AI industry trends: Future roles and emerging skill profiles

Is it time to hire a Head of Data Ethics?  

NextWave Consulting collaborated with Monmouth University to survey a diverse group of C-Level Executives, Hiring Managers, Line Managers, Entry Level Employees and University Students, to assess the current and expected hiring trends for entry-level professional workers in an AI-enabled workforce. This research was led by a NextWave Board Adviser who is also an Executive in Residence at Monmouth University as part of both institution's desire to connect the academic and commercial communities.

Following this survey, NextWave interviewed a select group of experienced C Suite professionals working across banks and wealth management firms, who are currently involved in the upskilling of their current workforce with artificial intelligence, as well as setting ethical and operational guidelines for their organizations. Output and feedback from these interviews were used to connect the survey responses with the current state of financial services, from the perspective of people who will be recruiting future generations in a world where AI is rapidly developing as a competitive advantage.

The research was structured to:  

• Analyze the impact of artificial intelligence technology on the entry-level professional job market, focusing on the financial services industry
• Identify significant trends impacting entry-level professional jobs, the opportunities and threats to these jobs and the changing skill sets required to perform these jobs
• Identify how the hiring of entry-level personnel will adapt in the future and how universities will need to alter curriculum to best prepare the workforce for these new expectations

Methodology:

We conducted live interviews of approximately one hour with each survey group member. The survey allowed for open-ended discussion about overall trends, in addition to the specific survey answers. The responses are presented in aggregate and do not specifically name or identify any of the participants or their affiliations.

In our previous article, we explored two key themes that emerged from the survey, highlighting the challenges of adopting and operationalizing AI in the swiftly evolving business landscape. This piece examines the second part of our research, focusing on the opportunities of AI for the next generation, including some unique perspectives on upskilling future talent:

• Changing skills profiles – Technical skills combined with the “soft skills’ of communications, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence were considered the combination in highest demand in the future.
• Liberal Arts is the “new tech” – Universities are largely unprepared to teach the curriculum required to meet the demands of entry level employers.
  

What new skills profiles should you hire for?

68% of survey participants indicated that they personally use AI tools. As technology has become more intuitive and accessible, the emphasis is less on the technical operation of the tools and more on the application to solve a business problem or serve a client better.

Future expectations of employees will include the ability to articulate meaning from data and apply critical thinking skills to find business relevance for crafting a strategy. It was noted that expectations will include, more than ever, the ability to communicate and work well with others.

Technical skills in demand

A smarter, more productive workforce of the future will perform their roles at efficiencies never seen before. Replacing many of the manual and repetitive tasks that are historically performed by entry-level employees will leave a smaller number of roles that can be used as a training ground for early-stage workers. Practical and actual work experience will be the differentiator in getting the choice entry level positions in the future. Those actual experiences contribute to valuable industry knowledge and critical thinking ability.

Critical Thinking skills

Understanding what AI can do for you in your chosen field is the most important skill to possess. You will need to be able to design the prompts accurately to get the most out of Generative AI. Crafting stories and making information into knowledge was considered a key critical thinking differentiator. The ability to see pattens in data, understand data sourcing and ultimately creating data sets to support decision making will result in the efficiency gains promised by this technology. The crossroads of analytics and creativity with a detail-oriented mindset will be the critical thinking skill in high demand.

Emotional intelligence and communication

Emotional resilience, adaptability, and curiosity were frequently discussed as skills predicted to be even higher in demand. The importance of human connection and networking was discussed at length; not only working with other humans, but working with technology as well. Many believed you should treat AI like a human to get the best results.

There was concern among the older, more senior participants in particular that the ability to develop and maintain relationships has been severely diminished by social media. Within the financial services industry, this can be seen in the use of LinkedIn for networking and remote, agile working, which both took time to adopt and faced some resistance.

Ultimately, respondents echoed the notion that the way you create the future is by connecting to the past. It’s important to analyze trends and connection points, applying a ‘philosophy of business’. Today’s entry-level employees need a solid, broad, intelligent view of the world. They will need to be more adaptable than any generation before them and will hold more different roles in their careers than their predecessors.

Liberal Arts is the “new tech”

73% of Survey participants agreed that entry-level job roles would be the most impacted by AI.

Technology is not an outlier, it’s a core skill, like language or history, and should be part of the Liberal Art program. It’s a key component of society, not a specialty. The new cohort of talent must be educated in Philosophy, Sociology and Ethics combined with Statistical Analysis, Data & Computer Science to develop as the critical thinkers of the future. Universities need a strategy for this and hiring patterns will need to change. Without mature controls, it will be incumbent upon the people with their hands on the technology to determine how it is used, therefore they need to be responsibly trained.

Few organizations have Ethical AI Leads, and this is a position that will need to be created and filled with the AI evolution. Large conglomerates like Google and Meta have had in-house ethicists for years already. Artificial intelligence (AI) has closer scientific connections with philosophy than do other sciences, because AI shares many concepts with philosophy, e.g. action, consciousness, epistemology (what it is sensible to say about the world), and even free will, according to Professor John McCarthy, who’s is considered ‘the father of AI’ (Stanford)

Future leaders must have a good understanding of theories and concepts which stem from the humanities. AI itself must be designed ethically and thoughtfully, with a deep understanding of human values, connections and dynamics, because the technology will reflect the mentality of the people who create it (as is already currently the case with algorithms).

Although current financial organizations and fintechs rarely prioritize Liberal Arts subjects, this will become an increasingly valuable skill for incoming talent who need to not only understand technology, but also philosophy, ethics and law.

Soft Skills

There was agreement among survey participants that ‘soft skills’, defined generally as ability to lead, persuade, adapt, think and communicate, were lacking in most entry-level hires. While the importance of technology was not diminished, the relevance of coursework like Philosophy, Sociology, Ethics and the humanities were consistently mentioned as the basis of harnessing technology advancement.

Today’s entry-level workers will play a significant role in the adoption of AI. These emerging leaders will need to understand the benefits of AI and develop persuasive methods of communication and incorporate them into the customer experience. 

The new roles created over the last 10 years, like data scientist, cloud administrator, and cyber security, suggest we will see another set of roles the next 10 years, such as prompt engineer, AI administrator and ‘aesthetics, truth and goodness manager’.

 Problem Solving

The ability to see the broader picture, the holistic view, was widely considered the foundation of problem-solving. More real-life exposure and tangible work products are needed to teach these skills at universities. Employers now are less interested in theoretical answers and more interested in actual projects. They want to see evidence of actual application of classroom learning.

There is too much separation between technical and non-technical fields – data science and business should be taught together as an applied discipline. The understanding of human capital and its role in business was another key theme in the problem solving domain. It all comes back to people, process, and technology and, in the AI enabled future, the interplay between them needs to be better understood than ever.

Sociology & Ethics

Higher education has a critical role, if not a responsibility, to educate young people in the ethical and social risks this technology presents when misused for nefarious purposes. This education begins with a basic understanding of AI, how it works, and what’s behind it. All professionals will be exposed to AI and will need to understand its foundations and capability to make decisions about its use.

Conclusion

To keep up with the swiftly evolving AI landscape and its needs, your organization must be equipped with an AI strategy for hiring new senior and junior roles, upskilling your teams, and understanding the ethical and cultural challenges you may face along the way.

NextWave’s AI Centre of Excellence provides organizations with a centralised capability dedicated to fostering innovation, expertise, and best practices. It serves as a hub for AI research, development, and deployment, bringing together multidisciplinary teams of experts to accelerate the adoption of AI technologies and tools across the enterprise.

We help organisations promote a culture of continuous improvement and technological advancement across their processes, systems, and products to drive operational efficiency, innovation, and competitive advantage. This allows you to transform your data into actionable insights, streamline your operations, and improve customer experiences, creating new opportunities for growth and differentiation in the market.

We develop structured approaches and frameworks designed to guide organisations through change initiatives, ensuring delivery with confidence and reliability. These actionable strategies provide a clear roadmap for transformation, enabling teams to execute changes effectively and with assured outcomes. See our AI solution framework.

About NextWave

NextWave is an award-winning digital acceleration consultancy. We help leading firms in Financial Services to successfully deliver complex transformation and the automation of businesses and functions across Asset & Wealth Management, Banking, and Insurance - www.nxwave.com  

Clients come to NextWave because they have key business growth, efficiency and control objectives and are seeking a more future-focused alternative to the big-name consultancies. We provide strategy, industry specialist transformation teams, and AI and automation solutions rapidly to help clients deliver business outcomes at a more reasonable price.  A brief background can be seen here - Overview Deck & Brief Videos

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