AI could make 'skills' less important for hiring, says ManPowerGroup

Because skills "could prove obsolete in six months," "it's better to know that you work hard, that you're curious, that you have good interpersonal skills (...) and AI can help you assess that," explains Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, director of innovation at the American temporary work giant, who was interviewed by AFP at the Vivatech trade show in Paris, which closes on Saturday.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), "one in four workers worldwide has a job that is more or less exposed to generative AI, but most jobs will be transformed rather than eliminated because human intervention remains essential."

However, computing tasks (internet use, emails, etc.) that can be performed autonomously by AI agents are experiencing "rapid expansion."

In this context, employers may increasingly seek employees with skills beyond the reach of AI, such as ethical judgment, customer service, management, or strategy, cited in a ManpowerGroup survey of more than 40.000 employers in 42 countries published this week.

These skills, Chamorro-Premuzic laments, are still not being emphasized more in training. "For every dollar you invest in technology, you have to invest eight or nine dollars in human resources, cultural transformation, change management," he says.

Fears of mass unemployment caused by AI remain exaggerated at this stage, the leader believes, despite some alarmist predictions.

According to Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, this technology could eliminate half of the lowest-skilled office jobs within five years.

"If history teaches us anything, it's that most predictions are wrong," Chamorro-Premuzic replied.

Regarding recruitment, ManPowerGroup's core business, artificial intelligence agents "will certainly not become the core of our business in the near future," adds the manager, who notes that AI is also used by job seekers.

"Candidates can send out 500 perfect applications in a day, they can send their bots out to conduct interviews, and they can even circumvent certain elements of the assessments," he explains.