Salesforce survey shows gap between interest in AI and actual skills acquired

Source: Salesforce: Chia (2nd from left), Professor Joseph (3rd from left), and Abraham (right). They are joined by Gavin Barfield, VP & CTO, Solutions, ASEAN, Salesforce, (left).

Salesforce, the global customer relationship management (CRM) provider, has released data from a new survey* of 1,001 workers in Singapore that shows a gap in artificial intelligence (AI) skills despite a growing recognition of its importance.

Overall, workers in Singapore ranked data security skills (60%), ethical AI and automation skills (57%), as well as programming skills (57%) as today’s fastest growing and in-demand skills. However, only 15% of Singapore respondents say they possess AI skills – even though 57% identified AI as among today’s most in-demand digital skills.

There is also excitement about generative AI. While 51% are worried about job replacement, the larger majority (72%) are still excited about using it. This underscores the need for companies to raise understanding levels of AI and how it can supercharge human capabilities instead of replacing them.

Despite the skills gap, 63% of respondents say that their company is considering ways to use generative AI. At least seven out of 10 are already aware of how generative AI will impact their work. At the same time, 98% of respondents say they want businesses to prioritise AI skills in their employee development strategy.

In Singapore, the manufacturing industry currently ranks top for AI skills application. More than one in five (21%) say they use AI skills within their role, compared to the average 15%. In the public sector, 8% say they use AI skills in their day-to-day role, and in the healthcare industry, only 7% say they do.

Skills-wise, today’s most commonly-used digital skills amongst workers in Singapore include collaboration technology, digital administration, and digital project management, with more than eight in 10 (87%) using these in their day-to-day work. Sixteen percent say their role involves other related digital skills like encryption and cybersecurity, and only 14% claim to be using coding and app development skills.

The Salesforce study also revealed a shift towards skills-based hiring. The large majority (85%) of workers in Singapore consider skills-based experience more important than a degree or industry-specific qualification when trying to land a job in today’s market. As workers want to expand their limited set of digital skills, and nine in 10 believe that businesses should prioritise digital skills development for their employees. Based on this, workers are likely to favour companies that seek to boost emerging technology skills and focus on skills-based hiring.

In the same vein, most (82%) people leaders worldwide said that skills are the most important attribute when evaluating candidates. Only 18% said that relevant degree/industry-specific qualifications are the most important.

The majority of leaders in Singapore (97%) believe that the practice of skills-based hiring provides business benefits such as improved talent retention. Singapore workers similarly believe in the benefits of this practice, with 62% of respondents from the retail industry reporting ‘knowledge sharing’ a benefit, while those in healthcare report ‘increased diversity’ as the top benefit (65%).

Sales professionals were identified as a segment struggling to keep up with digital transformation trends and the advent of new technology, such as AI. Nearly 70% of sales professionals globally report that selling is harder than ever. To help enhance their selling skills, Salesforce recently launched Salesblazer – a platform for sales professionals to learn, connect and grow their careers.

“Excitement for AI and generative AI solutions is at an all-time high within the Singapore workforce. As more companies adapt AI and automation to boost efficiency in their operations, the need to train their employees to leverage these tools will become even greater,” said Sujith Abraham, Senior VP and GM for Salesforce ASEAN.

“It is critical for business leaders to introduce effective skills development programmes to address the talent mismatch. Only then will businesses in Singapore be able to realise the full potential of these technologies, which is especially critical to build resilience in the face of today’s headwinds.”

“AI can shape our digital future and will affect many tech and non-tech jobs across the economy. This presents opportunities for workers and companies. To harness these opportunities, IMDA’s Jobs Transformation Map recommends upskilling and reskilling our workforce to ensure they stay agile. This has been an ongoing effort - since 2016, in collaboration with partners, our TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) has placed and trained more than 15,000 individuals into tech jobs; and trained 190,000 individuals in tech skills.

“To complement these efforts, we will need tech employers to focus more on skills-based hiring, and less on traditional qualifications. This mindset shift will be key in ensuring our workers and companies remain competitive, and able to reap AI’s benefits,” said Terence Chia, Cluster Director, Digital Industry and Talent Group, Infocomm & Media Development Authority (IMDA).

“What do we mean by 'AI skills'? I see two types of AI skills: skills in using AI as a tool, and skills in working with AI as a collaborator or a team member. Workers should realise and accept that some current skill set will become less used, if not obsolete. We see that with every wave of technology. In a past wave, the adoption of word processors as a tool led to the erosion of penmanship skills. 

"With collaborative AI, we may lose the skill of writing the very first draft of a report from scratch. In some other implementations of collaborative AI, we may lose some decision-making abilities. Workers should not fear the latter because the antidote to skills loss is upskilling to higher order abilities and toward expertise.” said Associate Professor Damien Joseph, Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education), Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University.

Abraham also noted that ethics will become important. He said during a World Tour Essentials panel discussion session: “AI technology has been around for a long time, but the missing piece has always been the ability to use it to achieve personalisation at scale. It is critical that this rapid pace of development is complemented with the necessary ethical guardrails and guidance. For example, Salesforce has a set of guidelines specific to generative AI based on our Trusted AI Principles, which focuses on the responsible development and implementation of generative AI.”

Professor Joseph commented during the same session that if we embrace AI instead of resisting it, we will need to see how to leverage its full potential, whether as a tool, collaborator or team member: "For students, we are seeing the need to sensitise the ethical use of generative AI. For professionals, it’s not just technical AI skills that they need, but more importantly the general skills that can help them use the AI technology in their day-to-day work.” 

"We should focus less on what AI is going to take over from us and more on how it will generate new opportunities for us,” concluded Chia during the session, which was the rise of AI and its impact on the workforce.

*Salesforce’s AI Digital Skills Survey was conducted by TRUE Global Intelligence in partnership with Dynata in February 2023. A total of 11,035 working adults across 11 countries were surveyed, including around 1,000 in Australia and Singapore respectively. The figures are representative of working adult populations (ages 18+).