The conversation isn’t new. “How will artificial intelligence transform our workplace?” “How will our jobs change?” “Can our current skillsets evolve enough for this change?” Today, this transformation is no longer hypothetical, it is happening rapidly and on a more prominent scale than ever. Across industries, organizations are rethinking job structures, skills development, and the future of workforce planning.
Many are looking at their job today and realizing that some of its tasks could be automated in the next software update. Or even further – that it will reshape your role entirely. This is the reality that AI is creating. It is set to fundamentally change the modern job architecture as we know it. No where is this more pronounced than in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, where skills like prompt engineering become practically obsolete when AI’s conversational capabilities improve exponentially within a release update.
But this story isn’t just about AI's seat at the table, it’s about our ability to pair AI proficiency with timeless human skills to truly thrive in the future of work.
So, what does this mean for organizations? It means we cannot rely on guesswork. To truly succeed in an AI-driven era, we need hard data, clear insights, and a focus on the future of skills. At Cornerstone, our commitment is to help organizations understand the current and future impacts of AI-driven workforce changes and equip them with the tools they need to upskill and reskill their people to be future-ready. That’s why we partnered with Cisco and the AI Workforce Consortium for this report, using our powerful labor market intelligence, to launch the “ICT in Motion: The Next Wave of AI Integration”, shining a light on the future of work, talent, and AI. This report is built on rigorously validated, globally sourced data from across the G7. Data that reveal show AI is reshaping job roles, redefining skills demands, and transforming the dynamics of the ICT sector.
Key findings from the report:
Not surprisingly AI should not be categorized as a niche specialization; it is a core competency required across all ICT roles. Roles that once relied on technical expertise now demand fluency in AI programming languages like Python and R, and hands-on experience with frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch. Cybersecurity professionals are expected to use AI to anticipate and block threats before they occur. Business analysts are harnessing AI-driven tools to make sense of massive data sets and turn them into actionable strategies.
Today, technical AI skills are already baked into more than 50 different job roles, and not just at the senior level; they stretch across every stage of a career. The problem is that demand is racing far ahead of supply. Across G7 economies, that imbalance has created a critical skills deficit.
Interestingly, when we compare this with human skills, the gap isn’t nearly as stark. In fact, only data storytelling and strategic thinking were flagged as moderate gaps. That tells us something powerful: AI isn’t replacing human skills, it’s augmenting them. But here’s the catch. If organizations don’t address the shortages in core AI skills, they won’t be able to scale AI responsibly, securely or effectively.
The rise of agentic AI: A new chapter in work
In recent years, the evolution of AI has shifted from a focus on teaching machine learning models into an era of AI agents, systems that don't just answer our questions but plan, generate, and carry out tasks on their own.
Think of it like this: with technologies like model context protocol (MCP), retrieval augmentation generation (RAG), LangChain, and LlamaIndex, these systems aren’t just “helpers” anymore. They’re starting to handle longer, more complicated work with only a light touch from humans. It’s exciting, but it also raises the stakes. If AI is making decisions and taking action on its own, then compliance, security, and ethics can’t be an afterthought.
Across G7 countries, the most in-demand skills are still the ones tied to people, including leadership and management, problem solving and innovation, and collaboration and communication (communication alone consistently ranks among the top three in all G7 countries).
The future of work isn’t hidden-It’s in our hands
The report gives us that glimpse. Transparency and clarity regarding how AI is redefining roles and skills in the ICT sector enable us to understand the actions needed here and now. The future of work is not a mystery waiting to be discovered. We have the data and knowledge to predict, prepare for, and even shape it. It is no longer a question of whether we can predict it, but what we will do with that vision.
See how SkyHive by Cornerstone and our proprietary labor market intelligence helped source the data for this report and how it can help your organization identify and plan for the skills it needs in real-time as markets and technology change.
