The Future of Work is Here
A skills-first approach in response to AI panic
Introduction
There’s a wonderful line at the end of June Jordan’s Poem for South African Women that reads, “we are the ones we have been waiting for” (Jordan, 2005).
I like that line for the recognition of community and its irrefutable power. It captures the authority of a shared perspective and the gravity of responsibility. That line is a call to action.
When I encounter the pervasive yet unhelpful theme of AI being the future of work, I consider what my responsibility is. It is to read, analyse, think, and communicate evidence-based recommendations for you to subsequently apply to your work life. And to equip you with better responses when faced with noise designed to make you panic.
Let’s consider a different approach.
Step 1 - Organise your Thoughts
Within discussions of shifting technologies, and the opinions of different groups (of varied vested interests), I hear something different in comparison to my opening quote. There are assertions that Someone Else has power and authority, and that Something Else is charting our course into the future of work. Noticeably there is little mention of shared perspective and responsibility. I find that angle to be unclear, unhelpful, and content to push every last thing into one giant AI-shaped blob.
In the interest of clarity, this piece is for people looking for work, people in work and worried about being replaced, and people who make hiring and training decisions at work.
On your end, dear reader, organise your thoughts on how you feel about AI and your work. If you’re unsure about how it will impact your role or your industry, continue reading for some practical advice on skill development. And take comfort in the countless examples of just how wrong we’ve been when predicting technology takeovers of years gone by. Also, ask your supervisor for clarity on the organisation’s strategic plan in relation to digital change.
Step 2 - Respond Skillfully
In a recently published report by the OECD (2025) called Empowering the Workforce in the Context of a Skills-First Approach, authors analysed labour market landscapes, examined how skills are signalled and how hiring practices are changing in response. It’s a well-researched and useful report that addresses the conflated fears around the future of work. I’ll use it to guide this section.
What are the skills?
The report categorises skills into the following sections:
Transversal Skills
Business Skills
Tech Skills
Disruptive Skills
Specialised Industry Skills
The box below provides more descriptions and examples:
If you’re struggling with language to express your skill(s) set to potential employers, use O*NET (US Dept of Labor) to help you. It’s a useful resource for understanding the anatomy of your occupation, the applicable taxonomy, and naming skills (that you already have or perhaps ought to get). ESCO is used in the European Union.
What skills should I focus on?
If you’re currently seeking employment, I recommend ‘signalling’ your skills on your CV, applications, and other places you’re trying to represent yourself professionally. Signalling here can mean self-reporting, peer-endorsed, or using employment histories as a way of highlighting what skills you have. According to the report, the data suggests individuals who do this “experience shorter employment gaps, reinforcing the value of digital labour markets in improving job search efficiency,” (Ibid., p. 72).
If you’re between jobs, it’s worth noting that skills added during this unemployment period had a substantially stronger effect on reemployment in the study than those listed before the gap began. This is likely related to a demonstration of your efforts to be visible, competitive, and aligned with labour market needs despite being in a period of unemployment.
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If you’re currently worried about being replaced or losing your job, bear the above in mind. Even if you’re in work, it’s comforting to know what you can do to boost your future hire-ability. Additionally, focus on the disruptive technology skills and transversal skills as they had the strongest association with faster reemployment in this research. To remain proactive in representing your professional skills well, update any skill profiles you have in response to the emerging demands you see in your industry or organisation.
If/As automation takes over routine tasks related to your work, aim for a good blend of skills that combine working with new technologies plus transversal skills (critical for collaboration, creativity, and decision-making). Your human-ness is something that automation can’t replace, and strengthening those areas will serve you well.
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If you’re hiring, adopt a skills-first approach. That is, put greater emphasis on skills that are needed, and the ability to identify them in candidates. Degrees are valuable and important in their reflection of formal learning, but they aren’t always an accurate or holistic way to measure workplace readiness.
The picture becomes more complex with mid-career professionals as they’ve frequently developed skills unrelated to their degree, so create an avenue via which they can signal their built-up skills more effectively as a part of the selection process.
Finally, get your recruitment and selection tools in order. The report highlights how “poorly designed skills assessments or algorithm-driven recruitment tools could perpetuate or amplify bias,” (Ibid., p. 7) Additionally, consider how your organisation can expand its long-term workforce adaptability through a broader range of skills - and how to build that into your workforce with good quality learning and training options.
Step 3 - Build Community
Community may seem out of place in a piece on skills-first approaches at work, but I’d argue it dovetails perfectly. As certain tasks/jobs become automated, others will continue to need that which machines will never provide - humanness. Jobs in the care industry or hospitality, for example, will not require much more than updating foundational levels of digital skills. However, those roles will continue to require more empathy, collaboration, and negotiation skills. Developing those skills as the labour market shifts would greatly benefit from a collective learning design (Shteynberg et al., 2020).
Similarly, as industries adjust to new technologies (which will take time, if for no other reason, simply because infrastructure takes time to build) space will open up in the very large field of Learning; formal and informal, short-term and lifelong, etc. Organizations would benefit from increasing the visibility of skill profiles by using things like expansive learning environments (Köhler et al., 2025) - which requires group effort. Coincidentally, effective learning transfer at work relies heavily on actions that promote training transfer and knowledge sharing, and nurture a supportive environment (Mehner et al., 2024).
Final Thoughts
After reading about AI replacing human labour, you may have found yourself asking some difficult questions and feeling disquiet. It’s a shared feeling many currently have in relation to work (Gallup, 2025). As the promises of meritocracy and individualism collapse around us, let’s remind ourselves that we have each other - and that’s a lot. Technologies can do wonderful things, but they cannot do human things. As you invest in developing digital skills, remember to invest in your community, too. Bring others in and create a network in the true sense of the word; a group of connected people on which you can rely as they rely on you. Take stock of your needs, develop your skill sets, and do it with others.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Works Cited
Jordan, J. (2005). Poem for South African Women. From Directed by Desire: The Complete Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978
Köhler, D. P., Rausch, A., Biemann, T., & Büchsenschuss, R. (2024). Expertise and specialization in organizations: a social network analysis. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34(2), 282–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2387874
Mehner, L., Rothenbusch, S., & Kauffeld, S. (2024). How to maximize the impact of workplace training: a mixed-method analysis of social support, training transfer and knowledge sharing. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2319082
OECD (2025), Empowering the Workforce in the Context of a Skills-First Approach, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/345b6528-en
Shteynberg G, Hirsh JB, Bentley RA, Garthoff J. Shared worlds and shared minds: A theory of collective learning and a psychology of common knowledge. Psychol Rev. 2020 Oct;127(5):918-931. doi: 10.1037/rev0000200. Epub 2020 Apr 20. PMID: 32309965