Will AI take over your job? Here are 15 skills to develop to stay relevant!
In today’s age of modern technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become increasingly integrated in various sectors in Malaysia. The growing concern employees have is whether or not there will be a future for their career.
So, what now?
Will you be replaced by robots in the near future? Keep on reading and hopefully this article will help put your mind at ease.
The Myth Debunked
No, you’re not going to lose your job. You see, although certain jobs have been replaced by machinery, not all jobs are susceptible to replacement.
I mean, are robots capable of showing empathy, creativity or the ability to think critically like the human mind can? Yup, didn’t think so.
However, if your job is fundamentally routine in nature, you might want to equip yourself with more skills as these jobs are the most likely to be swapped with AI in the near future. Yikes!
Source: The Times They Are A-Changin’: Technology, Employment, and the Malaysian Economy (Khazanah Research Institute, 2017)
So, what skills would you need to acquire to ensure your career path is secured?
Source: Future of Skills 2019: Anticipating what’s next for your business (LinkedIn)
Core Skills
Information Technology
- Compliance
- Your job is to ensure that the company is adhering to legal requirements.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Chief data officer
- Compliance officer
- Risk management officer
- Continuous Integration
- Your job is to integrate codes into a shared responsibility to continuously detect problems.
- Examples of jobs are:
- DevOps engineer
- Full stack engineer
- Software engineer
- Workflow Automation
- Your job is to automate manual processes that stem from pre-defined business rules.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Consultant
- Project Manager
- Software engineer
- Gesture Recognition Technology
- Your job is to interpret human gestures using computing devices as an input for applications and devices.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Mobile engineer
- Researcher
- Software engineer
- Blockchain
- Your job is to set up and manage a distributed and decentralised public ledger.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Blockchain developer
- Chief Technology Officer
- Consultant
- Artificial Intelligence
- Your job is to study and design intelligent agents to perform human-like tasks.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Business analyst
- Data scientist
- Software Engineer
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Your job is to automate high volume, repeatable business tasks and processes using software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Business analyst
- Consultant
- Robotics engineer
- Front-end Web Development
- Your job is to convert data to a graphical interface to build websites or web apps.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Front-end developer
- Full stack developer
- Web developer
Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Your job is to promote products and/or services through social media platforms to achieve business goals.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Digital marketing specialist
- Marketing manager
- Social media marketing specialist
Creative
- Human-Centred Design
- Your job is to develop solutions to problems with a deep focus of understanding the human perspective in all steps of the process.
- Examples of jobs are:
- Graphics designer
- Product designer
- User experience designer
These skills above skew more towards the technical side. So, if you’re already on one of the paths above or more, you’re safe. But what if you’re not?
Lets go through some soft skills that you should develop.
Core Skills
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze situations and come up with ideas and solutions that are backed up by evidence. It is important today because employers are not looking for “yes” men but are looking for employees who can think critically and challenge the status quo; employees who are not afraid to speak up and present their opinions for the benefit of the company.
Communication
Communication is one of the most critical soft skills to acquire because it involves the interaction between human beings, whom, might I emphasize are extremely complex beings – which no robot will be able to comprehend. Well, not at this point in time anyway. Hence, when dealing with people, employers are looking for employees who are able to facilitate healthy interaction with clients in order to ensure that business operations are able to be carried out smoothly. It helps in the planning, organizing, motivating processes of a company.
Leadership & Management
It is crucial that employees are equipped with leadership and management skills because it will maximize the efficiency of a team whereby tasks are delegated and carried out well to achieve the goals of the organization. Occasionally, managers and higher ups would need to attend to managerial matters and while they’re at it, team members need to step up and take charge to get their jobs done.
Adaptability & Flexibility
With today’s increasing need for employees to multi-task due to the surplus of tasks, it is crucial that employees are able to take the risk to try and take on different roles aside from their current portfolio. It may be tough to take on something that was never attempted before but hey, despite the stress, they are able to expand their skill capacity and grow as individuals. Employers are always on the lookout for employees who are ever-ready to take on challenges because working conditions are constantly changing and employees need to be in sync with it or they’ll be left behind and what’s worse is, the company is left behind.
Collaboration
Collaboration between any employee, whether the employee is on a managerial level or at an entry level, is vital. There has to be cultivation of respect in dealing with others within the workplace and employees should never have the attitude of I’m-better-than-you when dealing with each other especially when ideas are being churned out. Everyone has different viewpoints and it should be respected and heard out even if it doesn’t sound all bells and whistles.
Well, I hope that by the end of this article, you won’t feel so frightened of what the future might be with AI.
In fact, AI should help us enhance our work and not replace it altogether.
This article was inspired from LinkedIn’s APAC Future of Skills Report 2019. To read more about it, click here!
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