Transforming Workforce: IBM Study Shows 40% Need Reskilling for AI in 3 Years

Recently, an IBM study shows that around 1.4 billion people, which accounts for 40% of the global workforce, require reskilling within the next 3 years. This data is based on a survey of 3,000 C-suite executives led by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics across twenty industries and 28 countries in late 2022 and early 2023.

An overwhelming 87% of surveyed executives acknowledged that reskilling is important, as AI will enhance job roles in the future rather than completely replace them. The most important impact is anticipated on entry-level jobs around 2025.

IBM Study Shows 40% Need Reskilling for AI in 3 Years

The study highlighted the impediments organizations encounter in recognizing existing skills within their teams. The first step is to capture and identify these skills across the organization. This process directs decisions on where to bring in new talent and where internal mobility could be more effective than external hiring.

IBM also cited much earlier figures from the World Economic Forum, evaluating that between 2020 and 2025, 85 million jobs around the world would have been disrupted, while creating 97 million new job roles. This new era, IBM said, is “the age of the augmented workforce—an era when human-machine partnerships boost productivity and deliver exponential business value.”

What skills are more essential? IBM found that “intriguingly,” the demand for STEM skills has dropped immensely, with STEM proficiency falling from being the most important in 2016 to 12th place in 2023.  The study further said,

As technology becomes more user-friendly, employees are also able to do more with less advanced technical skills. No-code software development platforms, for instance, let people without a programming background create business-critical prototypes and apps.

Basic computer and software application skills once ranked 2nd in importance in 2016, have now fallen to 11th place in 2023. Meanwhile, people skills have earned significant significance, with abilities such as time management, teamwork, and effective communication taking the top spots.

The study focused on the significance of providing employees with “impactful work,” which workers view as highly important in a job after salary, benefits, and job security. However, there’s a disconnect between executives and workers on this aspect, with executives categorizing impactful work as least significant.

“This disconnect is poised to cause problems as executives rush to automate as many tasks as they can. If leaders don’t plan human-machine partnerships with impactful work in mind, they might miss opportunities that will help people work smarter and more strategically. How employees will use – and benefit from – technology needs to be considered as carefully as the tech investment itself,” IBM said.

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