Jobs and the Future of Work

Leaders share their vision as 85% of employers plan to prioritize reskilling their workforce

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Four CEOs outline how organizations can prioritize reskilling and address the skills gap, for everyone's benefit.

Four CEOs outline how organizations can prioritize reskilling and address the skills gap, for everyone's benefit. Image: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Gurgen Tadevosyan
Specialist, Skills Initiatives, World Economic Forum
Neil Allison
Head of Education, Skills and Learning Mission, World Economic Forum
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • Broadening digital access will reshape industries, with 60% of employers expecting it to redefine their businesses.
  • Advancements in technologies such as AI are poised to drive profound changes, according to the Future of Jobs Report 2025.
  • Four CEOs outline how organizations can prioritize reskilling and address the skills gap, for everyone's benefit.

Broadening digital access is set to be the most transformative macro trend shaping industries, with 60% of employers expecting it to redefine their businesses by 2030, according to our recently released Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Advancements in technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and information processing (86%), robotics and automation (58%), and energy generation, storage and distribution (41%), are poised to drive profound changes.

The demand for technology-related skills is at the forefront of this transformation, with AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy projected to be the top three fastest-growing skills.

Top 10 fastest growing skills by 2030
Top 10 fastest growing skills by 2030 Image: World Economic Forum

However, the evolving landscape also underscores the enduring need for uniquely human abilities – creativity, critical thinking and adaptability. These skills complement technical expertise, enabling workers to thrive in dynamic environments and contribute meaningfully to innovation and progress.

Organizations that prioritize reskilling as part of their strategy, supported by strong leadership and a culture of lifelong learning, are better positioned to address challenges and seize opportunities in the future economy.

By fostering a balanced combination of technical and human capabilities, businesses and individuals alike can play a pivotal role in shaping an inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future for all.

Here four CEOs outline how companies can prioritize reskilling to address the skills gap.

‘Skills gap threatening to turn into skills chasm’

Omar Abbosh, CEO, Pearson

Global economies and societies run on skills and yet, we’re facing two forces that threaten to quickly turn a skills gap into a skills chasm. AI is moving at warp speed, outrunning humans, and demographic changes are putting professionals with the skills needed in short supply.

Our research shows that in the US alone, when people are in earning transitions – i.e., seeking their first jobs or experiencing unemployment due to redundancy or displacement – the annual earnings loss is $1.1 trillion, 5% of annual US GDP.

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With AI-powered educators, trainers and learning experiences in schools and workforces, we can unlock the skills and learning agility needed now, and in the future. AI can adapt to the modern brain and help people learn in new, dynamic and even personalized ways and has the potential to unlock flexible and life-changing learn-to-earn career pathways. It is also a powerful tool for quality assessments and tracking learning outcomes.

The way I see it, the AI era is a call for collaboration. If we rise to our potential to collectively reimagine learning, we’ll curb the skills chasm, help millions of people reach their potential, and drive much needed progress in communities and global economies.

‘AI requires a skilling infrastructure for the future’

Debb Cupp, President, Microsoft Americas

AI is revolutionizing industries and creating new economic opportunities, but it requires a skilling infrastructure that equips current and future workers with essential capabilities to put new AI technologies to work.

According to Microsoft and LinkedIn’s most recent Work Trends Index, while 66% of business leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills, only 25% of companies globally currently offer AI trainings.

Microsoft is committed to training people worldwide to develop and increase their AI literacy. Through partnerships with governments, local organizations, and nonprofits, we have developed tailored training programs that, over the last four years, trained and certified more than 14.1 million people in 197 countries, and we are setting even more ambitious goals.

With the recent launch of the AI Skills Navigator, an AI-powered assistant is ready to help every learner find the right training resources based on their goals and skill level, we aim to reach 25 million more learners around the world.

AI is reshaping the nature of work and the future of jobs. At Microsoft, we believe democratizing access to AI education enables everyone to build an inclusive, sustainable future where AI creates opportunities for all.

‘AI promises to close the industrial sector’s skills gap’

Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell

The path to autonomy involves addressing some of the biggest challenges facing industry today, one of which is the skills gap – and AI promises to close that gap.

Think about operators and technicians, about people who are needed to maintain or run a plant. Their numbers are dropping precipitously around the world: highly skilled, experienced employees are retiring, and there simply aren’t enough people in the pipeline to take their place. That leaves us with too few people with sufficient experience to meet the needs of the industrial sector.

AI can help solve for this by augmenting skills. We’re not talking about using it to replace workers. Instead, a handheld, AI-driven device can become the partner and advisor to employees who have been on the job for 3–5 years, providing predictive maintenance support, training and instruction that increases their skills, so they can operate as though they were veterans of a decade or more.

That’s one of the concrete, real-world examples of AI’s promise: people working smarter processes working more efficiently, assets working harder. As we enter 2025, I’m optimistic that AI will fuel the transition from industrial automation to industrial autonomy that is essential for the growth and transformation of the sector.

‘We must democratize our efforts to reskill a majority’

Cecilia Elena Rouse, President, Brookings Institution

The World Economic Forum projects that technology will transform 1.1 billion jobs – nearly three times the current US population – in the next decade, requiring a radical transformation of our global workforce. While technological disruption isn't new — the arrival of PCs and the internet fundamentally changed how we access information and communicate – artificial intelligence represents something distinct.

Unlike previous technologies that amplified human thinking, AI actively collaborates in shaping thought and may even automate certain cognitive tasks completely. This shift demands innovative approaches to reskilling, with a focus on helping workers understand both AI's evolving capabilities and its limitations.

To reskill a majority, we must democratize our efforts and employ every available avenue. Four-year universities, community colleges, and technical schools will be critical, but also industry-led trainings, online learning platforms and labour unions.

Success will depend not just on creativity and adaptability across learning contexts, but also on cultivating judgment – a uniquely human characteristic that, at least for now, distinguishes us from AI.

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Contents
‘Skills gap threatening to turn into skills chasm’‘AI requires a skilling infrastructure for the future’‘AI promises to close the industrial sector’s skills gap’‘We must democratize our efforts to reskill a majority’

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