AI and the future workforce

What an excellent start to London Tech Week for me and the 100+ delegates that joined ASI Data Science and Hudson this morning for a fascinating look at the changing workforce and the impact of AI and ‘Big Data’.

Dr Charlotte Werger from ASI Data Science kicked things off with a frank discussion on AI and ‘Big Data’ (it’s worth noting that Charlotte denounces the term ‘Big Data’ as a marketing buzzword because there is no clarification on what ‘Big’ means in this context). Charlotte’s talk essentially focused on the question ‘will a robot take my job?’.

This is a topic that seems to be coming up a lot in the new world of work and so immediately captured the imagination and attention of all of the delegates in the room. Charlotte shared a statistic that 35% of jobs in the UK are said to be ‘at risk’ – This doesn’t tell the whole story of course as Charlotte rightly pointed out, as we don’t know how many jobs are likely to be created as a result of technology, AI and data science. In fact by her own admission, 3 years ago Charlotte hadn’t even heard of the job ‘Data Scientist’ and certainly had no idea that she would go on to become one!

To further that point I read recently that a study of job trends in France over the past 15 years has seen half a million jobs lost due to the ‘internet’, however more than double that (1.2 million) have been created in the same period as a direct result. The truth is, that we don’t know what the future will look like and whilst many jobs will inevitably be lost there will also be untold amounts of opportunities created as a result.

Charlotte shared 3 key lessons to take forward into the new world of work:

1. Job tasks and skills will change
2. Job types will change
3. Change happens at a rapid rate and there will be winners and losers on both sides

From these 3 lessons the central message is that with the introduction of AI, Machine Learning and other technological advancements there will continue to be rapid and agile change. With this change in environment and the workplace needs to come a change in education to better equip the younger generations to cope with change, a change in the way we approach learning towards ‘life long learning’ and a shift to focus on mindset alongside skillset – The skills we need today may not be the skills we need tomorrow so it is essential that those joining your business are equipped with the cognitive agility for change, collaboration and continuous learning.

Dr Tim Sparkes picked up the conversation from here and shared that studies show there is an 87% mismatch of skills vs job criteria. This is a staggering statistic and shines a light on the concern that younger generations (I include myself in this bracket) are increasingly ill equipped to cope with business demands as they enter a workplace of near constant change.

Another incredible statistic was a comparison of two studies completed only 1 year apart that asked businesses how critical ‘agility’ was for the organisation – in 2016 67% of respondents cited agility as critical to business success – in 2017 this figure jumped to 94%. I find that an astonishing leap and shift in attitude towards agility, again highlighting just how important building a workforce capable of change is becoming for businesses within the new world of work.

Tim went on to talk about how businesses now need to attract, select and engage talent with this in mind. One of the key drivers being the importance of establishing clarity around culture and the importance of being able to articulate it. Average tenure now for ‘millennials’ is 2 years, however that figure jumps significantly to 5 years if there is a match of articulated purpose and culture between employee and the business.

Data can help here too. Only by being able to assess what the culture within your organisation is can you begin to articulate it to those that share that purpose. I would encourage you to speak to Dr Tim directly if you feel mapping culture within your organisation is something you would like support with; Tim has helped many organisations do just that.

Tim’s talk went into great detail around new methods of talent identification which I won’t do in this blog conscious of length (again, I would encourage you to speak to Tim directly around any of these areas) but they include ‘web scraping’, use of Big Data, crowdsourced peer ratings, digital interviewing, gamification and predictive analytics. The purpose is to create as many data points as possible to help assess suitability for now and for the future.

Central to all of this is mindset which is why at Hudson we have such a focus on the assessment of mindset as part of the selection process as well as the continuous development of individuals within organisations. If measuring mindset doesn’t currently form part of your talent strategy I would strongly recommend considering introducing it to ensure your workforce is properly equipped for agility in the constantly changing new world of work in which we now operate.

In this short video Tim speaks in more details about the importance of mindset within the new world of work:

Thank you to all those who attended the event this morning. I learnt a great deal and I hope you all did too. If there are any areas of this blog (or the event) you would like to discuss further I would be happy to arrange time to speak and/or facilitate a conversation with Tim and/or Charlotte.

You can also download Hudson's executive report on the New World of Work, here.

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