This article was first published in the September edition of People Matters Perspectives.
Today, every moment is about learning, be it new ways of working, new business realities, and emerging tech & tools.
It’s true, AI is reshaping industries, reconfiguring workflows, and challenging the way we think about productivity. But if you pause for a moment, there’s a bigger story unfolding beyond algorithms and automation: the skills gap.
With tech racing ahead, and people and systems still struggling to keep up, a growing mismatch remains between what employers need and what employees bring to the table.
So, how do we close this gap in ways that are tailored to specific industries?
The workforce today, and skills needed for future
Starting with the basics of today’s workforce. Yes, digital skills like data literacy, AI fluency, and technical know-how matters a lot to be future-ready. But focusing exclusively on them misses the bigger picture.
The most resilient employees aren’t just those who code, understand machine learning or are AI fluent, but the multi-taskers who can:
- Solve problems in uncharted situations
- Work across functions and cultures
- Lead with empathy and influence, even without a title
- Adapt quickly to change, unlearn outdated methods, and embrace new skills
In fact, the OECD’s recent report on AI and changing skill demand shows that in occupations highly exposed to AI, leadership, business strategy, emotional, social, and cognitive skills are among those whose demand is rising.
A research paper by Elina Mäkelä and Fabian Stephany at Oxford reinforces that AI doesn't just substitute human work, it also complements it. Especially for human skills like teamwork, resilience, and ethical judgment.
So while AI fluency may give you a head start, it’s the human-centred skills that sustain relevance over time.
Learning beyond AI
Equating upskilling solely with AI tools is too narrow. Real learning today goes beyond industrial trends. Organisations must create environments where employees can experiment, fail fast, and grow continuously
LinkedIn’s 2025 report finds that 49% of L&D professionals say executives are concerned employees lack the skills to execute strategy. Combining learning with career development through leadership training, internal mobility, and coaching accelerates critical skills flow, and learners who set career goals engage four times more, highlighting the power of linking learning to purpose and growth.
If learning is disconnected from how people see their careers evolving, it becomes extraneous, optional, or ignored.
Leadership development becomes a core skill today
Leadership development is no longer optional or reserved for a select few, but becoming part of every role we see today. Including the roles not defined yet.
Work today is flatter, faster, and more complex, and with distributed teams, decisions need to be made at the edges, not just up top. Therefore, employees, whether managing a team of 10 or working solo, need leadership skills to navigate this ambiguity, influence outcomes, and create impact.
Traditional hierarchies and rigid leadership are less effective today. Empathy, influence, inclusion, adaptability, and the ability to inspire others have become core leadership traits.
Imagine if leadership development was treated like onboarding, it will help organisations build capacity at every level.
Job-skill mismatch
The elephant in the room: job-skill mismatches. Despite conversations about reskilling, the reality remains stark. Because jobs are evolving faster than curricula in schools or universities, employees with deep legacy expertise may find themselves outpaced by new tools, and employers sometimes demand skills they aren’t investing in developing internally.
The job market is increasingly misaligned. A LinkedIn study shows that nearly 40% of job seekers are applying to more roles than ever, yet 73% of applications don’t fully meet listed criteria – a mismatch not just in supply, but also in signaling, as many qualified candidates are excluded by how jobs are framed.
At the macro level, WEF projects that AI and related technologies could create around 69 million new jobs by 2028. But these roles require new or hybrid skill sets, meaning the mismatch will persist unless learning and reskilling efforts accelerate.
In AI-exposed industries, wages are rising faster. In fact, in those sectors, wages are growing twice as fast compared to sectors less exposed to AI, as PwC reports. Workers who have AI skills command a 56% wage premium, up from 25% the previous year.
So the mismatch has real economic consequences, and only those who leap ahead in relevant skills capture disproportionate rewards.
What are some practical ways to close the skill gap?
Bridging the skill gap is not just an HR responsibility. It’s a shared challenge and investment across education, employers, and employees.
#1 Education System
As discussed in one of our Talent Study Circle, a key mechanism for closing the skills gap is aligning academia, industry, and policymakers to create a more agile curriculum and a unified framework, with strategic oversight to prevent an oversupply of graduates in non-priority sectors.
Curricula should shift from static knowledge to metaskills like adaptability, collaboration, and problem framing. Introducing modular credentials (short-term certifications, bootcamps, experiential learning) rather than 4- or 5-year static degrees. Close partnerships with industry ensure curricula evolve with real-world needs, preparing talent with the niche skills required for high-demand emerging sectors.
#2 Employers
Today’s skill gaps, layoffs, hiring freezes, and strategic cost-cutting require employers to rethink ‘build vs. buy’ as a balanced approach – hiring where necessary while investing more in internal capability.
Employers should make L&D a core part of the job, embedding learning into workflows and allowing time for stretch projects, rotations, and shadowing.
They should prioritise internal mobility to help employees grow and meet evolving business needs, supporting retention and adaptability. Using data-driven, skills-based talent planning can help anticipate emerging needs and invest proactively.
Additionally, mentorship, coaching, stretch assignments, and peer learning should be encouraged so leadership development is distributed, not just centralised.
#3 Employees
The learning curve is in the employee’s hands, requiring curiosity, seeking feedback, and taking on lateral moves or projects outside their comfort zone to invest in their growth journey.
Employees need to think in layers i.e. skills for current role, next role, and foundational skills that remain relevant across career transitions.
They need to build their own micro-curriculum, using platforms, communities, and cross-domain exploration. Dare to learn, change, and lead.
Policymakers also have a key role to play. By establishing digital learning platforms, skills registries, credentialing systems, and collaborating with educational institutions and industry experts to help co-design future-ready curricula. And promoting equity, ensuring access to reskilling in underserved communities, closing gender and socio-economic gaps in technology diffusion.
The inevitable is that AI will keep transforming how we work. It is for us to decide how we transform our learning & skilling approach. Industries will shift, and roles will morph, but the capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn, to lead, connect, and adapt, will remain the ultimate competitive edge. And L&D should not be kept just as HR tasks, but as a collective investment of policymakers, business leaders, and the workforce alike.
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