IBM Says That 120 Million Workers Will Need Retraining Due To AI

A recent study by the Institute for Business Value, a business research organization of IBM suggests that around 120 million employees across the 12 biggest economies in the world may have to be retrained for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent automation. However, over 50 percent of CEOs in IBM's survey said they had enough resources to close the skill gap with these new techs. 

The wider acceptance of AI has been raising more concerns over the insufficiency in skills. Organizations across 12 biggest economies surveyed by IBM will soon encounter various deficiencies of the labor market, especially the manpower for long-term goals. However, executives are aware of the problem's severity, but half of those surveyed admitted they have no strategies for skill development in place to close the gaps.

Over the past few years, people have acknowledged that AI has the capability of replacing human in certain activities. Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated AI technologies could make many jobs “pointless.” And earlier this year, a report from the Brookings Institution forecasted a quarter of current jobs in the U.S would be lost due to robots by 2030. 

How can companies close the skills gap?

Although IBM calls for closing the future skills gap, the company’s still aware of the complexity. Global research shows that the total time required for an employee training program has increased by more than 10 times as compared with four years ago. That’s partly because more and more skills were employed while others became outdated. 

To solve the problem, IBM recommends companies to take advantage of AI to discover tasks it can accomplish, then share with employees to stimulate the practice of “continuous learning.” 

According to IBM, the report was based on insights provided by IBV research initiatives, which includes surveys of thousands of executives across the world and a bunch of benchmarking data.