With a journey that started with an e-mail to e-commerce, e-transaction to e-medicine and so on till today’s e-pay, mankind is undoubtedly moving away from a traditional world towards a digital era where artificial intelligence (AI) and big data will dominate life.
Experts suggest those who have been doing any traditional jobs need to acclimatise with the changing world as no job would be exempt from digitalisation. Embrace e-life else he would be left behind in the rat race, echoing the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report issued in Davos.
Tariq al Barwani, Omani IT specialist, suggests that every future employee should be tech-savvy, seeds of which need to be planted today.
“Gone are the days where one needed to spend time and energy to get something done — be it running some errands from a local grocery store or paying ones utility bill or anything for that matter. Future belongs to digital people where everyone should know how to live in a virtual world’’, he said.
An online course report titled ‘Industry Skills’ published by online platform Coursera suggests that companies with cutting edge skills proficiencies saw better returns on their stock in 2020 than those with lagging skills proficiencies.
“Every single job of the future will have a digital element and the most desirable skills include cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analysis and software development’’, the report says.
Every country worldwide faces a skills gap, making upskilling workers vital. A visible difference is reported in the automotive sector, where skills are growing but not in the critical areas required. In terms of professional services companies, they are investing in virtual processes to supplement human interactions.
The pace of digitalisation undoubtedly owes a big thanks to the pandemic which has accelerated the growth of e-life on a global scale.
This report further says that a transformation in digitalisation that would have otherwise taken two years occurred in just two months during the pandemic.
According to Microsoft Data Science, by 2025, there will be 149 million new digital jobs in areas like privacy and trust, cybersecurity, data analysis, machine learning and AI, cloud and data roles, and software development. And the focus will be pivoting around critical skills, including cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analysis and software development.
The report has also unidentified some of the skilled jobs that would need the candidates to have a thorough e-knowledge to survive in the future world.
Share market, oil and gas, automotive sector, manufacturing, financial services industry, professional services, technology companies and last but not the least, the telecommunications industry, which is looking to maximise 5G growth opportunities, are some of the key sectors that would soon be completely digitised.
“Simply put, both digital transformation and the pandemic are combining to reshape our working arena. Just as newer variants of Covid-19 are continuing to pose threats, encouraging mankind to discover newer solutions, companies will have to find new ways to reskill and upskill their workers to increase innovation and keep hold of their competitive advantage.”
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