Skills for the AI era

I think every year, around December or January, there is a review of the year in terms of the work world and there is a kind of forecasting of the future of work. Lately, this month, I’ve been seeing a few articles about the skills needed for the future of work.

The kickoff for these articles is probably the LinkedIn report on the most requested skills they are seeing in the job postings. The one thing that LinkedIn has said they are noticing is that companies are moving away from degrees requirements to looking at skills. Degrees requirements mean you are eliminating a lot of people who don’t have degrees, maybe because they did not have the money to attend, or lack of accessibility in their background, or coming from a poor school district through no fault of their own. The poor generally don’t have access to good education.

When I was growing up and it may not have changed much, approximately 30% of the population would attend and finish college. The numbers might be slightly higher today but probably not much. Thus, we are leaving out 70% of the population from being able to access good jobs. The focus on skills rather than degrees is supposed to open up a new field of candidates.

I will say there is a caveat: some professional jobs probably require degrees. I imagine engineering such as chemical or electrical engineering are probably good examples where skills alone won’t cut it. Maybe even accounting, especially if you are reaching beyond the bookkeeping activities.

Although, I will say, I know of a few CPA’s who should not be doing accounting. It just boggles my mind that they passed the CPA exam.

What are the skills that LinkedIn is saying that companies are looking for, especially in light of the pending AI domination? Adaptability.

That makes sense. With the constant change that will run through our future, we need to become way more adaptable.

I will also add being able to learn new things quickly, having a critical thinking capability, digital savviness and some creativity should help in navigating the quickening future change.

Here’s a few articles and what they say the prodominant skills for the AI era will be:

Business Insider: learning mindset, knowing how to optimize data, and knowing AI’s limits.

Forbes: more social-emotional and digital skills: things like building trust, influencing, showing empathy, interacting with technology, and defining technology needs

Fortune: adaptability plus these top 10 skills, per LinkedIn – 1. Communication
2. Customer service 
3. Leadership 
4. Project management 
5. Management 
6. Analytics
7. Teamwork
8. Sales 
9. Problem solving
10. Research

Forbes: title of article is “The Top 10 In-Demand Soft Skills To Learn In 2024, Based On Research”. Skills listed are strategic thinking, negotiation, persuasion, presentation, critical thinking, mentoring, emotional intelligence, innovation, financial management, resilience. (can’t provide link because I have run out of free articles. I don’t know if it’s for the month or forever).

They kind of say the same thing but maybe use different words. I think the main thing is being adaptable and resilient. Emotional EQ still stands out and for good reason. The threat of AI domination means we need to up our EQ, adaptability and resilience. There’s also communication of some sorts (persuasion, presentation, influencing) and digital skills such as that surrounding data or AI.

Do some googling and you will see a bunch of articles pop up surrounding skills for the future.