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Category: Expertise strategy

Preparing for the skills of the future

What does the rapid change in the technology at our fingertips mean to the future of the jobs market and the skills employers will need access to? In this article, we look at the future of workforce skills and consider how business leaders can prepare.

Amid the wave of technological advancements being embraced by forward-thinking businesses across the globe, the debate of ‘AI versus human’ has also raged on.

Based on 2025 research, the World Economic Forum predicted that by 2030, 39% of key skills required in the job market will have changed, with technological skills projected to grow in importance more rapidly than any other skills in the next five years.

Furthermore, it is estimated that as much as 85% of job roles that will be active in 2030 have not yet been created, and the majority of today’s students will hold positions that do not currently exist. This is in the context of some markets across the globe already experiencing significant skills shortages.

Where will the future gaps be?

There is still plenty of speculation on what some roles of the future may look like.

But preparing for the unknown is what business leaders have had to do since the beginning of commerce, and 60% of today’s professions did not exist in 1940.

Being able to anticipate and adapt is what has differentiated successful businesses from those that have floundered and failed.

There is no doubt that the leap in technology places an immediate priority on skills development for increasing levels of AI-human collaboration, and AI’s growing role in business strategy and operations.

This needs to be addressed both in the future of formal education but also as part of workplace upskilling.

In its Future of Jobs Report 2025, the World Economic Forum predicts that around 170 million new jobs will be created by macro trends this decade, and that technological development, the green transition and economic and demographic shifts will reshape the labour market of the future.

Read the Jobs Report 2025 here.

Being able to anticipate and adapt is what has differentiated successful businesses from those that have floundered and failed.

The report predicts that AI and big data will top the list of most important tech skills, followed by ‘networks and cybersecurity and technological literacy’.

The organisation also suggests that 92 million roles will be ‘displaced’ and that technology and digitalisation will be the biggest drivers for both new roles and ‘declining’ jobs.

For example, the majority of the fastest growing roles are linked to technology, such as AI specialists, whereas clerical and secretarial roles, including data entry positions, are expected to decline quickly.

Sustainability is also a key area of job growth, with sustainability specialists, and renewable energy engineers growing in demand.

A key focus will be on education, which cannot keep up with the pace of change, both in teaching the technology skills that will be needed by tomorrow’s workforce, as well as in leveraging AI as a teaching resource, an area in which there lies great potential.

What about the human?

Whilst tools such as autonomous AI agents are able to handle increasing levels of daily tasks, people are not being displaced.

In fact, soft skills will remain essential for businesses, with seven out of 10 of the top skills on the rise since 2023 falling within soft skillsets. Creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility are deemed as skillsets that will set the workforce of the future in particularly good stead.

This reinforces the message that, despite a growing relationship with technology and its displacement of certain roles, employees should not feel threatened by its advancements.

A recent panel discussion on the topic of ‘skills in the age of AI’ concluded that ultimately AI will improve jobs and ‘elevate the human’ but that proactive reskilling by employers will be crucial.

The financial services sector is a key example. Last year, emagine Ireland hosted a discussion with experts on anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) professionals from high profile international banks in Ireland.

There was complete consensus in the room that both AML and KYC are set to greatly benefit from using AI because of the possibilities it opens up on improving services and security but that, nonetheless, the human element will not disappear but in fact be enhanced, with AI freeing up time for people to do more value-add tasks.

Proactively training employees not only keeps businesses up to date with essential skills for the future but also improves staff retention rates.

It is also important to remember that people have lived in fear of losing their jobs through technology for two centuries. As has always been the case, some roles will become redundant but many more will come into being.

The spectre of today’s skills shortages

As employers grapple with decisions around the pipeline of skills needed in their business for the future, particularly regarding tech skills, some markets are already facing a shortage of available talent today.

A survey shows that 93% of businesses in the UK say there is an IT skills gap, whilst globally, 44% of executives say that a lack of in-house AI expertise is a key barrier to implementing generative AI, with Germany potentially seeing 70% of AI jobs unfilled by 2027, and the US experiencing a shortfall of up to 700,000 workers in this space.

Read the IT skills gap report here.

In Ireland, for some time employers have struggled to find the skills they need. A recent survey reveals that 83% of employers in Ireland are struggling to find candidates in what has been dubbed the worst skills shortage in 20 years.

Particularly challenging are IT and data skills, as well as operations and logistics skills, followed by engineering and sustainability skills.

Even six years ago, the International Monetary Fund warned of the global ‘tech talent scramble’, exploring the tactics that different countries were using to attract talent from abroad. However, there are tech skills solutions that don’t require relocation.

Plugging the skills gap

As skills shortages grow, proactive and strategic upskilling initiatives are a prudent way for business leaders to respond. At emagine, we have observed a growing interest in upskilling and training, particularly in response to advancing technologies.

Proactively training employees not only keeps businesses up to date with essential skills for the future but also improves staff retention rates.

At emagine, we've been creating customised training courses and development programs for over 15 years.

Click here to see our customised training courses.

Our training is crafted by subject matter experts in close collaboration with client businesses, ensuring tailored learning experiences that address both organisational and individual needs.

In addition to training, working with a partner consulting business to plug specialist skills gaps can be a cost and time-efficient solution, and one in which geography need not be a factor.

For example, emagine can put together a managed team for one-off or ongoing projects, taking full responsibility for sourcing the necessary tech skills. Our experts also manage onboarding, performance monitoring, scaling up or down of services, addressing training needs and any other team management requirements.

At emagine, we work in partnership with our clients as an extension of their operation, bringing and managing the hard-to-find tech specialists and allowing our clients the time to focus on strategic objectives.

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Preparing for the skills of the future

Where will the future gaps be?

Being able to anticipate and adapt is what has differentiated successful businesses from those that have floundered and failed.

What about the human?

Proactively training employees not only keeps businesses up to date with essential skills for the future but also improves staff retention rates.

The spectre of today’s skills shortages

Plugging the skills gap

Ready to find out more?

Explore our blog

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