AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of everyday operations. Already used to improve operational processes, enhance customer service, measure employee experience, and enhance cybersecurity efforts. And as AI’s presence in everyday life deepens, AI’s presence in the workplace will only accelerate as more people turn to AI bot services like ChatGPT to answer questions and get support at work. I will.
Much of the discussion about AI in the workplace has been about jobs that AI can replace. It has also sparked conversations around ethics, compliance and governance issues, with many companies taking a cautious approach to adopting AI technology and IT leaders discussing the best way forward.
AI’s full potential is still uncertain, but its early impact on the workplace cannot be ignored. It is clear that AI will have its impact on every industry in the coming years, and it is already changing the demand for skills that employers are looking for. AI is also sparking renewed interest in long-held IT skills, creating entirely new roles and skills that companies need to adopt to successfully adopt AI.
New jobs and skills for AI
The rise of AI in the workplace is creating demand for new roles in IT and beyond. Chief among them, according to Cengage Group’s CTO Jim Chilton, are roles such as Immediate Engineer, his AI Compliance Specialist, and his AI Product Manager.
Other new roles include AI data annotator, legal expert specializing in AI regulation, AI ethics advisor, and content moderator to track potential misinformation about AI, said Presidio CTO Robert Kim. says.
According to Mike Hendrickson, Vice President of Technology and Development Products at Skillsoft, businesses are also looking for more established IT skills such as predictive analytics, natural language processing, deep learning and machine learning. In addition to these skills, skills around large language models, ChatGPT, and similar generative AI bots are also in high demand, he says.
AI also has a new executive role “focused purely on leveraging generative AI in all aspects of business, from internal ways of working to external AI-powered product solutions for customers.” It’s also creating demand,” says Chilton.
“Those who embrace technology and understand how to use it to accelerate and improve their work will be rewarded, while those who do not will be left behind,” says Chilton. “Ultimately, the profitability barrier between companies that adopt AI and those that do not will determine the survival of those businesses, and the industry as a whole.”
Agile Skills Take You A Step Forward
Agile may not be the first skill that comes to mind when it comes to AI, but companies that have already adopted agile workflows and mindsets will be best positioned to integrate AI tools and solutions. These organizations will be better prepared for the rapid changes related to AI and will be able to easily adopt new technologies as they emerge.
Organizations that have an agile and DevOps mindset and continuously deploy, redeploy and test are already accustomed to the process of releasing new processes, services and products, getting feedback and continuously improving, Hendrik says. Mr Song says. This way of thinking makes it easier for these companies to rapidly adopt and deploy AI tools and solutions compared to companies with slow processes, legacy technologies, or barriers to implementation.
There is also a growing need for domain and organizational knowledge related to AI, as a deep understanding of an organization’s needs is critical to determining which AI technology is best suited for a given application. “Companies that have agility within their organizations are better able to leverage their domain expertise and domain knowledge,” Hendrickson says.
Greater focus on security
AI opens new doors to the security threats and compliance issues organizations need to address.
“On the technical side, we think security is very important,” Hendrickson says. “A lot of companies say, ‘We haven’t let them touch ChatGPT yet, they just haven’t allowed it. , will undoubtedly lead to the following results: There will be more levels of shadow IT around these emerging technologies, so ultimately we will have to address security implications as well as simply block the flow.
Furthermore, Hendrickson notes that just a few years ago, the discussion of machine learning revolved around its ability to crack code, but with quantum machine learning on the horizon, that concern is only growing. points out the fact that As companies leverage AI in the workplace, they need skilled professionals who can identify potential risks and pinpoint possible solutions.
There’s also increased complexity in terms of “managing the infrastructure and platforms that power applications and provide the resources to store and access data,” says Kim. Organizations need people who can employ automation to help secure, provision, and orchestrate these modern distributed platforms.
soft skills persist
Technical skills are changing faster than ever, so much so that what students learn in the first year of a CS degree can become obsolete soon after graduation. AI will only accelerate technological progress and even automate some of the hard skills that IT professionals must provide. This means that soft skills will become even more important.
“As technology changes rapidly, the half-life of hard and technical skills is getting shorter,” says Chilton. “Just a few years ago there was a huge movement to get everyone learning to code. People who can code are still needed, but the growth of low-code or no-code platforms has reduced the need for coding skills. The more enduring skills tend to be the ability to think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, and collaborate with others.”
Using AI also has the potential to help organizations reduce mundane and tedious administrative tasks, says Kim. This allows employees to focus on projects that require more brainpower and require a greater focus on time management, team collaboration and leadership to ensure success.
Demand for workers who invest in continuous learning and development will continue. When entering the tech industry, employees “impose themselves on an unspoken promise to continually learn and improve because technology changes rapidly,” Hendrickson says. Companies will be more willing to hire tech talent who are passionate about learning new skills and staying up to date with new technologies.
Focus on upskilling
As with most IT fields, the demand for AI skills will outstrip the talent market, so companies must turn inward to identify training opportunities.
To address this, Skillsoft builds teams around individuals with AI backgrounds and gives them the task of upskilling others within the organization, Hendrickson said. He argues that such an approach to nurturing talent from within would be of great benefit as it emphasizes the importance of domain and organizational knowledge.
“You want to upskill people in your organization because they already know about potential products and benefits,” he says. Rather than recruiting from competitors or outside the organization, “use the talent you have and upskill for the right role,” he adds. Not only will you gain the skills you need to advance your AI adoption, but you will retain the expertise and domain and organizational knowledge that are critical to your digital transformation.
Another area that could benefit from upskilling is AI ethics. Having employees with strong expertise and organizational knowledge who can keep an eye on the ethical issues surrounding AI will be critical. Hendrickson calls these people “humans in the loop” because they provide human checks and balances to oversee the truth and value of generative AI.
Hendrickson gives an example of writing code to scrape a website using Bard and ChatGPT, using one AI to check the behavior of the other AI. Both AI bots claimed their programming was correct, although the final program did not work. In this case, a human eye was needed to identify the mistakes made by both bots. Ultimately, the results of generative AI aren’t exactly reliable unless a human is involved for fact-checking.
“Even if you’re programming with bots, it’s preferable to have a human making the final choices,” says Hendrickson.
Add AI Sanity Check to the list of future must-have skills.
