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Soft skills that every employee needs to be successful

WiseNetAsia Knowledge Center
Copyright © 2022 WiseNet Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

The widespread use of artificial intelligence in many organizations undoubtedly made the way we live and work more efficient, but this efficiency comes with the need of eliminating human jobs across many different industries, the highly impacted fields would be manufacturing, retail and customer service. Jobs that are mundane and repetitive are highest at risk to be automated away.

Hence, it is crucial that fresh graduates and professionals should start developing skills that automation can never replace, and they are – soft skills. These are the type of skills that will make an individual employable regardless of how the job market and circumstances turn out to be.

It is true that technical skills are important in the workplace and far more learnable than soft skills, but not all hope is lost as any individual can start building or polishing their soft skills such as the ability to communicate effectively, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. These are all significant leadership traits and they are key to a professional’s success.

As time goes by, it is evident that the job market is constantly changing and jobs are ever evolving. In today’s workforce, having one skill or capability is insufficient for an employee to guarantee a successful career, one must possess at least three or more skills in order to survive in this ever-competitive job market.

Here are five soft skills that are most advantageous in the workplace and cannot be automated away:

Effective communication

Effective communication can be challenging between individuals because we translate messages differently neurologically. Communication is a two-way street; it is about relaying and receiving information. How do we make it effective? The objective of effective communication is ensuring that the intended meaning of a message is being comprehended correctly by the sender and receiver.

We have to acknowledge that we all have cognitive biases. An individual’s perception of reality by nature, is bias. We need to be open to the possibility that in reality, other individuals possess different perspectives and perceptions – in other words, not everyone think like us, that is where effective communication comes into play. The more we have the ability to communicate with different mindsets, the more effective our communication will become.

Critical thinking

Employers are always on the lookout for individuals who can analyze situations and make informed decisions that are supported with rational and logical thinking. Critical thinking is also useful in data analysis, coaching and mentoring of juniors as well. Studies have shown that employees who often think critically have a strong sense of self awareness and reflection, more independent, competent and efficient in their work.

A critical thinker not only accumulates information well but they are able to deduce important facts and outcomes by connecting ideas to logical thoughts. By conceptualizing outcomes, critical thinkers are said to be better at solving problems than those who just blindly memorize information.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand and manage our and others’ emotions. The skills that are correlated with emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-reflection, self-regulation, empathy, interpersonal skills, motivation and perseverance. It is beneficial if everyone in the workplace starts to embrace the nuances of human emotions in the workplace. When an organization has employees that embodies emotional intelligence, they are better in collaboration, prioritizing team work, better ways of conflict resolution which leads to a more conducive working environment.

Emotional intelligence is intricately blended into the decisions and actions made in the workplace. It could be in a basic instruction for the team, or in a massive organizational/structural change. Therefore, individuals with higher emotional intelligence can easily navigate the workplace more effectively, build and drive successful teams to be agile and responsive than those who have lower emotional intelligence.

Active listening

The best communicators are not just good at articulating their own thoughts, they are also superb listeners. Active listening can be defined as “giving your complete, intentional focus to what someone has to say, not interrupting someone midway through, and having the ability to hear what isn’t being said by watching facial and body language or reactions.

Active listening is the key to getting the most out of a conversation which allows a person to reap personal and interpersonal relationships. A study conducted by York University found that individuals who “listen to understand” are able to forge better and happier relationships with their peers, colleagues and direct supervisors.

Great work ethics and moral compass

Work ethics are generally defined as “well-founded fundamentals and principles of an individual”. Ethics are used to determine right from wrong, and it usually dictate our course of action throughout our daily lives.

Characteristics such as honesty, discipline, respect, integrity and accountability are highly sought after by employers. In the long run, having a workforce that encompasses these traits will improve the company’s business and reputation while raising the overall morale compass of employees which will subsequently result in positive returns.

This would lead to increased employee performance, job satisfaction which would shape the organization’s culture and behaviors to include altruism, conscientiousness and courtesy.

Those who wish to become un-automatable should have the ability to communicate their domain effectively and understand the context of who they are communicating with, be it with their team members, direct supervisors or colleagues in the company.

These days, companies look for individuals with strong emotional intelligence as it is essential to develop strong interpersonal skills if they want to succeed in any industry.

Having the right soft skills in the workplace enables employees to communicate effectively, problem solve, work together in teams and organize successfully. The modern employee will have to work on developing soft skills in tandem with strengthening their technical capabilities.

Furthermore, professionals should also strive to be effective leaders, coaches and mentors and build a large network of human connections, in and out of the workplace. Possessing a moral compass will be crucial when artificial intelligence machines start to make morally weighted decisions, but as the saying goes “It is never too late to start now”.

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Articles

AI is Shaping Our Future and it is Not Slowing Down Anytime Soon

WiseNetAsia Knowledge Center
Copyright © 2021 WiseNet Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Tech Trends in 2022 and Future

Brace yourself, the next big thing in the tech sphere that could ultimately impact our life is when artificial intelligence (AI) teaches itself to achieve goals that humankind have yet to achieve, or have a hard time achieving.

2020 and 2021 are no doubt the toughest times for many generations – from baby boomers, millennials to Gen Z. Though there are still lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which causes fear, uncertainty and doubt in humankind, it is not surprising that people may think that the world’s progress have reached a plateau, or worse declining.

However, on the flipside, scientists have made huge advancements through research on artificial intelligence in the recent years. Many people still associate AI with science fiction robots, but in reality, AI improves and streamlines our day-to-day processes, eliminating repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing us to accomplish more in less time.

AI makes it possible for machines to learn from experience and perform human tasks, from customer service, to self-driving cars, from tools aiding us in avoiding traffic, instant translation of machines, offering books, movies and music recommendations are just some forms of examples that AI has taken up today.

Here are five interesting AI trends that will change our lives in 2022 and beyond:

Bigger, bolder and better language modeling

Language modeling is a process that allows machines to comprehend and communicate with humans in a language that both understands.

Data scientists and engineers have been working on this for years and it seems to be coming into fruition, the most plausible and logical way of achieving this is by taking natural human languages and turn them into computer codes that can run applications and programs.

This is one step closer to being able to create a universal language and hold conversations that are indistinguishable from those of humans.

Shifting the Future of Working

With the occurrence of a sudden pandemic that has shifted the ways of how we work, with employees being accustomed to remote working, organizations are going to need to leverage technologies seamlessly to enable collaboration for all employees regardless of location.

With tools like Slack, Zoom, Cisco, Discord, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce, we can expect to see a software and hardware boom that will continue to advance where new operating systems for work will be built to improve meeting equity and enable a level of unmatched collaboration.

The work shift is also changing how we interact and function to enable us to be more productive. More tools are going to be deployed rather than just employees living in their inboxes, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and traditional productivity tools.

Effective self-driving cars powered by lithium-ion batteries

Over the coming decade, AI will inevitably guide autonomous cars, aircrafts and other moving vehicles that is going to revolutionize travel and society.

Based on an research article by WHO, approximately 1.3 people die of traffic accidents every year, and 90% were caused by human errors. When the public starts adopting the use of autonomous cars, the rates of traffic accidents will decrease tremendously.

As effective autonomous cars start penetrating into the automobile industry with further good news, Tesla says that its cars will demonstrate full self-driving capability by 2022 but more testing has to be done prior before it can be sold to the public and ready for general use.

Increased adoption of Creative AI

It is a known fact that AI is being used to create art, music and video games, but 2022 will be a game changer, Google Brain, who are literally the brain behind Google’s AI research team under the umbrella of Google AI, a research division at Google dedicated to AI – they are set to redefine the boundaries of what is possible, as we can expect more creative output from them.

For instance, when AI is increasingly being applied to routine creative tasks, such as designing logos and infographics and more. Creativity has long often been seen as a human skill but we are now experiencing these capabilities appearing in machines, meaning AI is moving a step closer in terms of scope and function in what we constitute as genuine, authentic intelligence.

Advanced AI in Cybersecurity

In 2021, World Economic Forum identified cybercrime as a potentially significant risk to society than terrorism itself.

This comes as a shock because physical weapons used in warfare used to be the biggest threat among all but ever since technology advanced in such an unprecedented rate where machines have almost total control of our lives, hacking and cybercrime have inevitably become a major nuisance for governments, businesses and individuals. For example, every connected device we add to a network is a potential risk where a hacker could use against us.

Here is where AI intervenes to save the day, by analyzing network traffic and learning how to recognize patterns that suggest nefarious intentions, regardless of locations, smart algorithms are playing a vital role in keeping our data and ourselves safe.

AI relies heavily on natural language processing and deep learning, not only is it just a technology but it has gradually but steadily seep into our daily lives. Many find it fascinating that AI has fully become intertwined in our lives and existence, we rely on technology on a daily basis in our lives without even realizing when did it occur.

Though unfamiliar to many at first but through curiosity and our willingness to adapt and learn, we have successfully embraced tech into our daily lives without hesitation due to the benefits it brings.

Artificial Intelligence is impacting the future virtually in every industry, and also humankind. AI is the main driver of great technologies like big data and robotics, needless to say, AI will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future.

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Articles

Rise of the Robots in Asia

Would Artificial Intelligence be the catalyst of jobs losses in the future?

One of the most controversial aspects of today’s technological revolution is the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and human capital with the US being the leading country affected by this crucial shift. When would this revolution catapult Asia to being parallel with the US? Are human jobs undoubtedly going to be obsolete in the coming years? Are we heading towards a bleak outcome of the future?

According to a report by MIT and Boston University, an estimation of about 2 million workers will be displaced from their jobs in manufacturing alone by 2030. 11 Asian markets are thoroughly studied, 12% of jobs are at a high risk of being automated away in the next few years. It is of no doubt that if your job is repetitive and routine based, it is substantially at risk of automation. You might subconsciously ask yourself, could a machine possibly do my job? The answer is relatively subjective. It varies from different work sectors that one is in, with these listed jobs being the highest in the automation food chain, for instance, food and preparation services (81%), production operations (79%), office and administrative support (60%), transportation and material moving (55%) as reported by Brookings Institutions.

Could a machine possibly do my job? The answer is relatively subjective.

Many highly skilled jobs in developed markets will definitely benefit and be augmented by artificial intelligence’s (AI) existence (11%) than in less developed economies with a mere (6%). For less developed countries with a salaried workforce that fall under the high-risk category are mainly from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Data from these statistics have been extracted and measured against different countries’ and industries’ forecasts on 17 categories of various emerging technology.

Based on the International Labour Organization (ILO) employment statistics, for specific job-related tasks, the data showed that AI’s effect on job automation would be massive on wealthier economies than the poorer ones (14% as opposed to 10%). Labor constrained countries like Singapore, China and Japan are highly likely to be the fastest to seize various jobs opportunities created by AI, this is particularly accurate as to which degree a job is required and enhanced is solely determined by a country’s different economic and social structures and its technological readiness.

Labor constrained countries like Singapore, China and Japan are highly likely to be the fastest to seize various jobs opportunities created by AI

An interesting excerpt from the book by author Daniel Susskind “A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond”, “Machines don’t fall ill, they don’t need to isolate to protect peers, they don’t need to take time off work.” This noteworthy statement acts as a revelation to all, where one should constantly upskill themselves and be multifaceted in this everyday fast paced environment, one skill is insufficient for what is yet to come. Underdeveloped countries with specialized skilled workers find themselves wrangling on low wage labor needs to reposition themselves.

The human lineage has been constantly evolving since major events took place during the evolution of modern human species which have since begun approximately 4.2 billion years ago. It is inevitably now the race of the survivability of the fittest and that is us – homo sapiens. In reference to the book “Blueprint” by Robert Plomin, Plomin emphasizes on the significance of environmental forces where the fate of individuals and societies are relied upon structural, experiential, and historical factors. How did homosapiens gain dominance? It prominently stemmed from our ability to adapt from mild circumstances to extreme environments and our goals to achieve and strive towards a better future.

In practice or in theory, AI and automation should unbound humans from everyday mundane, monotonous or even threatening tasks that might put their lives at risk. In this day and age, humans should take on more intellectually stimulating and value-added assignments and jobs, companies would flourish, be more efficient and productive thus workers’ wages would subsequently be raised nonetheless.

As Andrew Yang mentioned in his book “The War on Normal People”, it is the government and corporate entities responsibility to identify displaced workers over a range of industries thus having the resources to pay for mass retraining regardless of age, but this notion and idea may be immensely far fetched as not every person would have the physical and mental capacity to be retrained in an in-demand field. To retrain young adults might not be that hard of a feat but the real challenge comes with retraining middle aged workers. The success rate for retraining retrenched middle aged workers due to automation is merely (15%). Effective dissemination of information by the government has to be done in real time, there needs to be employers who are looking to employ a large number of newly trained middle aged workers.

The success rate for retraining retrenched middle aged workers due to automation is merely (15%). There needs to be employers who are looking to employ a large number of newly trained middle aged workers.

Technology will continue to be deployed, employees should be given abundance of time to transition into new roles and pick up on new skills. An opposing fact to the above whereby circumstances might not be aligned with what the corporate firms or government might have in their agenda, those who are unfortunate in losing their jobs would have to seek for retraining and uplifting of skills within their own means by using severance pay or unemployment benefits to work in various other fields not within their expertise.

Automation will ultimately eradicate certain jobs, but as the world is at a constant pace of change where technological advancement will continue to prosper, more jobs will be needed when it comes to working alongside robots – data scientist, quantum machine learning analysts, augmented journey reality builder, genomic portfolio director. However, not everyone has the right skill sets or learning capabilities to take on source, channel or cryptographic coding, that may be difficult to grasp. However, jobs like teachers, therapists, artisans, healthcare professionals are to be high in demand. All of these jobs require a copious amount of social intelligence, creativity, compassion and empathy – jobs that prioritize emotional human attributes that AI have yet to fully manifest or maybe AI could embody these attributes in more decades to come and that is for us homosapiens to eventually find out.

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