It is time to up-skill your digital ability
Do you know what artificial intelligence (AI) is? If not, have you heard of the name AlphaGo which has been extensively mentioned on the news over the last years?
AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence program invented by Google’s DeepMind, is developed to play the ancient Chinese board game Go (also called weiqi) against professional human Go players. Lots of people think that a program developed by humans can never surpass us. But in fact, AlphaGo has already overwhelmingly beaten different regional winners and even won a world championship. With artificial intelligence programs like AlphaGo, we can foresee that these programs will be widely used in workplace. But will they replace manpower in the future, especially when the world is transforming to a digital one?
From time to time, the replacement of jobs by artificial intelligence is discussed on news. The probability of occupations at risk of computer automation was calculated and released by Oxford University. The result of the study could be summarized as the statistic below. 
Source: Oxford University data via Bloomberg News
The increasing production mechanization, business digitalization and usage of artificial intelligence seem to hit employees’ confidence in their employability. According to the HR Magazine 2017 Spring, the regional average of employees across Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia stating that they would have to acquire more digital skills to increase their competitiveness is 84% with a lower global average of 64%. What makes them have these concerns is that they think their current positions contain lots of repetitive work which could be automated. 59% of the employees across those three countries stated that their work could undergo automation while the global average is 44%.
The threat of manpower replacement by artificial intelligence is not insignificant. So how could we upskill our digital ability and thus our competitiveness? Here are some tips for you.
- Social Media Skills
As consumers are changing their purchasing habits from traditional shopping to online, businesses focus more and more on digital marketing to grab their target customers’ attention. So, acquiring social media skills is a must.
You may want to check out ALISON, a global online platform which provides free and high-quality social media courses with related marketing strategies. - Video Editing Skills
It is found that graphics and videos rather than plain texts are more attractive to netizens. To catch their attention and make them spend more time on your posts, you might have to shoot a video instead of just text. Learn more video-related skills on PremiumBeat, which provides free tips and tutorials on video editing, production, filmmaking, etc. - Analytical Skills
In this digital era, tons of data are being generated every day. They are informative and useful for setting up business strategies. But the most important thing is to transform the data into meaningful information. To do so, we have to acquire big data analytical skills. You may want to check out the free big data course provided by FutureLearn, an online education platform with free courses from top universities and specialist organizations. - HTML/CSS
To better understand the digital world, websites or database systems, it might not be necessary to know how to code but at least be able to read some coding. You may want to check out what codes mean on W3Schools, an online web tutorial about coding. - UX/ UI/ Basic Design Skills
When talking about websites or digital marketing, design principles could definitely not be neglected. With a better graphic or user interface, your online business can do a better job in catching consumers’ eyeballs. You may want to check out the free design courses from Hack Design.
Sources:
http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2095929/alphago-vanquishes-worlds-top-go-player-marking-ais-superiority
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaslaurinavicius/2016/08/16/learning-platforms/2/#2ee7f34d4295
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencebradford/2017/01/16/7-important-digital-skills-all-marketers-should-master-in-2017/#4cc8a3c942c1
