As an increasing number of businesses incorporate AI technology into their practices, AI expert Professor Yann Truong explains which skills business school students should focus on
A lot of the news around AI can be discouraging. From mass tech layoffs to fears that even CEOs might one day be replaced by super-intelligent machines, it be difficult to know how you can make the most of AI when trying to benefit your career.
However, when you dig into the stats, the rise of AI isn’t quite heralding end-times just yet. According to the latest GMAC corporate recruiters survey, the top desired skills among employees remain core human traits such as critical thinking, communication, and even resilience.
This doesn’t mean that focusing on AI is a waste of time either. Employers predict that it will become increasingly important over the next five years—with the accompaniment of other essential skillsets.
To find out exactly how AI is impacting the skills required in business, BusinessBecause spoke to Yann Truong, artificial intelligence research specialist and professor at ESSCA School of Management.
These are the skills he identified as becoming more relevant with the rise of AI:
Creative problem solving
For anyone who’s ever used ChatGPT to make a schedule, or compile a list, it has the potential to save valuable time that would otherwise be wasted on more menial mental labor. This is influential when it comes to employers’ demands of new hires.
“Since AI can help managers automate all those tedious, repetitive tasks, employers expect candidates or students to be able to focus on tasks that have more added value to the to the company, and those tasks typically require more critical thinking,” Yann says.
“This is something that we hear a lot from employers. Since the repetitive part of the job is going to be done by AI, they want [business] graduates to move to the next level and really be able to think critically about how AI might help them achieve the strategic goals of the company.”
To foster independent thinking, at ESSCA, students are encouraged to figure out their own methods for completing projects, rather than being guided every step of the way.
One example of this is that students are encouraged to find the limitations of the theories that they are taught and to conduct their own research.
“You need [students] to conduct the entire project on their own and to discover the challenges and limitations of their work. They plan the project themselves, so they have to actually get their hands dirty in the assignments. We give them a lot of data and materials, but minimal guidelines: just a grand goal,” Yann explains.
By allowing students to be (literally) left to their own devices, it enables them to come up with their own unique ways of using AI tools to solve problems. This can range from accelerating research, to sifting through data, to even maximizing idea generation.
Using AI for productivity
Although AI is predicted to be one of the top desired skills of the future, employers are being picky about the ways in which graduates are using it. One major area of interest is how employees can optimize it to work more efficiently.
“[Businesses] are interested in the capacity of students to be able to understand how they can leverage new technologies, including AI, in improving their productivity,” Yann says.
Potential applications of AI for productivity include using it to harvest data or to compile reports—which in turn requires a deep understanding of how to utilize it.
“Students need to understand how a machine learning algorithm comes up with those specific results. So they need to know the mechanics behind how algorithms are built through neural network layers,” Yann explains.
At ESSCA, which offers a Master in Management of Artificial Intelligence, students learn how these technologies operate on a fundamental level by completing projects that require them to use AI to solve complex problems.
“We ask them to build algorithms by collecting data, cleaning them, feeding them into a machine learning platform, and getting results. So, they need to be able to not only have an in-depth understanding of the mechanics, but they should also be able to deploy those mechanics in a project,” he continues.
According to new research and expert evaluation, AI isn’t replacing human business skills, it is simply redefining what is most relevant to future companies.
Therefore, by learning how to use AI to enhance traditionally valued leadership traits, such as decision-making, communication, and problem-solving, students can gain an edge in a competitive business landscape.
