A recent study by Microsoft and LinkedIn found that 70 percent of Filipino employers would not consider job candidates without artificial intelligence (AI) skills, saying that they are more willing to hire people with less experience but with high AI skills.
The number is four steps higher than the global percentage of 66, which also entails the global turning of sights to talents with high AI aptitude, according to this year’s Work Trend Index.
Atul Harkisanka, LinkedIn PH’s country head, said that the trend is highly favorable for the Philippines because the younger generation makes up the larger part of its work force demographics.
“There are opportunities for everyone, and that is why we say ‘breaking the career ceiling,’ Because it no longer depend, or only depends on which school did you go to, which company did you work at, but what skills do you have?” Harkisanka said.
On that note, the country head encouraged upskilling in terms of using AI tools. He reported that there have been an increase in users putting these skills on their LinkedIn profiles.
LinkedIn has recently opened 50 AI courses for free for its members, which are accessible via mobile.
Moreover, Harkisanka said that the skills needed to do one’s job have changed by about 25%
“Good news and bad news is that this rate of change is not going to slow down. We expect that over the next six years, by 2030, we will need to upskill ourselves by 68%,” Harkisanka said.
Adding to the urgent need to upskill, Microsoft Philippines’ CEO Peter Maquera, said that more industries, such as banking and customer services, are fast adopting AI into their operations.
Maquera said that language models and content-based technologies are helping these businesses save time and augment collections and services.
However, the CEO said that 40 percent are still in the “proof of concept experimentation,” which means that some of them are still using it internal cases.
His statement coincided with the study’s finding that 55 percent of Filipino leaders are still worrying that their organization still lacks planning and vision to implement AI.
Despite the current fear toward AI that touch cyber security and data privacy issues, Maquera is optimistic because there is already a population of young workers that are embracing AI.
“And I think when you start embracing it and you start using it every day and you understand the value it can create, you start becoming more fearless, you start becoming more innovative.”
The study also showed that the Philippines is leading with 86 percent of the 1,000 Filipinos surveyed admitting to the use of generative AI at work, compared to the global percentage of 75 percent.
Overall, there were 31,000 people from 31 countries surveyed for this year’s Word Trade Index, which is Microsoft’s annual report that offers insights on work trends for employees and business leaders alike.