We hear a lot about AI’s swift wave of replacing jobs like customer service reps, cashiers, accountants, and more.
Despite the more dreary outlooks, harnessing AI presents a new demand for different kinds of jobs. New roles are being created that professionals can become qualified for with the right upskilling, whether that’s a computer science degree or a boot camp of sorts.
As the IT Chronicles notes, some of these new job opportunities include:
- AI specialists
- Data scientists
- Machine learning engineers
- Anyone involved in developing, implementing, and maintaining AI software
The problem is that some companies can’t keep up. Current employees don’t have the skills to evolve with AI, prompting a labour shortage in those jobs. Experts predict it will contribute to an even greater developer shortage in 2024.
So, what can you do? Lightcast shares some ideas that we’ve summed up for you here:
1. Focus on soft skills like stakeholder management and idea generation
Sure, ChatGPT gives you the full report on pretty much anything you throw at it. But how do you know what to throw at it? Employers need to foster creativity and innovation at the source: their employees. This might look like:
- Workshops on soft skills like communication and critical thinking
- Tailored interview questions on soft skills
- More collaborative work assignments
2. Invest in reskilling
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that 37% of a job’s top skills change in as little as five years. This means that your qualified candidate can turn into an unqualified employee in that amount of time.
Employers can leverage reskilling with:
- Job shadowing for employees with outdated skills
- Mentoring from industry experts
- Sabbaticals and apprenticeships to promote professional development
3. Hire based on skills, not credentials
Another way to combat the rapid skill changes happening is to hire for skills instead of degrees.
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recommends testing candidates before they even make it to the interview, whether it’s coding, marketing, or any other type of task they’ll need to conduct in their day-to-day work. Instead of trusting a degree listed on a resume, which by some estimates are 50% embellished, testing potential employees leads to better qualified candidates being interviewed and saving massive amounts of managerial time.
Further down the road, you can begin collecting data on the skills your company needs to do its best work.
4. Don’t slack on AI ethics
The technical skills are paramount to your day-to-day, but that doesn’t mean ethics and values go out the window. With its innovation, AI brings countless ethical implications that employers should mitigate with:
- Dedicated resources for AI ethics, ideally from governments
- Training workshops and testing
