no longer simply your storage solution, but the centre of a complex tech stack that includes your CMS, brand management platform, Microsoft Office suite, social media channels and more.

This means you need to not only know what systems your DAM system can integrate with, but how those integrations work.

If you’ve spent your career in the Digital Asset Management space you’re probably not an expert in those other platforms, but it’s essential to boost your knowledge of DAM interoperability and what can be achieved with a modern DAM system.

Change management and user adoption

As DAM platforms evolve and integrate more deeply into organisational workflows, a DAM Manager’s ability to lead change will become just as important as their technical knowledge. Rolling out new features, introducing automation or embedding DAM into supporting systems like your CRM or CMS platforms can only succeed if staff feel confident and buy-in to their introduction.

This means DAM Managers need to be able to train staff on new systems, as well as champion their adoption within the organisations, communicating the value of the system to different stakeholders, as well as designing onboarding programmes, creating user-friendly documentation and identifying individuals within each team who can ensure best practice is being followed.

Strong change management skills are also important to help address any cultural resistance to new processes. By listening to concerns, adapting workflows to user needs and demonstrating quick wins, DAM Managers can develop a culture where the DAM is seen as indispensable rather than a source of headaches.

Analytics and performance measurement

The more important the Digital Asset Management system is to the organisation the greater the need to demonstrate that you’re getting the most value from it, which is why analytics and performance measurement skills are essential for DAM Managers.

Is the content you’re investing in actually being used? How can you reduce this cost by ensuring that the content you already own is being used in marketing and sales collateral? Modern DAM systems are now all equipped with reporting and analytics functionality, but you need to know how to interpret the data and actually use it to improve processes. Understanding DAM usage data isn’t just about reporting, but delivering actionable recommendations for content strategy and process workflows.

Combine data analysis training with specific tutorials on the DAM’s analytics tools to ensure you’re able to understand how the system is being used and where improvements can be made.

Cultural and linguistic awareness

In 2025 organisations increasingly operate across multiple geographic locations, and this isn’t going to change in 2026, so DAM Managers need to ensure that their systems support these remote teams. 

A one-size-fits-all approach to metadata, permissions and storytelling simply won’t work in organisations that span multiple regions. For example, an image description that makes sense in English may not translate well into another language, or a keyword used in one region may carry a different meaning elsewhere.

‘Cultural awareness’ also extends to how assets are presented and used. You may need to carefully consider how photographs, videos or case studies are used to ensure they’re respectful and appropriate for different audiences. This means that DAM Managers must build metadata standards, workflows and permissions processes that accommodate linguistic diversity and cultural nuance.

This could involve implementing multilingual metadata fields, working with your local teams to refine tagging taxonomies, or providing training for those teams to ensure consistent use across languages.

ResourceSpace is a modern DAM system that boasts advanced features that supercharge your Digital Asset Management efforts, including AI, extensive integrations and comprehensive reporting and analytics.

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