AI skills are already a requirement in many job descriptions. But why is this the case and what do you actually need to master Artificial Intelligence? This blog article will show you why AI skills are so important for employees, what skills will be needed in the future and how companies can develop them successfully.
What Are AI Skills?
AI skills are interdisciplinary competencies that are necessary to understand and confidently apply Artificial Intelligence. These include critical thinking and the ability to assess the risks and opportunities of the technology.
More specifically, AI skills include both a basic understanding of the functionality, potential and limitations of artificial intelligence and the efficient use of AI in everyday working life.
It is less about which tasks can be completely handed over to AI and more about using AI as an intelligent tool to augment human expertise.
Why Everyone Should Have AI Skills in the Future
There is no question that artificial intelligence will change job profiles or even create completely new ones and have a major impact on the world of work:
- 40% of employees will need to be reskilled by 2027 due to the introduction of AI, according to findings from the IBM Institute for Business Value.
- The McKinsey Global Institute predicts that AI could create 20 to 50 million new jobs worldwide by 2030.
- According to a global PwC study, artificial intelligence will contribute up to 15.7 trillion dollars to the global economy in 2030.
In addition to other essential and interdisciplinary skills for the future, AI skills are already having an impact on career opportunities: an analysis of all Stepstone job advertisements since 2019 shows that the demand for skills related to artificial intelligence has already risen by 46%.
Confident use of artificial intelligence is therefore becoming a basic requirement for professional success and entrepreneurial innovation – in all industries, professions and positions.
AI Skills: Not Only Important, but a Prerequisite!
When you get right down to it, it's not even about why all employees should have AI skills in the future. In fact, they must be able to demonstrate their ability to work with artificial intelligence.
This is according to the EU AI Act, a law designed to regulate the use of the technology in companies and make it safer. Among other things, the AI regulation for personnel development sets how employees must be trained in the use of AI from February 2, 2025. This includes technical, ethical, legal and safety-related training.
Which 5 AI Skills Are Important Today and in the Future
The question remains – both for employees and for companies:
What skills in dealing with artificial intelligence are really needed to keep pace with the dynamic developments in the world of work?
This is not (only) about the question of how artificial intelligence works in detail or how a specific AI tool works. Rather, an overarching understanding of the technology, its possible applications and limitations will become relevant.
These five AI skills are therefore becoming increasingly important for all job profiles:
1. Identify and Utilize AI Potentials
In order to be able to use artificial intelligence sensibly and successfully, employees and companies must be able to recognize what can be achieved with the technology and what positive effects it can have on work.
Only those who are capable of using artificial intelligence to identify new areas of application and revolutionize processes can exploit the full potential of AI. This creates new business areas and offers the company opportunities for growth.
However, employees need more than a basic understanding of the new possibilities. They need to be agile and flexible in the face of the continuous progress in the field of AI.
2. Recognize Risks and Avoid Dangers
If you want to increase efficiency with AI, you should be aware of the limits. After all, using artificial intelligence in every department is no longer rocket science. However, using it in such a way that it adds value and – above all – does not pose a risk can be a challenge.
Employees must have sufficient data literacy and be able to critically question whether the output of an AI tool is correct and can therefore be used without hesitation. Unquestioned use of AI can result in a gradual decline of quality that might go unnoticed until it causes visible reputational or financial harm.
Using artificial intelligence without thoroughly checking the tool in question can also lead to considerable data protection and security problems for companies, for example if sensitive information is to be processed. Employees must be aware of this and trained to use AI responsibly.
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3. Understand the Basics of Technology
Very few professions will involve having to train artificial intelligence from scratch. Nevertheless, understanding the basics of the technology is a basic prerequisite for being able to use it successfully.
Understanding what AI basically is and what is behind terms such as Machine Learning or Large Language Model leads to a confident approach and helps to adapt further developments more quickly for your own work.
Employees who can not only create beautiful texts, images, videos and code with ChatGPT, Midjourney and the like, but also understand the processes behind them, will achieve better results faster and have a greater impact on the company's success.
4. Use AI Sensibly
Probably the most important AI competence in everyday life is the sensible use of various AI tools – and the range of available AI tools is huge, in addition to AI assistants within other software.
It is probably impossible to master all functions fully and effectively. However, the ability to learn and use new AI functions as quickly as possible is not. It is therefore important for employees to internalize basic application patterns in order to be able to solve everyday tasks with the help of artificial intelligence.
Regardless of the tool, this will require a certain amount of sensitivity in prompt engineering, or put more simply: controlling the AI with precisely formulated instructions.
5. Be Open to Artificial Intelligence
Less a real AI skill and more a mindset, but: mastering and using new technology requires the openness to really want to use it.
If employees are reluctant to use artificial intelligence (and digital innovations in general), there is a risk of being left behind.
Only with the necessary adaptability, a genuine willingness and curiosity to change and continuous development can employees and companies keep pace with the dynamics of the working world.
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Improving Employees' AI Skills - Here's How!
AI has arrived in everyday working life and will continue to gain relevance in the future. For company and personal growth, this means that AI training is becoming a cornerstone of the development strategy.
Integrating artificial intelligence into the training agenda is ultimately just as worthwhile for companies as the use of the technology itself.
These five tips will help you to train AI effectively:
- Create space by providing your employees with AI tools and motivating them to explore and experiment with artificial intelligence.
- Train hands-on and in a learning environment that is tailored to individual needs - for example with adaptive learning methods or personalized AI coaching.
- Promote the exchange of experience and encourage internal AI pioneers to share their knowledge and best practices in order to encourage other colleagues to use AI.
- Develop skill profiles that define which team member has which tasks, how they can solve them with AI, which AI skills are necessary for this and how they can be improved.
- Enable continuous further development, because only the sustainable development of knowledge – especially in topics with dynamic developments such as artificial intelligence – ensures long-term competitiveness.
Conclusion: Further Development Instead of Fear of the Future
AI will not replace people, as basic technical knowledge will continue to be a decisive factor in success and productivity in the future. Nevertheless, some things will change, for example job profiles will have to be adapted to the new requirements and new skills will have to be developed among employees.
However, those who build up AI skills in the company early enough can look to the future with confidence and have the best chance of actively shaping the business world of tomorrow!
It's best to get started right away!
Understanding Artificial Intelligence and using it sensibly? With Masterplan, all employees learn how!
Stefan Schulze
