AI is reshaping the digital workforce and our relationship with work. They are interconnected. We are witnessing and experiencing a significant upheaval in both the nature of work and the composition of the workforce. Not knowing what or how you’ll work a year from now injects fear, uncertainty, and doubt into the system. However, consider these three dimensions that directly impact the reshaping of the digital workforce: the expertise gap, the demand for digital skills, and the unstoppable advancement of automation.
Widening Human Expertise Gap
As employees retire, the workforce loses valuable experience. As technology advances, it becomes harder for less experienced individuals to acquire essential skills. Routine tasks, which traditionally served as a training ground for new employees, are increasingly automated. Put another way, AI is replacing entry-level work. As a result, businesses are rethinking how they teach and train employees to keep their workforce relevant.
For example, marketing and advertising require a balance of seasoned strategic thinking and fresh creative ideas. However, a lack of knowledge transfer between experienced professionals and emerging talent impedes innovation and empowered execution. We must therefore devise smarter ways to educate new entrants and upskill existing employees.
Demand for Advanced Digital Skills
The demand for advanced digital skills in the tech sector is unprecedented. Big tech companies continue to integrate increasing levels of AI-generated software into their products.
However, the need for digital skills extends beyond the tech sector. Across the entire workforce, 92% of jobs require digital skills, yet one-third of workers possess little or none. In 2023, IBM laid off 8,000 employees while rolling out its proprietary AI platform, AskHR, to digitise routine tasks. IBM then quietly rehired talent with strategic and critical thinking skills to support work requiring human judgment and empathy. Although IBM’s workforce size has returned to previous levels, its composition has changed, with demand surging for advanced digital skills. Its digital workforce has been reshaped.
Bridging the digital divide offers significant economic benefits for individuals (higher pay) and businesses (lower turnover when training is prioritised). Employees can remain relevant today by adopting digital tools and emerging AI technologies and becoming more AI-enabled.
Automation Continues to Reshape Jobs
As tasks are automated and jobs augmented, employees must develop new competencies. Automation isn’t eliminating jobs—it’s transforming them. Companies are redesigning job roles across several dimensions:
- Separating job titles (what we think we do) from job roles (what we actually do)
- Focusing on human strengths augmented by AI
- Surfacing skills for effective human-AI interaction
- Creating levels for and the interconnectedness between job roles
- Introducing AI-only roles
Soft skills are the new hard skills. Emotional intelligence, teamwork, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving are becoming increasingly valuable as routine cognitive and manual tasks are automated. Not all jobs require digital skills. The need for ‘intrinsically human’ skills that machines cannot replicate will be considered a luxury service. Individuals will also specialise in these areas.
We may also see the rise of gig work as companies adopt alternative employment models to maintain a fluid workforce amid growing digital demands, widening expertise gaps, and sweeping automation-driven changes.
So what? Why should you care? Honestly, be vigilant. If you want to thrive in the future digital workforce, start by filling the expertise gap—build your digital skills.s and touching up your softer skills to remain human in the age of Automation and AI.
