Work 2.0: Is it all about Skills?
The disruption to skills by 2030, primarily because of the rise of generative AI has been well-documented. Reskilling and upskilling have been identified by leaders as a top workforce strategy over the next 12-18 months [1],[9].
Yet, despite the focus there are clear challenges. 46% of global leaders in a survey by McKinsey have identified skill gaps in their workforces as a significant barrier to AI adoption, while 60% worry their organisation’s leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement AI [10]. In the UK, data from the office of National Statistics shows firms are increasingly seeing delays in AI programmes due to a lack of AI expertise [2].
An important difference with these latest technologies is that a significant proportion of employees take the initiative themselves to find and use AI tools. According to the Qualtrics Experience Trends survey 2025, 53% of employees use a mix of personal AI tools or tools they have sourced themselves. Only around half of employees say they have access to guiding principles or training on the use of AI in their organisations [10]. Given how readily accessible AI tools are, ensuring teams understand how to use them is paramount.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey (2025) suggests a growing recognition of the importance of continuous skills development which is promising. The respondents to the survey indicate that 50% of their workforces has completed training as part of their learning and development initiatives compared with 41% in 2023[7].
Reskilling and upskilling are critical components for successfully navigating this latest technological transition. Yet the perennial challenge of finding the right people and matching them with the right roles has become even more complex now that AI and robotics are rapidly changing jobs and in-demand skills are in short supply. Addressing these challenges will impact the pace of reskilling and upskilling, as well as successful AI adoption.
We will explore the expectations in terms of skills requirements, but also new ways in which talent can be identified to meet those requirements and how we can enable a future of empowering not replacing employees.
Skills Outlook
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report (2025), technological skills such as AI and big data top the list of employer expectations for skills evolution in the next five years [7]. Complementing these technological skills, creative thinking and two socio-emotional attitudes – resilience, flexibility, and agility, along with curiosity and lifelong learning – are also seen as rising in importance.
Also ranking among the top 10 skills on the rise are leadership and social influence, talent management, analytical thinking, and environmental stewardship. These skills highlight the need for workers who can lead teams, manage talent effectively and adapt to sustainability and green transitions in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Conversely, skills like reading, writing, and mathematics; manual dexterity, endurance, and precision; and dependability and attention to detail have seen the largest decline in projected future demand.
An assessment of the 2,800 skills that make up the World Economic Forum’s skills taxonomy has shown that zero exhibited “very high capacity” to be replaced by GenAI tools. This was assessed by GPT-4 based on its own ability across three areas: providing theoretical knowledge, problem-solving, and physical presence or manual actions. The potential for human-machine collaboration is evident in areas where skills exhibit ‘moderate capacity’ to be replaced such as those requiring nuanced understanding, complex problem-solving or sensory processing. This reinforces the need for training and upskilling initiatives that focus on both advanced prompt-writing skills and broader GenAI literacy.
Specialist skills for few, Human behaviours for all
Inevitably, as we move to an increasingly tech-driven world, distinctly human behaviours are becoming sought-after to complement what machines can do.
While AI and big data are predicted to see significant growth across nearly all sectors, the Insurance and Pensions Management industry stands out as the industry forecasting the fastest growth in importance in creative thinking skills. Also, together with Education and Training, and Telecommunications they forecast fast growth in the importance of curiosity and lifelong learning [7].
In the financial services sector, which is predicted to be disrupted most significantly according to recent analysis from the UK’s Department of Education[13], job postings still emphasise the need for behaviours –relationship management, willingness to learn, critical thinking, empathy, adaptability – over AI specialist skills when viewed from a volume perspective, despite the increased demand for specialist skills[1],[14].
Detecting new “talent signals”
But how do we ensure that we can adequately identify the people with these skills and behaviours and match them with the right roles. This requires significant reimagining of hiring and development processes to tap into non-traditional talent and uncover underlying skills and achievements beyond the CV and cover letter.
While skills-based approaches have received a lot of attention over the last few years, the reality is that insufficient tangible progress has been made in adapting processes to align with this approach. This is partly a result of the effectiveness of these tools, but also sometimes the tendency to focus on ease and familiarity not necessarily correlated with results.
The adoption of skills-based hiring and talent development approaches is now accelerating considering the focus on upskilling, aimed at identifying new indicators of performance potential. Emerging assessment methods such as gamified assessments, digital interviews, and candidate data mining, as well as rise in candidate’s portfolios, are all attempting to do just that [3],[15]. Alongside hiring tools AI powered talent marketplaces and apprenticeships are increasingly being used to uncover hidden skills and tap into non-traditional talent pools. Nevertheless, concern around biased data leading to unfair outcomes remains. Achieving maximum impact from these tools requires a more holistic review of workflows, managing potential risks, and focusing on change management and incremental progress.
Tapping into performance potential and uncovering hidden skills is critical with respect to younger generations who are disproportionately impacted by generative AI. Recent studies have provided early large-scale evidence of material impact on early career workers (ages 22-25) [4]. Instead of rushing to eliminate entry-level roles organisations should consider re-designing work in a way that continues to engage younger people and benefit from their energy, their viewpoints, and their own perspective and expertise in the latest technologies.
Empowerment not Replacement
Instead of focusing on the 92 million jobs expected to be displaced by 2030, leaders could plan for the projected 170 million new ones and the new skills those will require [7].
Skills is a core component of a successful workforce strategy. According to the Future of Jobs Survey report 2025-2030[7], skill gaps are the primary barrier to business transformation. Talent availability and the ability to address that perennial challenge of matching the right people with the right roles will be a key determinant of organisational success.
The focus on augmenting skills rather than replacing them requires a rethink and redesign of workflows. It is not about extracting maximal “rent” from every worker, as if they were hourly machines [5], but organisations could redefine value more holistically, with respect to quality of output, contribution to culture, and capacity for innovation.
Skills are critical for making sure that ‘the future is evenly distributed’.
Resources
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Business Insights and Impacts on the UK Economy, Office for National Statistics, January 2025.
Bersin, J. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T. New Ways to Gauge Talent and Potential. MIT Sloan Management Review 2018. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/new-ways-to-gauge-talent-and-potential/
Brynjolfsson, E., Chandar, B., and Chen, R. Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University and NBER Working Paper, August 26, 2025.
Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas & Winsborough, David & Sherman, Ryne & Hogan, Robert. (2016). New Talent Signals: Shiny New Objects or a Brave New World? Industrial and Organizational Psychology. -1. 1-20. 10.1017/iop.2016.6.
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‘Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential’, McKinsey, 28th January 2025.
Talent Trends 2025: Progress Over Perfection. 2024. Korn Ferry. https://www.kornferry.com/ content/dam/kornferry-v2/featured-topics/pdf/2025-TA-Trends-Report.pdf
The impact of AI on UK jobs and training’, Department for Education, November 2023.
Unlocking AI’s potential: The skills that matter, Financial Services Skills Commission, May 2025.
What is a portfolio and how does it make hiring easier for recruiters. Indeed Employer Content Team, 2025.