The Reskilling Imperative

Technology is revolutionising many fields of work. To keep pace with these changes, organisations should focus on upgrading the skills of their employees.

- Dr Yogesh Kumar Bhatt

In the entire recorded history of mankind, an undeniable fact has remained; the fact that nothing is constant. Narrowing our focus to the world of business and technology, this fact becomes even more evident. We have come a fascinatingly long way from animal carts and papyrus scrolls to super cars and supercomputers. But in this entire journey, the most critical point is ‘now’. Never has change occurred so fast. Science fiction movies have not frequently gone beyond predicting flying cars, and although we still do not have (or need) flying cars, the tech world is exploding with new possibilities that change everyday things like never before.

Flagships of change

To name the flagships of this change, first is artificial intelligence (AI), which makes machines intelligent by giving them cognitive and creative abilities, something that was, for centuries, believed to be an exclusively human trait.

Nowadays, computers can go way beyond just calculating sums or executing simple programmes. Machines have acquired the ability to understand humans better than humans understand themselves, and they can do everything from showing personalised ads to recommending the perfect life partner. On a business level, however, computers are able to identify frauds and diagnose life-threatening illnesses more accurately, among other things. The incorporation of AI in everything is so rapid that its market is predicted to go from $1.4 billion in 2016 to a staggering $60 billion by 2025.