The Digital Skill gap in the Digital Era

The pace of innovation and adoption of new technologies in the current world has accelerated, with the classic example of Moore's Law, in which processors double in capacity every 18 to 24 months, having maintained this trend for almost 50 years. 

The innovation made possible by technology, as an enabler, it will create an environment of abundance for some and scarcity for others, and it is up to societies across the world to adapt to this new reality.

In this exponential world, a challenging issue will be the massive re-education that hundreds of millions of people will have to go through, in order to regain skills that can be well paid in a world where artificial intelligence will be widely used in companies, aiming at the automation of tasks and the manual labor will tend to be increasingly rare.

Skills such as imagination, creativity, algorithmic and systemic thinking will tend to gain more and more space, as well as skills that differentiate us as human beings, such as empathy, diplomacy, leadership and working in different teams.

In times of VUCA World (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous), according to the book "Deliberate Discomfort" about Jason Van Camp in the role of a Green Beret commander, we must "getting comfortable being uncomfortable", in order to generate permanent discomfort so that we can "shake off the dust" and mobilize all our creative energies and our focus, to produce out-of-the-box and innovative solutions.

Situation Awareness in a "Distracted World"

In this scenario of rapid changes, there is what we call "situational awareness", in which we identify who are the protagonists and elements of a given situation, we understand the relationship established among them and with this, we can anticipate possible scenarios and generate actionable insights and recommendations accordingly.

We live in a complex and increasingly fragmented world, with excessive stimuli and often immediate, with many sources of information available that disperse our attention, such as when we use social networks, which were designed to capture and hold our attention, often with information that is not always relevant.

Today, there is a need to adopt a filter that involves curating the flow of information that we absorb daily, to select what is relevant and to select what we identify as our interest and / or object of desire.

Curatorial context of the Digital Transformation Process

The Digital Transformation process is inserted in this Curatorial context as a way of empowering this new digital consumer, in which the quality of the user experience and the price factor are very important factors. 

And by becoming the protagonists, the new digital consumers, with the use of satisfaction surveys on the service provided, for example, they end up shaping companies' offers in this new context.

The analysis of the data generated at the consumer's contact points with the company, whether through digital or physical channels, allows the identification of different consumer profiles, the understanding of their needs and desires, and the establishment of communication strategies aimed at each one in a customized way.

This Knowledge Management process allows the company to innovate in its offer of products and services and help in the definition of the strategy, tactical actions and in the generation of recommendations for the company's decision-making process.

Ability to solve complex problems and the link with the Artificial Intelligence

According to a study by the World Economic Forum, the ability to solve complex problems will be highly demanded in the world in the coming years, and especially in the area of Artificial Intelligence, an area in which the main obstacle to the current and future use of Artificial Intelligence in society is not technological, but the difficulty of eliminating the biases in the results generated in the algorithms used.

The professional who can explain and interpret the results generated by an algorithm in the context of the problem will be highly valued, in order to help in identifying biases in them. 

The use of strict Data Governance criteria in a mandatory manner in all stages of the machine learning process that resulted in a prediction, will help to mitigate and circumvent these problems, helping to generate confidence and the impartiality of the results generated, always with the supervision of human beings in the process. 

Note: This an updated and translated version of my original 2018 article, with minor changes and additions.

?References:

• “Leaving the Matrix: The Curator’s Way” | LinkedIn
• A look at the Future of Work and the so-called "Society 5.0" | LinkedIn
• Enhanced Digital Mass Customization | LinkedIn
• Book: Deliberate Discomfort: How U.S. Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

About the Author - Renato Azevedo Sant Anna

Digital Business & Insights Consultant, Thinker and Curator about the VUCA World, with a natural curiosity about the World and its complexity, multidisciplinary knowledge and the ability to produce actionable recommendations and insights about the competitive landscape.

Also a Mentor, Content producer (content writer), Instructor and Speaker on topics related to The Digital Era, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Future of Work, Artificial Intelligence Applications for Business and Consumer Behavior on digital channels.