In the perfect world, medium-sized and large corporations would already be retraining their entire employee base, technical and beyond, to ensure they have a skilled workforce able to cope with the digital transformation. The hard truth is that change is coming too fast. Smaller operations and start-ups can react and upskill faster and will continue to have the edge unless the big operators can remain nimble and responsive to change.
Most businesses are simply not ready for enterprise-wide change management. Innovation will be key to adapting to new technologies and embracing the potential efficiencies offered by generative and frontier AI. In the short term at least, this will require augmenting existing teams with contractors who are savvy with cutting-edge technology and trained in AI-driven models. They will either provide support or act as team leaders to drive transformative projects and upskill employees.
Every company, no matter what industry sector it operates in, needs to behave like a tech company. As companies depart from their legacy systems, they will need content creators, marketers, communicators, and compliance officers to ensure the deployment of new technology is safe.
Research by Raconteur predicts that the digital transformation in 2024 will focus on these drivers:
- Data-driven decision making
- Enhanced customer experience
- Remote work and collaboration
- Cybersecurity
- Generative AI to drive innovation
Generative AI is here for good, but it’s the fastest-evolving technology ever. Can we keep up? Paradoxically and counterintuitively, remaining agile in hiring skilled contractors to help implement transformative change will be a key to corporate stability: it will buy time for a slower but wider shift in the corporate culture and workforce makeup as the macroeconomic outlook comes into focus.
That outlook is likely to be increasingly data-driven as AI-driven models reveal real-time trends and insights to enable more-informed decision-making. You can read more about Raconteur’s digital transformation research in this article.
Businesses predict that almost half of workers’ core skills will be disrupted because technology is advancing faster than staff training.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2023 report already highlighted the staffing shortages in the tech sector, forcing companies to re-evaluate how they plan to prioritise workplace skills to avoid hindering growth and stagnation.
Traditional recruitment programmes are unlikely to solve the dilemma because businesses are imposing new parameters in the talent search; the top competency requirements now appear to be:
- Analytical thinking
- Creative thinking around big data
- Familiarity with working with AI
As AI embeds itself within an ever-broader slice of operational tasks, businesses must adapt and shape new hiring initiatives to find this pedigree of workers while frantically upskilling internally. Apprenticeship programmes take time to bear fruit and developing mature workers offers no quick fix either. So once again, the search is on for external talent through agency staff and growing databases of skilled IT workers.
Six in ten workers will need upskilling before 2027, but just 50% appear to have access to adequate training courses. Whether you are an employee, contractor, corporate trainer, or thinking of entering the digital communication field, it may be worth taking time NOW to ask yourself some salient upskilling questions:
- Are you ready to join a business that is about to hyper-innovate?
- Can you contribute when quantum computing merges with AI?
- Are you still fluent in the latest tech language?
- When did you upskill in a field outside of your core competency?
If you don’t know the answers, or any are ‘no’, contact us now. We’re here to help you move your skills, talent, and knowledge to the next level.
Our training courses are preparing our reknown talent bank to develop rewarding careers at the forefrontof the AI transformation.
