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July 15 news, despite the common belief that older employees find it difficult to adapt to new technologies,AIIn this area, they may gain a unique advantage. According to a recent report by online tutoring company Preply, 30% of senior employees are worried about being fired due to lack of AI skills. But in fact, people with a deep understanding of business can more effectively use their knowledge and skills to process inputs and outputs, which are areas that AI has not yet mastered.

So far, concerns about AI replacing jobs have come mainly from junior employees in the workplace. Part of the concern stems from how effectively AI can handle specific tasks that are typically the responsibility of junior employees. While the use of AI in these areas may improve efficiency from a technical perspective, it also leaves junior employees feeling a potential career threat. Many experts believe that AI’s current capabilities are close to those of a well-performing intern. In addition, since these people have a longer remaining time in the workplace, they may lose more as technology advances.

Yet, according to a recent report from online tutoring company Preply, 30% of senior employees fear they are at risk of being fired due to a lack of AI skills. But how much basis in reality do such fears have?

“It’s possible that to some extent people are choosing to retire early, especially if there’s a big skills gap, and they may choose to leave or look for something completely different,” said Steve Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, a nonprofit provider of education and workforce-related services. However, he noted that not all high-level employees make that choice, and the companies that employ them don’t want them to leave.

Preston added: “One of the most damaging forms of employee turnover is the loss of knowledge about the organization and our clients. We absolutely want to retain these experienced employees and help them become more effective.”

Experienced staff can masterAIInsight

While the common perception is that older workers, often senior employees, have a harder time adapting to new technology, Preston recognizes that AI gives these workers a unique advantage. “If a job requires working with AI, I think some older workers will be better able to use it to gain insights, both in terms of querying the AI ​​more effectively and getting the results of AI-enabled work and being able to evaluate it,” he says.

In other words, those with a more sophisticated understanding of the business will be able to more effectively apply inputs and evaluate outputs using knowledge and skills that have not yet been fully mastered by AI.

Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at Cisco, noted that AI has not yet completely replaced complex jobs, but is replacing some of them. He said: "Over time, it may become better and better at doing certain jobs, but no one can accurately predict when this will happen."

Patel stressed that for senior employees, the next few years will be more about augmentation rather than any form of replacement or substitution. He believes that these employees are willing to adapt to an AI-driven work environment and improve their hard skills andSoft skills。

According to a report from TalentLMS, a learning management system platform, 57% of industry experts predict that the demand for soft skills will increase significantly as technology continues to advance.

“At the end of the day, every company is made up of its employees, who are all human beings and who need to be moved and motivated in a very human way,” said Nikhil Arora, CEO of Epignosis, parent company of TalentLMS. This is something that senior management must always keep in mind in the modern context, as the roles of the entire employment structure continue to evolve.

The demand for reverse mentoring is very high

Arora notes that senior staff could consider a reverse mentoring strategy, a process where senior management asks newer employees for help. “A lot of young people have basically grown up with AI, and for them it’s second nature, whereas a lot of senior leaders are probably learning about AI now. It’s almost upside down,” he says. He firmly believes that management now needs to have two sets of mentors, “one that may be more experienced than you, and another that is younger but more knowledgeable about disruptive technologies and how new-age customers behave.”

As younger workers become almost naturally proficient in using AI, organizations can accelerate innovation by creating mentorship systems that are not tied to seniority, rather than relying solely on top-down strategies. According to the 2024 State of Upskilling and Reskilling Report jointly released by TalentLMS and Workable, nearly half (47%) of employees currently say they are not yet using AI skills at work.

At the same time, half of people believe their jobs would benefit from AI. Some organizations are providing structured training to their employees and customers. For example, Goodwill received a grant from Google as part of its $75 million AI Opportunity Fund to promote AI training in the communities it serves.

Generative AI and Automating Work Time

The reality is that nearly a third of all work hours in the U.S. could be automated through generative AI, which could significantly change the way many business professionals, including executives and senior managers, work. Leaders of companies such as IBM and Duolingo have been touting the use of AI to replace some people’s jobs.

In the competitive field of artificial intelligence, wrongful firings could lead to unintended consequences, such as the loss of institutional knowledge that enables operations in complex interpersonal environments.

Preston pointed out: "It's easy to exclude older workers and think they have difficulty adapting to new technologies. We should understand the value of artificial intelligence to help older workers get future job opportunities, rather than assuming that for some reason they will be left behind by artificial intelligence." (Xiaoxiao)