AI is playing an increasing role in every aspect of business.
In recent months, there has been growing concern about the impact of artificial intelligence. While it certainly has the potential to aid diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions, access to education, and even play a role in combating climate change, it also has the potential to negatively impact employment. It’s a fact. While experts ponder the possible consequences, one group seems more comfortable about the technology and its impact than others.
CEOs of the world’s largest companies are embracing AI and equipping their employees with the skills they need to take advantage of new technology, according to a report released earlier this month by management consultancy Arthur D. Little. He says he is investing in installing it. The authors claim that the use of AI has accelerated dramatically over the past year, with 96% of executives implementing an AI strategy within at least one department within their organization, and 47% reporting that AI He points out that he has a strategic view of However, only 13% have adopted a comprehensive enterprise-wide AI strategy, indicating that they are still on the “transformation path” to fully understand the impact of AI and integrate it across their organizations. I am. “In our experience, reaping the full benefits of AI requires significant structural and workforce changes, which can only be achieved over time. , there are significant challenges to implementing it,” they wrote in the report. Staying positive in an uncertain world: Confident CEOs reskill their companies for AI-driven growth.
As for how CEOs are leveraging AI, Arthur D. Little’s analysis shows that CEOs are primarily focused on improving core capabilities by increasing efficiency and effectiveness, including through automation. It has been. Efficiency is the primary use case in four of the seven sectors, further indicating that companies are at a relatively early stage in their AI journey.
But even if AI has not yet changed the structure of companies, it will have an immediate and profound impact on the skills needed for success. The CEO believes that to maximize the benefits of AI, the workforce needs to be transformed. Well over half of companies see a strong or very strong demand for employee reskilling, compared to just 13% in 2023. Additionally, there seems to be a recognition that traditional approaches to learning new skills are no longer as relevant as they once were. According to the report, CEOs will rely primarily on external sources, such as headhunters and collaborations with universities, to provide new capabilities and talent to drive growth in 2023. There is. Over the past year, the focus has shifted, with the largest proportion turning to in-house academies to provide talent and skills. Many factors may be driving this trend, but key factors include the difficulty in finding AI talent due to a global skills shortage and the need for technology to deliver effective results tailored to needs. This is seen as a recognition that technical knowledge needs to be combined with business understanding. Individual companies and their objectives.
This is certainly a view shared by Sheldon Gilbert, founder and CEO of Kura Labs, a nonprofit that provides job-ready computing training to people in “underserved communities.” is. He argues that even before the advent of AI, there was a problem of employers not having the necessary skills. In a recent interview, he said the engineering pipeline has been “woefully inadequate for the past 20 years” and that computer science, which is taught in many universities, has been “disconnected” from the needs of industry for some time. he added. As a result, he says, “an entire generation of engineers is learning on the job.”
He is still not completely convinced that AI will eventually replace humans (though humans are more likely to be replaced by AI than to be replaced by people who know how to use AI). (He thinks it’s more likely that he won’t be replaced.) But he believes AI is forcing companies to reevaluate their skill sets. “They’re trying to figure out if or how to leverage lunch as a business model,” he said.
As part of this reassessment, companies are reconsidering or reconsidering whether traditional degrees are as important as they used to be. With the cost of higher education becoming prohibitive for more people, Gilbert believes it’s time for employers to look beyond traditional sources of engineering talent. Of course, this is where Kura Labs, which received a donation from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott earlier this year, comes into play. Employers say they’re looking for people who are problem solvers, systems thinkers, curious, and have a strong work ethic, but these attributes aren’t limited to college graduates. . Gilbert believes they are “evenly distributed” within the population, and argues that people from disadvantaged backgrounds may even be more motivated than those who have grown up more comfortably. do.
The impact of this reappraisal in the world of technology is that software engineers who previously acted “like they were walking on water,” in Gilbert’s words, are now worried about their jobs. It means that there is. But the impact goes further. He points out that AI has reversed the usual pattern of technology traditionally hitting “blue-collar” workers. This development is evident in the rapid decline in the number of job openings for young graduates in fields such as law, accounting and banking.
