The Evolving Workforce: New Skills, New Roles, and Lifelong Learning in the AI Era

Everything is changing and if you think the pace is already fast, brace yourself: it will only accelerate. Yesterday was the best day to start evaluating your own and your employees' skill gaps, identifying which roles are vanishing, which are emerging, and how to keep up with it all. With AI now deeply embedded in our work, one question looms large: will learning still matter?

The answer is a resounding yes.

By 2030, 44% of the skills in the average job will be disrupted or made obsolete (WEF, Future of Jobs 2025). The same research shows that 6 out of 10 workers will require some form of training before 2027, but only half will receive that training from their employer. So how do we keep up?

The Adaptation Problem & the Skill Gap

At their core, people resist change. Add digital transformation into the mix and especially AI and adaptation rates often decline further. The first step is to map your people on an Adaptation Matrix, revealing the first and often most telling gaps.

Inspired

Early adopters. They're probably already ahead of you in both knowledge and how they've integrated AI into their work. You don't need to worry about their skills, just support them. The bigger risk? Leadership or the wider organization may not yet be ready for their inspired thinking.

Frustrated

Open to using AI but lacking the skills. They can be trained, and they're motivated to learn. The challenge is that they often have low AI literacy, weak data reasoning skills, minimal prompt engineering knowledge, and limited experimentation methods. Push training too fast (or too slow), and you risk burnout or disengagement.

Indifferent

Capable of using AI but unconvinced it's relevant to their work. This is a mindset gap, not a technical one, but it's dangerous. Without a willingness to explore AI-enabled workflows, their potential contribution stalls.

Oppressed

Low digital skills, little to no AI experience, and high skepticism. They're unaware of AI's capabilities and lack literacy, foundational awareness, trust, and even exposure to simple use cases. This group faces the highest risk of job loss in the AI era.

New Skills for a New Era

Routine work will be automated. Judgment-heavy work will expand. You won't need to perform every step yourself, you'll orchestrate AI toolchains. That requires new skills.

The most obvious is AI literacy. You must first understand AI before you can use it effectively and question it critically. Data and decision-making will reach new levels, making critical thinking essential.

The real accelerators? Curiosity, about your business, your employees, and the world around you. Ask questions. Explore new developments. Pair that with emotional intelligence to navigate the human side of change.

And more than ever, we'll need human skills that compound with AI:

• Creativity, strengthened by AI's generative capabilities.
• Taste - the ability to trigger emotion, tell the right story, and communicate in a way that fits company culture.
• Judgment, balancing openness with discernment.

These skills will power both existing and emerging roles.

New Roles on the Horizon

Some are obvious but vital: prompt engineers. Just as some people became masters at Googling or finding the best travel deals, those who craft unique, high-quality prompts will gain an edge. However when the interfaces increase their understanding, this could become less important over time.

But prompts alone aren't enough. LLM's learn from data, which means data scientists and engineers will be in higher demand to source, interpret, and refine that data. Speed and quality both depend on it.

We'll also see the rise of AI-augmented analysts in fields like marketing, HR, finance, and legal, specialists who can interpret AI insights and design effective interventions.

However, a challenge looms: apprenticeships. As organizations optimize for productivity, on-the-job training shrinks. Juniors miss the chance to make mistakes and learn, while senior experts spend less time in the market, risking a loss of creativity and connection.

Learning, Learning, Learning

Learning will remain the key in every phase of adaptation. Having information just one click away doesn't mean you're truly learning, it means you must be more intentional about it. To stay ahead of the curve, you need to cultivate the skills that set you apart.

The first step? Close the initial AI gaps by building a foundation of AI literacy. From there, move beyond keeping pace with change to actively shaping it. Become an AI-native organization, one that begins with AI at its core, yet integrates the human skills that make it flourish.