By Arthur Goldstuck, 19 January 2025 – Originally published by Business Live.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will cast a large shadow over next week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. as world leaders grapple with its transformative impact on jobs, economies and societies.
The WEF’s “Future of Jobs Report 2025”, released last week, finds that AI is fundamentally reshaping global labour markets, both creating opportunities and posing profound challenges.
More than 1,000 companies worldwide provided data, which showed that the skills gap continues to be the most significant barrier to business transformation. Nearly 40% of skills required on the job are set to change and 63% of employers already cite it as the key barrier they face.
Human skills
The biggest growth in demand will be for technology skills in AI, big data and cybersecurity, but human skills, such as creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, will remain critical.
“A combination of both skill types will be increasingly crucial in a fast-shifting job market,” the report says. Ironically, human-focused jobs, like frontline roles and in essential sectors like care and education, are set for the highest job growth by 2030. At the same time, advances in AI and renewable energy are reshaping the market, driving an increase in demand for specialist roles while pushing a decline for others, such as graphic designers.
A second report released on Wednesday by the WEF, the “Global Risks Report 2025”, as well as the “AI Radar Report” released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on the same day, find that AI will play a major role in addressing global economic, technological and workforce transitions this year.
“In my discussions with CEO, it’s clear they are prioritising AI to drive productivity,” said Christoph Schweizer, CEO of BCG, in a media briefing this week.
Return on Investment
According to the AI Radar, 75% of global executives rank AI among their top three strategic priorities, with one-third of companies planning to allocate more than $25m (R470m) to AI initiatives in the coming year.
However, the report reveals that only 25% of companies achieve meaningful returns from their AI investments, highlighting the gap between ambition and execution. Successful organisations focus on a few targeted use cases, scale rapidly and integrate AI deeply into their operations, achieving return on investment that far outpaces peers.
In Africa, BCG finds, 35% of companies are not defining and monitoring any financial key performance indicators related to AI value creation.
Of these companies, 62% lack maturity in effective AI organisational change management and 68% have indicated challenges hiring AI talent and upskilling their existing workforce.
There are several bright spots in the WEF jobs report. Globally, only 7% of executives expect a reduction in headcount due to AI automation. However, nearly 40% of required job skills are expected to change by 2030. The report highlights that reskilling and upskilling efforts are falling short, with fewer than one-third of companies having upskilled even 25% of their workforce.
In Africa, 31% of companies lead global efforts in AI and GenAI upskilling, but significant challenges remain.
“African executives see talent and AI as complementary”, the report states, with 66% of respondents envisioning collaborative roles for humans and AI.
AI agents
The finding that will probably provide the greatest comfort to the working public is that AI is driving the creation of new roles in technology, data science, and renewable energy. That must be balanced with the finding that autonomous AI agents, capable of achieving goals with minimal human input, are gaining traction, with 67% of executives considering their deployment. Notably, 65% of African companies are exploring or implementing AI agents, demonstrating regional optimism about the technology’s potential. AI process automation company Clevva has declared 2025 as the dawn of the “agent era”. However, AI’s rapid adoption brings risks. Data privacy, cybersecurity and regulatory compliance are top concerns for 66% of executives, according to the Global Risks Report.
The generative capabilities of AI, while groundbreaking, have also amplified threats like misinformation and cyberattacks. Peter Giger, group chief risk officer at Zurich Insurance Group, warned that “the biggest risk is to sit back and say there’s nothing we can do. It’s not too late”.