Missing middle skills for Human-AI collaboration
October 25, 2018
October 25, 2018
As companies rapidly adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies, some job roles will be done exclusively by humans while others will be taken on by intelligent automation. But most emerging roles will be fulfilled by people and machines working together in the dynamic space Accenture calls “the missing middle.”
These roles will require people to apply higher level human skills. Our analysis of how skills have evolved in the 12 years to 2016 shows that more than half of jobs in the U.S. need more high-level creativity, 47 percent require more complex reasoning and 36 percent need more socio-emotional skills.
100% = 151M Jobs in U.S. as of 2016
Source: Accenture Research analysis of O*NET database
Accenture has undertaken extensive analysis of academic research exploring approaches to enhance human capital. We have identified the core high-level intelligences that will gain prominence in the age of human-machine collaboration, and that enable the application of these human skills.
The challenge is that, for many people, traditional forms of work have comprised routine and repetitive tasks. They have not necessarily required these high-level intelligences and skills. New forms of skills development and of lifelong learning are therefore urgently required.
61%
of activities in the missing middle require employees to do different things and to do things differently.
67%
of workers say they must develop their own skills to work with intelligent machines.
Accenture proposes workers and their employers work together in three dimensions to accelerate the learning and application of essential human skills for the future of human and AI collaboration.
Mutual Readiness – Workers and employers must realize common aspirations in the new workplace.
Accelerated Ability – Provide workers with the latest resources to rapidly enhance human skills.
Shared Value – Create a culture that values education and lifelong learning.