Almost all big media outlets added an AI block to their websites, as AI news and updates arise every day. It is currently the fastest-growing field, which significantly impacts the labor market.
The Talent War
We see talent wars as Meta and other Big Tech companies hunt ex-OpenAI experts with significant signing bonuses. We are seeing mass layoffs all around due to restructuring that follows new focuses, which are, in most cases, connected to AI. For example, Microsoft experienced more than 9,000 layoffs, which had a low impact on headcount, despite the cuts. This likely means that they replaced the staff with newcomers who are more suitable for their AI transformation focus.
According to PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, there is a 3x higher growth in revenue per worker in industries more exposed to AI, 100% of industries are increasing AI usage, including industries less obviously exposed to AI such as mining and agriculture, and 66% faster skill change in AI-exposed jobs up from 25% of 2024.
Thanks to that, you can see more and more vacancies with “AI-native” requirement even in the title. Some companies establish AI transformation divisions within their organizational structure. It is a matter of time before all companies formulate a vision for AI within their organization. A hiring plan and skills map based on this vision are essential to have if they want to succeed in the future.
Skills Companies Should Be Hiring For Now
For most companies and positions, baseline skills should be sufficient, along with being AI-friendly, which means utilizing AI and being prepared to use it at work. Prompting is a fundamental skill that involves using ChatGPT or similar models to provide the necessary format for an answer and utilizing them to speed up routine work.
For some more technical positions, intermediate skills may be required, such as building automated workflows and integrating tools. Some companies require experience with AI-native tools that enhance productivity and speed (Cursor, n8n, and others). There are numerous tools available in each field, with AI as the foundation.
AI companies may require advanced experience in other AI companies and in-depth knowledge of LLM models or AI agents. This includes an understanding of training models, building them on top of open-source frameworks, or even developing new frameworks, as well as understanding complex agent workflows and RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) architectures.
Wade Foster, Co-founder and CEO of Zapier, posted that they are evaluating AI fluency as a separate skill during hiring with a specialized map, stating that 100% of their new hires must be fluent in AI. This map shows a few levels of AI fluency skill starting with unacceptable (when perception of AI is negative and there is no use of AI in work), capable (simple usage mostly of Chat GPT or similar LLMs), adoptive (uses ai-native productivity tools, knows how to build an automatic workflow with logic and promts opimitimisation), transformative (drives AI roadmap for the team, ships LLMs features, monitors metrics and takes action to improve).
AI skills are not limited to tech companies. Most companies have a customer success division, which can now be one of the most promising for automation departments. HRs are now using ATMs with integrated AI to sort candidates. Designers are actively using generative AI with Midjourney or even built-in solutions in Figma and Adobe. It is everywhere. Therefore, AI skills have become essential for anyone working with a computer on a daily basis.
The Future Of Work
In the interview with Benjamin Mann, Anthropic co-founder, the speakers discuss full AI replacement of jobs. There are several scenarios for how AI will develop in the future. There is a possibility of creating superintelligence, which could completely change the world, but also a possibility of a slowdown. We don’t know what it will be. Currently, many works are focused on integrating AI to increase efficiency in a way that aligns with human rights and regulations. And all companies still need people to do that, and nobody has yet stopped hiring because of AI.
In any case, even in the stagnation stage, automated solutions will likely become a part of any successful company. And they will not need manual executors for white-collar jobs, but rather business solutions architects who can describe the process, envision the final result, even if it is beyond current known abilities, and know what to do to make it a success. This role will act as a connector between business needs and automated results. It should blend product thinking, operational design, and AI fluency. I believe this business solutions architect skill may be essential for many companies in the future and will be in demand to replace those with a bureaucratic mindset.
Some respected universities, such as Stanford, have already established programs to teach AI in various aspects. Currently, there is a limited number of AI courses available in the market, and this number is expected to expand. In the future, I foresee that some companies will require such certifications for some positions.
Challenges for Hiring Managers When Screening for AI Skills
Most hiring managers are not AI-native themselves, so it could be hard to qualify the candidate. In this regard, the first solution is to start with yourself and start to read what is going on around this field. Many bloggers now write about the use cases of automations. The more cases you see, the easier it is to see if the person has any knowledge or not. You can also request some freelance experts’ assistance. There are already hiring agencies specializing in such positions.
And check the logic of how a person acts, for example, when doing a task with ChatGPT. There is a difference between using it like Google, or training models for various work tasks, or building a connection between Chat GPT and the blog using n8n, so that everything posts automatically from a single link they share.
Conclusion
All white-collar jobs will most likely change, not even in 10 years, but within the next 5. To adapt to this, all companies should have an AI vision that includes how they utilize AI for efficiency and define the specific profiles they truly need for this purpose.
In some ways, redirecting current employees to learn new skills and tools may lead to the replacement of existing roles or the creation of new positions. The basic requirement is being friendly to work optimization via AI or automation tools. Then, there is prompting and experience with AI-native tools. For some jobs, more advanced skills may be required, like in-depth knowledge of LLM models or AI agents.
