How do you get ahead in an AIdominated jobs market? These skills are what you need to master
In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), change is inevitable.
From people's personal to profes‐ sional lives, AI is continually find‐ ing ways to integrate itself into rou‐ tines, sometimes creating disrup‐ tions and at other times offering significant improvements.
The rise of generative AI, especially following the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, has sparked nu‐ merous discussions about its po‐ tential impact.
Among the most pressing concerns is the anticipated jobs displace‐ ment due to AI's adoption in the labour market.
Almost 40% of jobs around the world will be impacted by AI, IMF chief says
"The emergence of human-mach‐ ine collaborative intelligence is cre‐ ating a new paradigm where hu‐ mans are not really the only core source of force in the workplace," Xiaochen Zhang, founder and Chief AI Officer of AI 2030, told Euronews Next.
Recently, at an event in Zurich, Kristalina Georgieva, managing di‐ rector of the International Mone‐ tary Fund, described the impact of
AI as a "tsunami" that will hit the labour force.
According to Georgieva, AI is likely to affect 60 per cent of jobs in ad‐ vanced economies and 40 per cent of jobs globally, with little time left to prepare people for it.
The emergence of human-machine collaborative intelligence is creat‐ ing a new paradigm where humans are not really the only core source of force in the workplace. Xiaochen Zhang Founder and Chief AI Officer, AI 2030
However, despite these looming changes, the era of AI completely taking over human tasks has not yet arrived.
According to Zhang, in the current market, humans still play a funda‐ mental role, and machines have yet to replace them, with the current focus being more on human-mach‐ ine collaboration.
"Every job potentially will be re‐ designed under the concept of hu‐ man-machine collaborative intelli‐ gence," Zhang said.
“This concept itself is very power‐ ful where the machine will take on much bigger roles than before where it is not a tool anymore, it is part of the work itself," he added. While AI's presence in the work‐ place is not a new phenomenon, more research confirms its potenti‐ al impact on the jobs market, espe‐ cially during the hiring stage.
The 5 new jobs being created in Eu‐ rope because of AI
A joint report from LinkedIn and Microsoft revealed that 66 per cent of leaders would not consider hir‐ ing candidates lacking AI skills. Additionally, the report showed that 71 per cent would likely choose a less experienced candi‐ date with AI capabilities over a more experienced one without such skills.
People are taking matters into their own hands by learning to use AI tools and incorporating them in‐ to their professional tasks, with 75 per cent of knowledge workers ad‐ mitting to using AI in the work‐ place, the report also found.
The top AI skill for the current job market
While AI has yet to fully take over human tasks, not all jobs are ex‐ pected to be affected equally, and some might even risk disappearing. "As part of humans wanting to re‐ main competitive in the jobs market, competing with other hu‐ mans, AI is becoming the differenti‐ ation factor," Zhang said.
AI in the workplace: Which profes‐ sions will face redundancies?
For instance, Zhang explains that the creative industry is on the verge of a huge change as AI tech‐ nology gets better.
Some tasks, such as content cre‐ ation, design, research, and edit‐ ing, could easily be conducted with AI tools that are constantly improv‐ ing in terms of quality and effi‐ ciency.
The solution, according to Zhang, is mastering the use of those AI tools and leveraging these skills to redesign the way work is con‐ ducted.
For example, people can learn how to effectively prompt and commu‐ nicate with large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, which are continuously acquiring more ad‐ vanced capabilities.
By mastering these skills, profes‐ sionals can capitalise on the rising demand for proficiency in using AI tools.
AI is too expensive to replace hu‐ mans in jobs right now, MIT study finds
While it is important to adopt AI tools and learn how to use them, people could also focus on improv‐ ing the skills that distinguish them from AI, experts say.
Authenticity and human creation, according to Zhang, could become more valuable, as human creativity is fueled by life experiences that machines can’t replicate.
But he sees it as companies’ re‐ sponsibility to redesign the way work is conducted to leverage peo‐ ple’s skills for better human-mach‐ ine collaboration.