Looking ahead, what emerging tech expertise or skill sets do you anticipate will be most challenging to acquire, and is your organization making any changes to its talent strategy to adapt?
Sort by:
Here are a few observations and food for thought:
Data Strategy & management will increase
Infrastructure Transformation - how to simplify the ecosystem and access data where it is
Process management & good old re-engineering - how to determine the value-based use cases
Enterprise Architecture - system integration & simplification
Do you agree? What did I miss?
A concern is that AI will eliminate many entry-level jobs, which are essential for developing intermediate and senior talent. We may need to rethink how people advance to senior roles when traditional learning pathways are disrupted.
Critical thinking will become even more important as AI-generated content proliferates. We have to encourage and develop critical thinking skills in new hires to help them discern reality from AI-generated information.
It is also important to train employees to recognize AI-generated content and fact-check information. As AI becomes more sophisticated, distinguishing between real and artificial content will be a necessary skill.
Experience will be the most difficult to find. As generative AI becomes more prevalent, many candidates will have textbook knowledge but lack hands-on experience. In government, we have traditionally relied on hiring experienced professionals from other agencies, but this may become less common as AI changes the job landscape.
The challenge is not just acquiring specific AI skills, but developing the ability to continuously learn and apply new skills as they emerge. Everyday AI literacy will be crucial.
Similar to peers here in some comments, I think it's the other way around - emerging tech expertise is not the issue - it's the basics; process knowledge and understanding, real-world user experience, financial and accounting (yes - everything still ends up in finance...). In a nutshell - experience. We have to improve and retain our link to how our employees that need emerging tech expertise, have access to front-line roles (manufacturing, sales, customer focused etc), and not only provide them the tools and support with the tech but also that they know how things work when the tech is not available, and they have to process transactions in 'reverse'.