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According to a think tank at IBM, 40% of the workforce will need to be “reskilled” in the next few years. You may have guessed already: it’s AI that’s bringing on such massive change. We could panic at this news (1.4 billion people with the wrong skills), or we could take a step back and consider how maybe the way we work is overdue for a shakeup.
I’m optimistic about the “Great Reskill” underway because I know it won’t be just the privileged few who have a chance to remake themselves. AI skill upgrades aren’t limited to those with engineering degrees or technical know-how. We’ll all be pushed to reinvent ourselves at work in the years ahead, and there’s an opportunity to emerge with more gratifying roles.
I’ve seen that change up close as a CEO in an industry at the vanguard of AI disruption: customer service. Agents around the world are feeling the impact on their jobs. But many are using this moment as a jumping-off point, a prompt to reimagine their careers.
Looking beyond AI anxiety
I know that anxiety about obsolescence is widespread and rising. Gallup reports that 22% of us live with that fear. As the founder of an AI platform for customer service, I see that anxiety firsthand at the companies we work with as people struggle to redefine themselves in a rapidly changing field. But as a one-time customer service agent myself, I also understand that these employees have perspectives and skills that have not yet been tapped.
I’m reminded of the famous mistake folks made when ATMs arrived in the 1980s. Everyone thought it’d be the end of bank tellers, but, in fact, the role of bank tellers was reimagined to focus on marketing and interpersonal skills, and the number of bank teller jobs actually rose. Likewise, recent reports suggest that AI may create more jobs than it destroys.
So, if we can move beyond our anxiety, the “Great Reskill” becomes a once-in-a-generation chance to discover new avenues for meaningful work. Many of us have been hungry for just such a revolution ever since the pandemic upended office life. This could be the moment when new roles and new alignments begin to take shape.
Where there’s a will to reskill, automation becomes a beginning, not an end.
Which skills you should pursue
To ensure you have a role in an AI-driven company (i.e., any future company), there are a few skills you can double-click on now.
1. Learn to manage an AI agent
Very soon, almost every employee will become a manager with their own team of AI agents. Those who prove proficient at maximizing AI colleagues — for everything from task management to content creation and customer support — will quickly set themselves apart. Ultimately, managing an AI agent has a lot in common with managing any employee effectively: You need to onboard them with key skills, monitor performance, take advantage of teachable moments and ultimately, learn to let go and delegate.
2. Improve your data literacy
Those who know how to navigate large data sets, use data visualization tools, and marshal data to level up AI tools will be vital teammates. Remember: AI relies on enormous reams of data. By becoming a data wizard — the one who doesn’t get headaches from datasets but translates them into usable resources for the team— you position yourself at the heart of that process.
3. Focus on your humanity
Audit your current role and decide honestly which elements could be automated and which could not. Double down on your human-specific expertise. Never doubt the value of motivating a team, for example, or strategizing about an untapped market. It might even be “softer” skills like your emotional intelligence and ethical awareness that set you apart. Highlighting your human-specific value turns you into the human that can’t be replaced.
Driving the ‘Great Reskill’ forward
So, what can companies and individuals do to seize this moment rather than be seized by it? I’ve seen too many businesses reflexively cut staff after rolling out AI — eager for a quick efficiency bump. To me, this can be shortsighted and often backfire.
Progressive companies, by contrast, are taking the gains that AI delivers and reinvesting them in their people. Some have called this an “abundance agenda” where AI profits allow a company’s capacity to increase overnight – and the only cost is training everyone to use the AI.
As staff are reskilled, they’ll take on new, enhanced roles—possibly roles that are still being defined. Some will manage whole fleets of agents, syncing them to larger company goals while enjoying a superhuman influence. Others will focus on crafting the behavior of individual AI agents, becoming “prompt engineers,” “AI personality designers,” and “AI ethicists.”
I love telling the story of a young woman called Meagan who began her career as a front-line customer service agent at a financial services company and now has a job that didn’t exist a year ago: she coaches a team of go-getter AI agents. For Meagan, familiarity with AI (paired with a willingness to reimagine her role) has been career jet fuel. She’s risen through the ranks and is now seen as an AI expert by company leadership and other departments. Her experience is emblematic of the possibilities that lie ahead for all of us.
I think it’s also important to understand that there’s no need to wait for a signal from the powers that be to start your AI reskilling. As with any disruptive new technology (personal computers, the internet, mobile tech), the best way to gain expertise with AI is to get our hands dirty and just start using these tools. In contrast to earlier technologies, an understanding of coding or a degree in engineering isn’t required.
In fact, some of the biggest leaps forward in integrating AI into the workplace are being made by people with non-technical backgrounds. If you can use ChatGPT to craft a meal plan or pump out fan fiction, then you can use it to do your job better.
The next few years will be massively disruptive for just about every field, and nobody knows exactly where the chips will fall. But here’s what I do know: it’s the person who embraces AI who will own tomorrow’s job market, not the AI itself. Meeting our AI future with curiosity and a willingness to level up our skills is the way to thrive in uncertain times.