Future of work in Asia: Upskilling for AI

Artificial intelligence is here, and it represents massive potential for Asian businesses and new opportunity for Asian workers. The time has come for people to adapt to the changing nature of work and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.

On Wednesday, I’m excited to be presenting at Salesforce Basecamp Singapore, where I’ll be talking about the reality of artificial intelligence (AI), demonstrating the value it can bring to business and showing that it’s something that should be embraced, not feared.

AI isn’t tomorrow, it was yesterday! Whether people realise it or not, AI is already embedded into our daily lives, through things like product and content recommendations. And it will have an increasingly pervasive impact on business, opening up new levels of efficiencies, enabling a boost to sales productivity, the automation of processes and the ability to serve customers better with predictive analytics.

Inevitably, types of employment will change. As many as 375 million workers globally, or 14% of the global workforce, will most likely need to reskill or make a transition to new occupational categories as a result of AI.

But, when we start to break it down and democratise AI, you realise everyone has a role to play. While AI-driven business is expected to cause a decrease in manual, repetitive labour, it’s also expected to cause an increase in work involving creativity, collaboration and complex problem-solving.

So is Asia ready for the new AI-driven workplace?

Asia’s advantage

In my experience, Asia is grappling with the same questions of AI that the world is: How will AI impact my existing workforce? How does it make my business run more efficiently? And how do we manage the ethical use of AI? We’re all entering a world of unknown.

The advantage I believe Asia has is our openness to experimentation. Last year, the Innovation: All Eyes on Asia report found that Asia is one of the most innovative regions in terms of technology uptake. This is largely because we’re not held back by legacy tech and we’re able to leapfrog our peers, embracing excellent mobile-first operations and CX.

The advantage I believe Asia has is our openness to experimentation.

In the conversations I’m having with customers, there’s certainly a level of excitement around the possibilities of AI. Customers want to know how fast they can adopt this technology and realise the positive benefits. They’re hungry to learn, hungry to change and happy to do it fast.

But, are workers ready?

Despite this thirst for innovation in the boardroom, the new Artificial Intelligence in Asia: Trust, Understanding and the Opportunity to Reskill report has found that Asian workers are divided on the need to embrace innovation and upskill for this brave new world.

Only 58% of workers see the need to upgrade their skills in preparation for an AI-driven world, and are willing to do so. Out of all the markets, workers in Hong Kong show the most reluctance towards reskilling, with 45% not willing to upskill themselves, while 11% believe no amount of training will prepare them for AI in the workplace. Overall, only 18% of Asian workers feel they’re ready for the changes that AI will bring to the workplace.

Although, in the long-run, 63% think AI will lead to better job opportunities, saying it will give them “freedom for better and more interesting jobs”.

The role of leadership

Our business leaders have a vital role to play in helping people adapt and get them excited about the prospect of being more creative and collaborative. We have to make sure our teams have the necessary new skills, helping them pivot their mindsets and bridge any gaps.

Only 18% of Asian workers feel they’re ready for the changes that AI will bring to the workplace.

Technology is forcing businesses to re-think the roles needed for the future, but leaders need to be careful not to flood their organisation with fresh talent to fill skill gaps. There’s a lot of family-run businesses in Asia, where employee tenure is quite long, and it would be a shame to lose that heritage and knowledge amid the disruption.

The future workforce needs to be a healthy blend of upskilling long-term talent, bringing in new thinking and overlaying that with the automation and insight of AI to really enhance business operations and drive innovation forward.

The new skills needed in an AI-driven world

AI takes so many different shapes and sizes, and there’s no one set of skills you can buy off the shelf. But we do know soft skills will be increasingly important in the future workplace, as well as talent development, lifelong learning and career reinvention.

To thrive in this new world, you need curiosity and the appetite to try something new. You need to be agile, and able to pivot your skills and capabilities to complement – not compete with – the innovation that AI brings. You need to be able to seize the technology available and create new ways of working – this means relinquishing what once felt normal. You need to be able to reinvent yourself.

To thrive in this new world, you need curiosity and the appetite to try something new.

Part of what I’ll be talking about at Salesforce Basecamp is how Einstein Voice is helping salespeople do just that and reinvent themselves by being more efficient. Salespeople no longer need to sit at their desk for hours updating Salesforce.

Now, as soon as they leave a meeting, they can talk to Salesforce, and Einstein Voice uses AI to intelligently find the relevant customer records and automatically update fields with the latest information, create follow-up tasks and notify teammates.

That doesn't make salespeople less valuable to the organisation – it makes them more valuable because they have time to do more high-impact tasks.

At the end of the day, there’s a danger in being complacent, and not wanting to accept the realism of AI and what it actually is – and the reality is: it’s not a big scary black box.

Join me at Salesforce Basecamp Singapore on 28 November 2018 and learn how you can prepare for the workplace of the future and start seeing the benefits of AI. Plus, get hands-on with the tech that’s going to make it happen – Salesforce Einstein.

Download the Artificial Intelligence in Asia: Trust, Understanding and the Opportunity to Reskill report to learn more about consumer perception, understanding and trust of AI technology.