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Artificial intelligence is set to redefine how work is performed across industries. Zanda Arnava, Talent Studio Lead at Accenture Baltics, discusses the profound impact AI will have on the labour market, including the balance between human and machine collaboration, job transformation, and the necessity for reskilling. With many jobs set to evolve rather than disappear, Arnava emphasizes the importance of developing AI competencies to ensure future competitiveness in a rapidly changing landscape.

What impact does artificial intelligence have on the modern labour market? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in AI?

Everything from science to business to society itself will be transformed. The positive impact on human creativity and productivity will be massive. Companies will need to radically rethink how work gets done. The focus must be on evolving operations and training people as much as on technology. Companies must reinvent work to find a path to generative AI value. Business leaders must lead the change, starting now, in job redesign, task redesign, and reskilling people. Ultimately, every role in an enterprise has the potential to be reinvented once today’s jobs are decomposed into tasks that can be automated or assisted and reimagined for a new future of human + machine work. Success with generative AI requires equal attention on people and training as it does on technology. Companies should therefore dramatically ramp up investment in talent to address two distinct challenges: creating AI and using AI. This means both building talent in technical competencies like AI engineering and enterprise architecture and training people across the organization to work effectively with AI-infused processes.

How significantly does AI facilitate work in companies and contribute to faster company operations? How many jobs can AI do instead of a human? Although many specialists assure that AI will not take away a person’s job, can representatives of all professions be calm? Which professionals can these technologies replace?

Generative AI will disrupt work as we know it today, introducing a new dimension of human and AI collaboration in which most workers will have a “co-pilot,” radically changing how work is done and what work is done. Nearly every job will be impacted – some will be eliminated, most will be transformed, and many new jobs will be created. Organizations that take steps now to decompose jobs into tasks, and invest in training people to work differently, alongside machines, will define new performance frontiers and have a big leg up on less imaginative competitors. In our analysis across 22 job categories, for example, we found that large language models (LLMs) will impact every category, ranging from 9% of a workday at the low end to 63% at the high end. More than half of working hours in 5 of the 22 occupations can be transformed by LLMs.

In your opinion, is it possible to compare human and AI competencies and capabilities in general? Why do you think so?

It will be a collaboration, depending on the complexity of the tasks. The most complex tasks will be done by humans, but manual operations will be done by technology. To assess how specific jobs will be reinvented with AI, an Accenture analysis decomposed one customer service job into 13 component tasks. We found: 4 tasks would continue to be performed primarily by humans, with low potential for automation or augmentation. 4 tasks could be fully automated — such as gathering, classifying, and summarizing information on why a customer is contacting the company. 5 tasks could be augmented to help humans work more effectively — such as using an AI summary to provide a rapid solution with a human touch. Importantly, new job tasks might also be needed to ensure the safe, accurate, and responsible use of AI in customer service settings, such as providing unbiased information on products and pricing.

What should today’s labour market participants assess? What competencies should they develop in order to be in demand in the labour market?

Digital skills and IT knowledge will be in demand across all industries. The ability to learn and work with technology will be essential. There will also be entirely new roles, including linguistics experts, AI quality controllers, AI editors, and prompt engineers. In areas where generative AI shows the most promise, companies should start by decomposing existing jobs into underlying bundles of tasks. Then assess the extent to which generative AI might affect each task — fully automated, augmented, or unaffected. Therefore, the ability to use the latest technologies and approaches on a daily basis will be paramount.  

What would you advise young people who are just choosing a specialty, considering today’s labour market trends? Will AI skills be needed by everyone?

The IT industry presents a broad range of job opportunities, allowing individuals to find their ideal career path. I think it will be like cloud technologies in the IT industry; it will have to be learned. In the company’s research, we found that 98% of global executives agree AI foundation models will play an important role in their organizations’ strategies in the next 3 to 5 years.

Finally, people often retrain for various industries. What competencies are in demand right now for IT firms seeking to hire new talents?

These days, project experience and effective communication are crucial. The company collaborates with universities to offer study programs that aid in gaining project experience, allowing an individual to have some project experience by the time they start working, which is typically in their second year. People decide to change careers at various points in their lives due to a variety of factors. Our experience indicates that IT professionals often find it easier to acquire new skills when they have backgrounds in different industries, work experience in STEM fields, or a STEM education. Labor market demands are closely aligned with the trajectory of global and Baltic technology firms. Worldwide, there is a growing need for expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and cloud services. In the Baltic States, there is a particularly high demand for SAP specialists, offering a broad spectrum of opportunities.