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SAP executives this week sought to calm fears about artificial intelligence eliminating jobs during the organization’s Connect conference in Las Vegas. SAP leaders painted an alternative picture of AI as a collaborative partner that will support how HR professionals work while keeping people at the center with the evolving technology.
“The future of work is about humans and AI together,” said Gina Vargiu-Breuer, SAP’s chief people officer and labor director. AI innovations underscore the fundamental need to redesign how people work in the future, she said.
Skills become the ‘new supply chain’ Gina Vargiu-Breuer, chief people officer, SAP
Vargiu-Breuer introduced a striking metaphor for the modern workforce challenge: “Skills are the new supply chain. Just like energy or raw materials fuel the industrial age, AI fuels the digital age, and this is powered and shaped by skills.”
The urgency around skills-based work is even more apparent in the AI age. Ian Beacraft, CEO of consulting firm Signal and Cipher, told attendees that the average shelf life of a technical skill now lasts only about 18 to 36 months, citing estimates from both the OECD and World Economic Forum.
Beacraft added that the global workforce is shifting from valuing what employees
