In recent months, we’ve been hearing industry leaders talk about how AI will wipe out jobs across the business landscape.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the autonomous enterprise. Business leaders saw that full-on AI, at least from a purely technical perspective, doesn’t move things forward. AI adds amazing intelligence to systems and processes, but human guidance is essential. Witness Ford Motor Company’s recent reversal on AI when it rehired 300 engineers to keep quality in line.
In a related trend, there’s been a surge in adding philosophers and humanities graduates to AI teams, also to keep the technology within the bounds of human needs.
Now, there’s data that shows that employers are seeking the so-called “soft skills” – leadership, people management, process management, and data-driven decision making – as their main criteria in new hires.
As a result, those at the entry level are expected to have a more mature grasp of these skills, according to PwC’s latest AI jobs report, which looked at more than a billion job ads across the globe. These leadership-focused jobs have seen 42% faster wage growth since 2021, the study finds.
Yes, there’s concern and data that shows fewer opportunities for entry-level jobs as AI usurps the basic tasks they handled – assembling information, reporting. coding, and so forth. The need to come in with relatively mature people skills adds another challenge. ,
This means more entry-level jobs “highly exposed to AI” require the leadership skills usually assigned to more senior-level employees and managers. These types of skills – the PwC authors refer to these as “senior skills” – now account for 52% of new skills required for these jobs. “It will be important to hone leadership, judgement, creative and teamwork skills so individuals can do what AI cannot,” the PwC authors state. “The more AI is deployed, the more distinctly human expertise is valued.”
In addition, contrary to predictions of an AI job apocalypse, AI is boosting employment levels, the PwC study finds. The more AI, the more workforce growth.
“Headcount growth at the most AI-exposed companies is outpacing that at the least exposed companies,” the study’s authors point out. “Far from being a job killer, AI may actually be a job expander when used to unlock growth and enter new markets.”
AI appears to be helping to boost wages as well, the PwC study demonstrates. “Wages too are growing faster at the most AI-exposed companies, suggesting gains are shared with workers,” the researchers found.
The PwC study authors provides the following advice for managing in this two-track environment:
- Don’t just automate, redesign. Focus on redesigning work, “not just automating tasks,” they urge.
- Use AI to pursue growth over efficiency. “Companies gaining the
greatest value from AI are using it to unlock new revenue, enter new markets, and
create new forms of value.” - Build a cohesive AI strategy. “Simply pointing AI at opportunities isn’t going to capture them,” the PwC authors point out. Instead, concentrate on building a targeted strategy with a modernized data and technology platform.
- Emphasize the soft skills in workforce planning and training. Focus on advanced AI fluency, human-intensive skills, specialist talent, and retention strategies, they urge.
- Reinvent early career pathways. “Redesign onboarding, mentorship, and training programs to accelerate development of advanced skills such as leadership, stakeholder management, and strategic decision-making.”
- Invest in agentic AI. AI agents serve as “the ultimate complement to human expertise,” the PwC authors note. “With a team of AI agents at their command, workers can use their uniquely human expertise to deliver value at much greater scale – enabling their organizations to think, adapt, and execute faster than competitors.”
When it comes to leveraging AI, reinvention is the watchword. “As work changes rapidly, skill needs change rapidly too – with employers increasingly focused on attributes that are distinctively human,” according to the PwC team. “Skills required for the most AI exposed jobs are changing twice as fast as in the least exposed roles, while new tasks that rely on skills like empathy, judgement, and creativity are added 2.5x faster.”