How an AI-based ‘Rosetta Stone’ Will Help Companies Define and Redeploy Key Skills

Given the creativity many people apply to their job titles, it’s hard to tell from resume entries just what a person actually does at work. This lack of clarity is vexing in itself but is also part of a larger problem as businesses shift to a skills-based model for recruiting, hiring and, possibly more important, reassigning employees as needed. 

Increasingly, organizations must identify relevant skillsets in their workforces so those skills can be applied elsewhere in the company if necessary. But how do you differentiate between people who might describe themselves as programmers, or software engineers, or coders, or hackers, or software gurus and parse the differences in their capabilities?

The reason companies need to verify actual proven work skills is that redeploying employees based on job titles or tenure alone can lead to skill shortages, which hurt the business’s ability to survive, let alone thrive.

And, even after getting a handle on what skills a company has in-house, how can management assess how well anyone’s expertise will transfer either to a new job function or to another part of the company?

As it turns out, artificial intelligence (AI) may prove key to solving these problems, as Yvette Cameron, Oracle’s SVP of HCM Product Strategy, wrote recently. Her take is that AI will form the basis of a modern day “Rosetta Stone” that will a): convert all those inconsistent job descriptions into common terms that are understandable by all, and b): more accurately predict which skills can be applied to new areas of endeavor.

I encourage you to read Yvette’s whole post, but here’s a key point that stood out to me:

“Soon, it won’t matter how many different ways a skill is described or if some are presented with misspellings. With the emergence of artificial intelligence and deep learning engines, like the Rosetta Stone itself, these new adaptable skills inventories enable an understanding of skills and skills-related data. In fact, such deep learning engines obviate the need for traditional skills frameworks, allowing new taxonomies to grow organically based on real-world relationships, changing and adapting over time as new skills, jobs, and relationships are understood.”

An AI-powered Rosetta Stone will help businesses identify what skills are available and then quickly reallocate those that are transferable to address new needs and thus increase chances of success.