
Accompanying the adoption of advanced technologies into the workplace will be an increase in the need for workers with finely tuned social and emotional skills-skills that machines are a long way from mastering. The need for finely tuned social and emotional skills will rapidly grow. We find that among 25 skills we analyzed, basic digital skills are the second-fastest-growing category, increasing by 69 percent in the United States and by 65 percent in Europe. However, there is also a significant need for everyone to develop basic digital skills for the new age of automation. People with these skills will inevitably be a minority. We expect the fastest rise in the need for advanced IT and programming skills, which could grow as much as 90 percent between 20. Our research suggests that through 2030, the time spent using advanced technological skills will increase by 50 percent in the United States and by 41 percent in Europe. Advanced technologies require people who understand how they work and can innovate, develop, and adapt them. Shifting skill requirements in five sectorsĪll technological skills, both advanced and basic, will see a substantial growth in demand.How will demand for workforce skills change with automation?.This briefing, part of our ongoing research on the impact of technology on the economy, business, and society, quantifies time spent on 25 core workplace skills today and in the future for five European countries-France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom-and the United States and examines the implications of those shifts. Companies, too, will need to rethink how work is organized within their organizations. These changes will require workers everywhere to deepen their existing skill sets or acquire new ones.


SKILLS MACHINE. NET MANUAL
The need for some skills, such as technological as well as social and emotional skills, will rise, even as the demand for others, including physical and manual skills, will fall. Skill shifts have accompanied the introduction of new technologies in the workplace since at least the Industrial Revolution, but adoption of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will mark an acceleration over the shifts of even the recent past.
