\u200bAfter the initial shock felt around the globe, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic caused companies of all shapes and sizes to re-evaluate how they did business and decide whether the systems they had in place were helping\u2014or hindering\u2014their survival. Some companies were able to meet customer needs quickly by shifting retail operations, scaling up production, streamlining slow or complex processes, or switching manufacturing of goods to need-based items. Many were forced to take a hard look at their legacy systems and make necessary changes in order to survive and meet increasing customer demands\u2014despite stretched resources and systems that often couldn\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n
As a response to these \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d disruptions in the labor market, investments in AI platforms have significantly increased<\/a> since the beginning of the pandemic. Many companies realized their existing systems and processes could not scale to meet the increasing demands caused by the pandemic. As they discovered gaps in their digital transformation initiatives, \u201cit became clear that AI and automation were the only solutions able to perform urgent jobs at scale,\u201d said Brian Solis<\/a>, global innovation evangelist at Salesforce. According to World Economic Forum\u2019s \u201cThe Future of Jobs Report 2020,<\/a>\u201d 50 percent of businesses say COVID-19 has pushed them to accelerate automation in their organization. The combination of more operations moving to the cloud and an increase in cyberattacks has also led to a demand for skills and roles that help to modernize and strengthen organizations\u2019 cybersecurity protections.<\/p>\n The increasing adoption of AI and automation hasn\u2019t been borne out of desperation; the pandemic was simply the catalyst that sped up the inevitable. AI, after all, offers a host of potential benefits to organizations, including adding value to business workflows, enhancing the customer experience, and augmenting employee capabilities.<\/p>\n As our shift to a digital-first world continues amid rapid shifts in employee and customer behavior caused by COVID-19, data will continue to play an essential role<\/a> in an organization\u2019s success, impacting everything from fraud prevention to frictionless experiences. \u201cEffectively harnessing this data requires modern data management platforms to tap into the voice of the customer to gain real-time context, sentiment and sensitive insight,\u201d research analyst Simon Robinson says<\/a>.<\/p>\n As companies are under pressure to shorten software cycles, the pressing need for AI will continue to expand across organizations. AI has the ability to bring new efficiencies to every stage of the software development cycle. It can iterate on current processes to quickly ramp up output, significantly shorten project timelines, and drive efficiency, value, and productivity for businesses. AI is already being used to automate rote tasks to free up workers\u2019 time so that they can focus on higher-level, human-driven, cognitive tasks. As Leah Belsky, CEO at Coursera, said<\/a>, \u201cAs companies navigate accelerated digital transformation caused by the pandemic, we will see an increased emphasis on driving technology and data science literacy across the entire organization, not just technical teams.\u201d<\/p>\n AI, however, cannot go it alone. Humans have unique skills and capabilities that robots lack, and people with the right skills will be needed to close the loop. AI can learn from data, but it has a limited ability<\/a> to draw conclusions based on a given action. It cannot be creative, code software, make moral decisions, or arrive at final decisions independently. Humans, of course, can do all of these things. Automated technologies\u2014when working in conjunction with human abilities\u2014have great potential to help businesses become more human themselves and deliver increased value to the customer experience both now and in a post-pandemic world.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting pressure on businesses to instantly alter their processes (and for some, even their core business model) have pushed out any remaining perception of AI in the shadows into a mainstream part of the everyday workplace. Companies are now in need of workers with emerging skills and the ability to lead<\/a> more complex AI projects and meet the demands of a quickly evolving labor market. Hiring for e-commerce workers, for example, grew 73 percent year-over-year<\/a>, according to LinkedIn\u2019s \u201cJobs on the Rise\u201d report, which looked at the career categories that have seen the highest year-on-year growth rates in hiring from April 2020 to October 2020.<\/p>\n With this large push comes a need for talent who can successfully scale these operations on the back end. Though it\u2019s true that some jobs will be displaced by widespread adoption of AI, the overall projections for job creation in the next five years are still higher<\/a> than those of job losses, according to World Economic Forum. Most of today\u2019s jobs will still exist<\/a>, even if they are fundamentally changed in task content and form. AI will largely replace processes\u2014not jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n As AI evolves, workers must evolve with it, often taking on new roles or new iterations<\/a> of their current roles. Workers will also need to shift knowledge from production to increased deployment of AI in the field. As drones, robots, and other AI-powered elements of the supply chain emerge, new skillsets for workers to successfully manage and maintain these machines are becoming more necessary as well. An estimated 50 percent of currently employed workers will need reskilling by 2025 to meet the needs of a changing labor market\u2014and this will demand a significant expansion of mid-career reskilling and upskilling from employers, according to the World Economic Forum\u2019s Future of Jobs 2020 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Workers with skills under the AI umbrella are in extremely high demand\u2014and the types of roles needed continue to grow as AI capabilities expand. Hiring for AI practitioners grew 32 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to LinkedIn\u2019s \u201cJobs on the Rise\u201d<\/a> report. The top in-demand job titles related to AI practitioners include machine learning engineer; artificial intelligence specialist; and machine learning researcher. And according to World Economic Forum\u2019s report<\/a>, the roles identified as being in highest demand in the digital communications and information technology industry include, in order of frequency, AI and machine learning specialists, data analysts and scientists, big data specialists, information security analysts, and process automation specialists.<\/p>\n Businesses are now looking for workers who can integrate AI with automation, and experts in machine learning are also in demand<\/a> as companies deploy more algorithms into production, which requires more ongoing maintenance. Cybersecurity skills for the cloud are increasingly in demand as well, leading to an influx of roles in DevOps, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. \u201cIn 2021, we expect to see a sharp increase in demand for staffing and recruiting tech talent<\/a> that has a unique skillset spanning both DevOps and Security operations,\u201d said Jon Clay<\/a>, director of global threat communications at Trend Micro.<\/p>\n Data analysts and data scientists are two of the most in-demand roles in AI, though their functions are quite different. Data analysts answer specific business questions (e.g., \u201cWhat are the demographics of our most engaged customers?\u201d) and need to know how to organize and sort data to help a business make better-informed decisions. Data scientists, on the other hand, focus more acutely on the predictive analytics subset of data. They formulate and test hypotheses, and form organizational and business insights from their findings. \u201cData scientists are too often busy with tasks like data preparation, feature engineering, and modeling,\u201d says Dr. Justin Silver,<\/a> an AI strategist at digital commerce systems maker PROS. \u201cAs these tasks become augmented with tools that help automate\u00a0these steps, we\u2019ll see data scientists trade routine tasks for time spent on deeper, strategic approaches that will make them invaluable resources.<\/p>\n Nearly all\u201495 percent\u2014of the companies surveyed<\/a> in World Economic Forum\u2019s report said they are adopting AI in their organization, and 39.5 percent of companies surveyed said they planned to expand their current workforce due to technological integration or automation. Yet, when asked what was a barrier to adoption of new technologies, 60 percent of the companies said skills gaps in the local labor market, 55 percent said the inability to attract specialized talent, and 45 percent said skills gaps among the organization\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n To widen the candidate pool and increase the likelihood of finding the right talent, employers are looking outside their typical desired skill sets and sharpening their focus on soft skills. According to World Economic Forum\u2019s report<\/a>, the top five emerging skills identified within U.S. organizations, in order of frequency, are analytical thinking and innovation; technology design and programming; complex problem-solving; active learning and learning strategies; and resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility. Alyssa Miller, cybersecurity advocate at Snyk, said<\/a> she expects the cybersecurity skills gap to close as employers look to transferable skills over certifications.\u00a0\u201cEmployers will begin to shift their mindset when it comes to hiring and identify relevant soft skills that are transferable to the cybersecurity sector and focus on hiring from those groups.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to transferable skills, many businesses are also turning to contract workers and interim executives to fill immediate and emerging skill gaps. Contract workers offer many benefits to organizations, including increased flexibility in an uncertain climate. They can help fill specialized skills while employers continue to shape their long-term staffing needs. Forty-one percent of businesses surveyed in World Economic Forum\u2019s report<\/a> plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34 percent plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration.<\/p>\nThe Business Value of AI and Automation in Our Current World<\/h2>\n
An Increased Need for Skilled Workers to Meet the Demands of AI<\/h2>\n
In-Demand Skills and Roles in an Increasingly AI-Powered World<\/h2>\n
Finding the Right Skills to Support the Push for AI<\/h2>\n
Preparing for a Post-Pandemic Future<\/h2>\n