It could be argued that there is a bit of a don’t know what we don’t know phenomenon surrounding AI, with those understanding AI appearing to be biggest proponents of its impact on the workplace.
In its 2023 report, The skills gap: What employers want from business school graduates, QS found that perceptions of AI’s impact on the workplace was significantly influenced by how familiar the employer is with the technology. A notable 37% of employers who were extremely familiar with AI anticipated that it would bring about a substantial transformational change in their workplaces within a year. By contrast, 31% of employers not well-acquainted with AI believed its impact will be minimal.
A year on and the continuing surge in demand for AI appears to have borne out the predictions of those ‘in the know’. According to Microsoft and LinkedIn’s 2024 Work Trend Index, 71% of leaders now prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate without those skills. Employers are prioritising these skills in new hires. Here at GradLink, a careers site for international students, we have seen an increase in AI as a keyword used by global employers when searching our CV database.
And, rather than being a fad, everything is pointing to this being the long-haul direction of travel. The IMF, for example, recently estimated that almost 40% of jobs will be impacted by AI going forward. According to data from Salesforce, just one in 10 workers globally have the necessary AI skills. It would certainly appear that, as the QS Gen AI Employer Pulse Survey states, employers are generally accepting that AI is here to stay.
For international students, the need for AI skills can be even more urgent
The surging impact of AI will inevitably influence the skills graduates need for the changing workplace. QS’s survey, which had responses from over 1,000 employers, found that they are prioritising skills relating to the ability to utilise AI. These include problem-solving to deal with the complex information AI generates; quantitative skills to analyse and interpret vast amounts of data; and creativity to envisage novel applications and strategies for AI.
The report quotes Philip Heavilin of William and Mary University in the US, who says: “As AI continues to evolve and take on more transactional workplace tasks, the need for employees to possess creativity, critical thinking, resiliency, and a capacity to work well with others will only continue to grow in importance as these are skills yet to be replaced by machine learning.”
For international students, the need for AI skills can be even more urgent. Many emerging economies are experiencing growing technology industries, but unfortunately the professional skill-sets are not there to match.
Gaining exposure to these technologies in countries with strong digital ecosystems – such as the UK – could help international students to develop the AI skills yearned for by employers in their home country. However, in order for international students to truly thrive in this respect, universities must be agile and supportive enough to address the ‘digital shock’ they can often experience at the outset of their studies.
If international students are to be truly valuable to employers in the new workplace, universities must ensure they are equipped with the intellectual dexterity to harness AI’s potential effectively
And it’s not simply about ensuring students are familiar with AI technologies. If international students are to be truly valuable to employers in the new workplace, universities must ensure they are equipped with the intellectual dexterity to harness AI’s potential effectively. Unfortunately, the QS report points to the gap widening between what’s taught in business schools and the real-world demands of the industry.
It’s not as though students aren’t feeling the AI gap in their skills. The recent Employability Report by Cengage Group of 1,000 U.S. employers and 974 recent graduates, found that 70% of graduates believe basic generative AI training needs to be integrated into their courses, and 55% felt their degree programs did not adequately prepare them to use new technology tools in the workforce.
And perhaps counter-intuitively, it’s the youngest of these graduates surveyed, described as the ‘Gen-Zers’ – the ones who might be assumed to be most confident in terms of adapting to new technologies – who are most likely to feel this way (61%). But maybe that’s the point: they know what they don’t know.
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