How AI is changing the rules of hiring and which skills are most important
By The Conversation | Published: 2025-10-31 08:00:00 | Source: Fast Company – leadership
Accenture Consulting Company 11,000 employees were recently laid off while And expanding its efforts to train workers to use artificial intelligence. It’s a sharp reminder that the same efficiency of technology leadership is also redefining what it takes to maintain a job.
And Accenture is not alone. IBM has already replaced hundreds of roles With artificial intelligence systems, creating new job opportunities in sales and marketing. Amazon is cutting employees Even as the teams that build and manage AI tools expand. Across industries, from Banks to Hospitals and Creative companiesWorkers and managers alike are trying to understand which roles will disappear, which roles will evolve, and which new roles will emerge.
I Research and teaching At Drexel University Lipo College of Businessthe study of how technological changes and decision-making work. My students often ask how they can remain employable in the age of artificial intelligence. Executives ask me how to build trust in technology that seems to move faster than people can adapt to it. Ultimately, both groups are asking the same thing: What skills are most important in an economy where machines can learn?
To answer this question, I analyzed data from two surveys that my colleagues and I conducted this summer. For the first, Data Integrity and AI Readiness Surveywe asked 550 companies across the country how they use and invest in AI. For the second, College Employment Outlook Surveywe looked at how 470 employers viewed entry-level hiring, workforce development, and candidates’ AI skills. These studies show both sides of the equation: those who build AI and those who learn how to work with it.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, but are people ready?
More than half of organizations told us that AI now drives their daily decision-making, yet only 38% believe their employees are fully prepared to use it. This gap is reshaping today’s labor market. AI isn’t just replacing workers; It reveals who is willing to work alongside him.
Our data also show a contradiction. While many companies now rely on AI internally, only 27% of recruiters say they are comfortable with applicants using AI tools for tasks like writing a resume or researching salary ranges.
In other words, the same tools that companies trust to make business decisions still raise skepticism when job seekers use them for career advancement. Until this view changes, even skilled workers will continue to receive conflicting messages about what “work” is.Responsible use of artificial intelligenceI mean really.
In the Data Integrity and AI Readiness Survey, this readiness gap was most evident in customer-facing and operational functions such as marketing and sales. These are the same areas where automation is advancing rapidly, and layoffs tend to happen when technology evolves faster than people can adapt.
At the same time, we found that many employers have not updated their certification or credential requirements. They’re still hiring for yesterday’s resume while tomorrow’s work requires mastery of artificial intelligence. The problem is not replacing humans with artificial intelligence; It’s that technology is evolving faster than most workers can adapt.
Fluency and confidence: the true foundations of adaptability
Our research suggests that the skills most closely linked to adaptability share a common theme, which I call “human-AI fluency.” This means the ability to work with intelligent systems, question their results, and continue to learn as things change.
The biggest challenges across companies are scaling AI, ensuring compliance with ethical and regulatory standards, and linking AI to real business goals. These obstacles are not related to programming; They are about good governance.
In my classes, I stress that the future will favor people who can transform machine output into useful human insight. I call this digital bilingualism: the ability to move fluently between human judgment and machine logic.
What management experts call “reskilling.” Learn new skills to adapt to the new role or major changes to an outdated system – works best when people feel safe to learn Data Integrity and AI Readiness Surveyorganizations with strong governance and high trust were nearly twice as likely to report gains in performance and innovation. Data suggests that when people trust their leaders and systems, they are more willing to experiment and learn from mistakes. In this way, trust transforms technology from something to fear into something to learn from, giving employees the confidence to adapt.
According to College Employment Outlook SurveySome 86% of employers now offer online internships or bootcamps, yet only 36% say AI-related skills are important for entry-level roles. Most training still focuses on traditional skills rather than those needed for emerging AI jobs.
The most successful companies make learning part of the job itself. They build learning opportunities into real projects and encourage employees to experiment. I often remind leaders that the goal is not just to train people to use AI, but to help them think alongside it. This is how trust becomes the foundation of growth, and how reskilling helps retain employees.
New rules of employment
In my view, leading AI companies are not just cutting jobs; They are redefining them. To succeed, I believe companies will need to hire people who can connect technology with good governance, question what AI produces, explain it clearly, and turn it into business value.
In companies that use AI to work more effectively, hiring is no longer limited to just a resume. What matters is how people apply traits like curiosity and judgment to gadgets. I believe these trends are leading to new hybrid roles like AI translators, who help decision makers understand what AI insights mean and how to act on them, and digital coaches, who teach teams to work alongside intelligent systems. Each of these roles links human judgment and machine intelligence, illustrating how future jobs will blend technical skills with human insight.
This combination of judgment and adaptability is the new competitive advantage. The future will reward not only the most technical workers, but those who can turn human or artificial intelligence into real-world value.
Murugan Anandarajan Professor of decision sciences and management information systems at the University Drexel University.
This article was republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. Read Original article.
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(tags for translation)Artificial Intelligence
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