Forbes, UK: Cognizant’s Vice President & Managing Director, Center for the Future of Work, Discusses the Gap Between Skills and New Technology

“There is a historical lag between the emergence of a new technology and the skills required to make it thrive,” says Ben Pring. “We are in the midst of that moment.” Excerpts:

"Reading the news every day will subject the reader to a deluge of hype around artificial intelligence. With such a barrage of hype, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our organizations are already being disrupted on an unprecedented scale by AI-based technologies. Except that's not entirely true. A recent executive survey by EY revealed that the vast majority of organizations are doing little more than tinker with AI.

Organizations not only lack board level buy-in, even for AI deployments that improve what is rather than fundamentally reshape business-as-usual, but they're also struggling to find the skills to power their pilot projects, let alone anything more substantial.

Professional services firm Cognizant are seeing signs of this change through their work. Ben Pring believes that both employers and governments are slowly making the changes required, and points to the emergence of massive open online courses as a mechanism by which we can equip ourselves and our employees with the skills of the future."

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