In a landscape which is evolving at a rapid pace, the ability to adapt and acquire new skills has emerged as one of the most demanding skillset, crucial for both personal and professional growth. With artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping industries and organisations, experts believe that the concept of skill agility becomes a key driver which can fuel growth and aspirations. As technology is on the evolutionary path, it has nearly become non-negotiable for organisations to focus on continuous learning and development to stay ahead of the competition.
Agility is the most important item right now in everyone's mind because we are jumping onto the bandwagon for all sorts of jobs and industries. Experts highlight that there is no definitive benchmark as well. Now, it is not practical to look at company X, Y and Z, and follow their path and get onto the AI bandwagon.
Experts believe that agility in terms of skills, in terms of being ready to welcome the new, that there is a big shift going to happen and cannot be avoided anymore plays a key role. The resistance to change, which might come in, is going to be a big step to navigate because we are dealing with people, while we are trying to bring in AI.
“AI is also being built on the basis of the intelligence and data from people itself. That is going to be very, very important because if you do not address the human element in this, it is going to be difficult. We can all say, bring platforms X, Y and Z, adopt it and this is your new AI life. But if you are not addressing the user base, or if you are not addressing the change agents within the organisation, the change is going to be very difficult and the change is going to happen and is not going to stop,” stated Bina Belani, Head of HR, Retail Technology, Jio Platforms.
Accurate Decision Making
Experts emphasise the importance of leveraging AI to improve problem-solving and decision-making with precision and timeliness. For organisations looking to excel, the decisions must be accurate as well as relevant in real-time to stay relevant. The primary focus is on leveraging data effectively to arrive at an informed, effective decision.
“AI brings in enhanced problem-solving. How are we using automation? How are we bringing technology to solve our problem? Primarily here and now, primarily in decision-making and most importantly, with accuracy. If our decision-making and problem-solving is not bringing accuracy and is not here and now, to us as corporates, it is no more useful. How are we using data to make those smart decisions is going to be the key for all of us,” stated Arppna Mehra, Vice President HR, Honeywell India.
Industry leaders highlight that the rapid changes in the industries, in context to the rise of technologies, take time to develop. They believe that while the changes and development may appear to be running at a fast pace, if we look behind the scenes, it is an investment and it takes time to train the machines as well.
“The industries which we belong to are changing very fast. But these models, with the most used tool being ChatGPT, require time. You look at the industry which is evolving very fast in technology, this technology doesn't come overnight. While we talk about deep tech and fast tech happening, behind that, it takes a lot of time for machines to learn, to train the machine. It is an investment, even in these startups, which are doing, is building not for now, but solving for the future,” stated Anurag Verma, Head of People and Culture, Share Chat.
He added that it still is in a stage where much of this will evolve in the future and most of the startups cannot afford a co-pilot, so they have to rely on their indigenous tool, navigate, get across into a state where they start using these tools, and use it to the advantage.
Brain Behind The Wheel
On the job front, the leaders in the industry feel that it is the wheel, but it is not the brain behind the wheel. It is always the human quotient and human revolution, which will keep on making this wheel churn. Such is the nature of the work environment we have that the jobs keep evolving faster and that too, at a rapid scale.
“We go to a lot of IITs for hiring and I spend a lot of time with these professors, the lecturers and researchers who are behind machine learning and AI. It is a common phenomenon among them that you cannot say that jobs will get redundant or something which will get more multiplied. If you go back to the 90s, you see there were some jobs of operators who used to plug in wires when they used to transfer the calls. We thought that these jobs would be gone, but there were many other jobs which we couldn't think of at that time and now, it has evolved,” stated Kamal Sahdev, Senior Director – HR, Delta Electronics India.
Pointing out to the topic of database decision-making, Rohin Nadir, Chief Learning officer, KPMG who moderated the panel at the BW People Festival of L&D, stated, “Now, the data which has started creeping in is further machine-generated data, and hence, it has become like an echo chamber, because once the data gets fed in, the machine keeps building off that.”
Adapting to new technologies and embracing continuous learning remains crucial for both individuals and organisations to stay competitive. The experts believe that as industries evolve, skill agility is going to be a cornerstone for success in the AI-era.
