ARTICLE Digital skills: why they matter and how to develop them With the digital skills shortage set to become even more acute, organisations must transform how they train their people.

In today’s world, volatility is a fact of life. Disruptive technologies are advancing at an astonishing rate. Consumer preferences are evolving, employee demands are shifting, geopolitical tensions are simmering and prices are fluctuating – all against the backdrop of a changing climate.

Speaking on a panel at the second ServiceNow Public Sector Forum, Dr. Laura Gilbert, Director of Data Science at 10 Downing Street, summed up just how extreme today’s uncertainty is:

We’re at a paradigm shift in time and technology. We’re seeing exponential advances in AI and computation and this is creating a period of unique opportunity, where division and inequalities could become much better or much worse in the next decade. Along with uncertainty about our ability to tackle climate change, we’re facing four very separate, divergent futures.” Dr. Laura Gilbert Director of Data Science at 10 Downing Street
But amid all this uncertainty, one thing is clear: organisations must react rapidly to whatever’s round the corner. To develop the agility they need to do that, organisations must build stronger digital skills so they can use new technologies like GenAI more effectively. And they have to act fast. The speed and extent of change ushered in by GenAI demand nothing less.

Recruitment isn’t enough

The scale of upskilling and reskilling required means organisations will have to radically change and improve how they train their people. With already acute talent shortages set to increase in severity, organisations can’t rely on recruitment alone to source digital skills. It’s a trend highlighted by recent ServiceNow research. The study found that the UK economy will need an extra 610,000 workers by 2028 to meet the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) forecast of 1.8% per annum growth over the next five years, even once AI’s potential to automate jobs and boost productivity is taken into account.

The research predicts that AI, like many technologies before it, will disrupt the workforce while creating a net-positive increase in the number of jobs. This will further intensify competition for top talent.

Practical ways to equip employees with digital skills

Organisations can prepare for this shift by equipping their workers with skills that are relevant in a tech-centric work environment. There are several practical steps they can take to do this.

One is giving people hands-on experience. Phil Smith CBE, Co-Chair of the Digital Skills Council, said: “Several CEOs I’ve met are letting younger employees like Gen Zs experiment with AI. Then every few months, they look at which initiatives are working well and could be scaled up.” The best results often come from blending this bottom-up approach to innovation with top-down mandates.

Speaking on the same panel, Priya Lakhani, Founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, echoed the need to decouple decision-making power from organisational hierarchies: “Regardless of what someone’s title is in the organisation, the leaders in AI are the people that understand how to use the technology to solve business problems. They might know more about AI than their line managers, so they need to be given the time, resources and freedom to look for ways to use AI to tackle business challenges.”

Regardless of what someone’s title is in the organisation, the leaders in AI are the people that understand how to use the technology to solve business problems. They might know more about AI than their line managers, so they need to be given the time, resources and freedom to look for ways to use AI to tackle business challenges.” Priya Lakhani Founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech

Mitigating risk

Of course, as organisations adopt GenAI, it’s important to manage risk. A new framework published by the UK government’s Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) provides useful guidance for deploying AI within the public sector. Many of the principles apply to other organisations, too.

One important point is that “digital skills” shouldn’t refer just to using technology, but also to understanding the vulnerabilities it creates. This means that training should cover areas like data privacy and potential bias and misinformation in GenAI outputs. David Knott, CTO for the UK Government, summarised how the CDDO’s framework can help organisations address challenges like these: “We can’t figure out answers to questions about GenAI in the abstract. Our framework is designed to help organisations make better decisions about how to use GenAI alongside legacy technologies, how to recognise its limitations, and how to upskill the workforce to take advantage of opportunities while managing risk.”

Ensuring relevance

Organisations also need to focus on making skills relevant. After all, enhancing digital skills doesn’t mean trying to teach everyone everything. It’s far better to identify the skills required for each role.

Phil Smith’s perspective on this matter was shaped by conversations with his sister about new technology being introduced at the hospital where she works as a nurse. In the panel discussion, he explained: “The OECD defines skills as ‘problem-solving in a technology-rich environment’. It means that if I’m a plumber, what I really want to do is order parts, pay staff and invoice customers. If I’m a nurse, I want to interpret patient data. If I’m a software developer, I want to understand how coding works. So digital skills aren’t universal. They’re about what applies to each person.” This point makes digital skills feel much less daunting.

In a similar vein, organisations should look for opportunities to reduce the need for specialist technical skills where possible. The beauty of AI is that it’s inherently accessible and intuitive, because it uses natural language models rather than requiring coding expertise.

Recognising that the skills gap is a moving horizon

The skills gap cannot be solved through a one-off initiative. The need for skills changes constantly, so up- and reskilling requires a continuous effort. Phil Smith recalled: “When I was running Cisco or even prior to that, we were always asking ourselves whether we had the right people with the right skills to achieve our goals. It’s a challenging task, especially when you’re under-resourced.”

And the scale of that challenge is magnified by GenAI, as David Knott pointed out: “For most of my life, technology was a case of entering instructions into machines and expecting them to respond with precise, deterministic behaviour. Now, it’s about trying to get an unpredictable model to behave in ways that suit your business. That’s a completely new discipline, and a very difficult task.”

Priya Lakhani is tackling the skills gap at its root. She remarked: “One of the areas I focus on is disinformation. Already, 33% of people in the UK receive news through social media, where you have bots, GenAI, deep fakes and disinformation at large. I believe one of the biggest threats is that the education system isn’t teaching people to think critically and challenge information they read.”

The road ahead

So while the future remains uncertain, it is clear that technology will create new challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities. To respond effectively, organisations will need one thing above all: the right skills.

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