The new skills triad: How we equip the workforce for the future of work

Over the last 25 years, the ability to navigate the internet and utilize tools such as Microsoft Office has been fundamental to securing a white-collar job. These digital skills remain essential but in today’s fast-evolving economy, they are no longer enough.

Three new foundational skill sets have emerged in recent years, fast becoming as critical as spreadsheets and email once were. We call them the “new skills triad”: carbon intelligence, virtual intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI).

These should be front and centre for higher education institutions, HR departments and government-led employability programmes striving to stay ahead of workplace transformation.

Carbon intelligence has quickly risen in importance, driven by growing urgency around climate change and a torrent of environmental regulations worldwide, from Singapore to California. Organizations are expected to track, report and mitigate the environmental impact of their operations and supply chains with greater frequency and consistency than ever before.

Understanding a company’s carbon footprint across the full lifecycle of products and services, from raw material procurement to end-of-life disposal, is increasingly essential. It is important not only for sustainability officers and supply chain managers, but also for employees across multiple departments.

New regulatory frameworks, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in Europe, require companies to disclose detailed environmental performance data. As a result, employees in a wide range of roles must grasp the basics of carbon analysis, carbon accounting and sustainability metrics.

This shift is evident in hiring trends. A 2023 LinkedIn report found that demand for green skills more than doubled year-on-year, significantly outpacing supply. Carbon intelligence is fast becoming a universal skill, much like internet literacy once was. It cuts across sectors – from tech and retail to finance and hospitality – and offers a hedge against obsolescence when many roles are being reshaped or replaced by automation and AI agentification.

The second pillar of the new skills triad is virtual intelligence – the ability to work effectively across digitally mediated environments, including full-time office environments. This skill set has become indispensable for anyone collaborating with clients, colleagues, or partners across time zones, geographies and platforms. In other words, nearly everyone in the modern workplace.

Virtual intelligence encompasses a broad range of capabilities, including professional communication, collaboration, digital etiquette, virtual mentorship and the ability to balance work-life boundaries when personal and work spaces overlap. It also involves managing performance and relationships when in-person interactions are not available.

As McKinsey emphasizes in its recent analysis of workplace culture, the organizations that will thrive – whether fully remote, hybrid or entirely in-office – invest in building five pillars of success: collaboration, connectivity, innovation, mentorship and continuous learning. Virtual intelligence is the connective tissue that binds these pillars.

The rapid global adoption of hybrid work practices underscores how critical these competencies are for retail managers, consultants, educators, creatives as well as customer service representatives or software teams. Whether you’re pitching to a client over Zoom or coordinating with a colleague visiting relatives, virtual intelligence shapes your ability to lead and succeed.

The third and most widely heralded skill in the triad is AI proficiency. While few will become machine learning engineers, most knowledge workers will still need to understand how to integrate AI tools into their daily workflows. Just as not everyone had to become a software engineer to benefit from and gain internet proficiency, the same is true with AI.

From writing assistants and data analysis platforms to design tools and decision-making aids, AI is transforming how work is done. The question is no longer whether AI will affect your job but how you will use it to augment your productivity or creativity. This includes knowing when to rely on AI-generated outputs, how to verify them and – with a layer of carbon intelligence – how to collaborate with machines ethically, effectively and sustainably.

The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Jobs Report predicted that AI would disrupt 44% of workers’ core skills within the next five years. As automation accelerates, the value of human judgment, contextual awareness, carbon intelligence, and ethical reasoning – all amplified by AI – will define the future of work.

The new skills triad – carbon intelligence, virtual intelligence and AI proficiency – forms the new baseline for success in the modern workforce. These are not niche capabilities reserved for specialists or early adopters. They are becoming universal expectations, as literacy in HTML, Word, or Excel once was.

For educational institutions, this means rethinking curricula to reflect the world graduates are entering, not the one their professors trained in. For employers, it means prioritizing upskilling programmes that prepare talent for today’s tasks and tomorrow’s operating models. For policymakers, this means designing workforce strategies that are future-proof and adaptable.

The internet once redefined the contours of business and careers. Today, the new skills triad is doing the same – reshaping what it means to be prepared and employable.