PETALING JAYA: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technical marvel – a beast that youths can tame.
Experts are calling on Malaysians to equip themselves with the appropriate skills if they want to remain relevant in the tough job market.
Usha Devi Arumugam, a human resource expert at PeopleBiz Consulting, says employees should develop their skills in digital literacy as well as non-technical skills.
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She said this includes adopting a learning mindset, being adaptive to changes and being socially intelligent.
“In the longer run, I believe that employers would want employees who have a good understanding of business regardless of their job role.
“As organisations face more challenges in the industry, employees who have a good sense of what drives the business will be more valued.
“Being a specialist in a particular job role is good, but to find the connection of what we do for the business as a whole is valuable,” she said.
Digital literacy refers to a person’s ability to use information technology and digital technology to find, evaluate, create and communicate information.
Aside from this, Usha also encouraged employees to be creative in resolving issues related to their work and not wait for employers to provide upskill programmes for them to learn new skills.
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“Knowing different ways to solve issues will be beneficial for the employer. This not only means creating new products, but also finding new ways to make processes faster and easier, finding new ways of doing things and challenging the status quo,” she said.
“It is advisable for employees to not wait for companies to train them to learn new skills as they should be proactive and take the initiative to find the skills that they want to acquire,” she added.
Usha said employees do have an incentive to learn new skills as it can open up a new space for salary negotiation with employers.“If these new skills allow the employees to execute the job faster, with more accuracy, have a positive impact on the team, department or business and add value to the organisation, there will definitely be room for salary negotiation,” she said.
Managing director of JobStreet Malaysia, Vic Sithasanan, was optimistic about the influence of AI technology, claiming that as some jobs become automated, new ones will emerge.
“Employers should provide opportunities for learning and development, particularly in the digital and AI-related areas,” Vic said.
“They should also redesign jobs to leverage the strengths of both humans and AI,” he added.
As for employees, Vic said they need to be proactive in learning new skills and adapting to changes in the job market.
“Employees need to understand that AI should be seen as a tool that enhances human capabilities, not as a replacement,” he said.
“The focus should be on using AI to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up human employees to perform more complex, creative, meaningful and ‘value-added’ work,” he added.
Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said employers are encouraged to work with higher learning institutions, specialised training providers and industry experts to train employees.
“The training will be intended to close the skills gap of the workforce by developing more life-long learning courses to upskill and reskill existing workers and new potential employees,” he said.
Soh added that FMM had proposed in its 2023 Budget memorandum for the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corporation) to help finance training programmes organised by employers.
“For every RM1 spent on training by employers, HRD Corporation tops up the employers levy account with RM3 especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” he said.
“A cap could be set on the amount that can be claimed by employers under this top-up scheme annually.”
Tax advisory firm TraTax’s co-founder Thenesh Kannaa said that learning to use AI and new digital tools in accounting would enable accountants to perform better.
“Software AI tools that enable accounting entries to be automatically posted by simply scanning vendor invoices are already employed by many accounting firms today.
“These tools relieve accountants from needing to perform repetitive tasks like data collection, processing and formatting which allows better resource management for both the accountant and the firm as a whole.
“By using these tools, we will be able to focus on improving our problem-solving and value-creation skills,” Thenesh, who is also a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said.
Yayasan Digital Malaysia’s head of digital innovation Mohd Fazli Azran shared the same sentiment, adding that having strong fundamentals and flexibility would be key in the future job market.
“Strong knowledge of concepts, principles and best practices will be essential as it will enable us to effectively utilise these new AI tools, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity.
“Cultivating a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability allows us to constantly anticipate new attack vectors and devise innovative defence strategies before they even occur,” he added.
On Monday, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said that as many as 4.5 million Malaysians are likely to lose their jobs by 2030, if they do not improve their skills or attend reskilling and upskilling programmes with the rise of AI.
He cited the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) warning that AI could cause a recession in the job market as it is already being used to automate tasks in various industries.
However, in the latest report by WEF published in May 2023, the pace of automation contradicted 2020’s projections where almost half (47%) of business tasks would be automated by 2025.
“Today, respondents have revised their expectations for future automation to predict that only 42% of business tasks will be automated by 2027.
“The role of task automation for businesses in 2027 is expected to vary with the bulk of its tasks being geared towards information and data processing,” the report stated.
