Digital & AI: What got you here won’t get you there

A reality we all face is that today is different from yesterday and tomorrow will be different from today. What is becoming increasingly evident however is that the rate at which that change is occurring is accelerating and with the advancements in digital and AI, the implications on skills and capabilities is bigger than before.

The OECD predicts that in the near future, 14% of all roles will be automated and 32% part automated. A recent CBI report in the UK suggested that by 2030 9 out of 10 people will need to reskill.

The shift to Digital and AI presents unprecedent human resource challenges for organisation’s that need to be handled thoughtfully in terms of recruitment, career management and change management.

The reality already being faced in companies working on digital transformation and AI is that not only will job skills change, that rate of change is accelerating with the rate of invention so that skill rebuilding and job mobility are permanent features of our future workplace.

What this means is that companies need to think carefully in terms of recruitment criteria. Perhaps an exact skill match, with the right training and education might serve you well today, but less so in the future:

In our view there are 5 key skills to hire for beyond specific digital skills:

• Resilience – the ability to pivot, adapt and adjust to new environments and circumstances
• Curiosity –an interest and ability to explore and ask the question why? What else?
• Creativity – an interest and ability to face into challenges and questions no one has faced before
• Continuous learning – a commitment to continual learning, to reskill and retrain to keep pace with the future change. Comfort with ambiguity
• Preparedness to try new things – an openness to step outside the comfort zone and into the untried and untested.

Organisations that are able to build bench strength in these skills will be better placed to future proof their organisations for the journey from digital transformation through to AI.

To download the Digital Transformation and AI report click below.