AI vs Human: How Business Schools Are Closing The Digital Skills Gap

Artificial Intelligence will disrupt jobs. But business schools are adamant the future of work will revolve around human skills for human workers

‘It seems beyond debate: Technology is going to replace jobs, or, more precisely, the people holding those jobs. Few industries, if any, will be untouched.’

So says Joseph Pistrui, professor of entrepreneurial management at IE Business School, writing in a January Harvard Business Review article.

It sounds ominous, and employees already appear to be feeling the strain of digitization on the workforce.

According to a 2017 Capgemini study 29% of employees believe their skillset is redundant now, or will be in the next one to two years. That figure goes up to 38% for those who believe their skills will be obsolete in the next five years.

The stats worsen when you consider soft digital skills. 59% of respondents say their organization faces a lack of qualified employees with adequate soft digital skills; 45% of surveyed people say the training programs their employers provide are not helping them gain new digital skills; and 42% of surveyed people say the company-offered trainings they attend are ‘useless and boring’.

So, what can be done?

The future is human

Business schools play an important role in the training of the future workforce—students need to graduate ready to tackle the challenges the next decade and beyond will throw at the business world.

Terence Tse...