Changing landscape of skills in the age of AI

This joint report focuses on the consequences of increasing adoption of AI technologies within workplaces that alter the way workers utilise cognitive, socioemotional, and physical skills to perform tasks across a broad range of occupations. This shift is reshaping the variety and depth of three skill categories required from workers, often increasing the need for higher-order cognitive and socioemotional skills as well as general digital and data science skills.

The report also looks at newly emerging technical jobs to develop and maintain AI systems, which is currently small and niche labour market, but they are growing rapidly due to the spread of AI technologies. Finally, the report discusses the implications of these developments for skills policies, arguing that increasing AI effects on life and work means that there is a new basic skill that everyone needs: ability to understand and use in a safe and ethical manner AI tools.

AI literacy is increasingly seen as a foundational skill – an essential enabler of human agency and inclusion in AI-augmented environments. Given the multiple labour market disruptions and fragile employment structures, citizens need to be resourceful with higher agility, resilience and adaptability to manage greater uncertainty. Skills policies need to prioritise broader ‘capabilities’ and human agency rather than narrow skills sets.

The report was co-drafted with input from Cedefop and includes substantial Cedefop evidence and contributions from Konstantinos Pouliakas and Ralph Hippe.