Reskilling in the AI era

Seeing into the future may be a fool’s errand, but it’s clear that AI will play a central role, at least for the longer-range near-term if not for the long haul. According to an analysis of global workforce data conducted by ServiceNow and Pearson, 23.5 million US workers are in jobs that will be affected by AI by 2027, requiring them to be retrained or reskilled. The study found that  AI’s impact on jobs in certain industries will be greater, resulting in the need to reskill more than others: finance and insurance sectors; professional, scientific, and technical services; and the education, travel, retail, and telecommunications industries.

In this evolving context, which roles should evolve and which ones be given to the machines? It’s important for leaders to keep the huge potential for productivity gains top of mind. Northwestern’s Seegmiller, who expects to see AI increase productivity, believes that this shift is an opportunity to move toward critical thinking and reasoning, versus focusing solely on monotonous, routine tasks.

“Opportunities are opening up even as AI takes some of the mundane tasks out of the picture that a human might do,” says Amy Regan Morehouse, ServiceNow’s senior vice president overseeing global education and the company’s Rise Up initiative. Even though the transformation of some careers may be inevitable, “many of the people in those jobs today have incredible foundational skill sets that will help them be successful in the jobs of the future, as well,” she says.

Another way to think of it is that AI will take on the skills that machines are good at, so people no longer have to work like machines. A future of jobs report by the World Economic Forum echoes Seegmiller, noting that “cognitive skills” will be in the greatest demand, with analytical thinking, creative thinking, and “resilience, flexibility, and agility” topping its list.

These skills will matter in the most business-critical roles of 2023, which according to ServiceNow analysis, will include product owners, data analysts, technical project managers, platform owners, change/adoption specialists, help desk support agents, machine learning engineers, and flow automation engineers.

For leaders, this is an opportunity to address the growing skills gap by supporting their workforces, reskilling employees into purpose-rich careers.

But reskilling and training workers for important and expanding tech roles will require innovative thinking, according to Pearson, which paired with ServiceNow to research AI’s impact on the workforce of today—and tomorrow. Their analysis found that leaders can take action now to plan their future-ready talent strategy, and should begin by embracing digital transformation as a whole, rather than focusing on one-off training as needs arise for individual projects.

Based on matched skills, knowledge, and attributes, sales worker supervisors, administrative assistants, and bookkeeping and audit clerks could be reskilled into help desk/support agents. Similarly, IT operations technicians, IT and telecommunications professionals, and web design and web development professionals could be reskilled as change and adoption specialists, a good job fit that matches skills, knowledge, and attributes.

Leaders should look for similar opportunities for reskilling in their organizations, and center on a predictive approach to retraining and identifying skills gaps, all while remaining cognizant that both the technology—and the changes it will bring—will continue to shift.