The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, has identified some skills that employers will be demanding for in the future.
According to him, technology will continue to make a lot of skills obsolete because Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon be able to carry out complex work, albeit better and faster than humans.
Specifically, he said accounting and engineering skills are fast becoming outdated as apps and AI are taking over those roles.
Toriola identified robotics as a key area of the future of work, emphasising that the more skills employees have in the field, the more employable they will become.
Content creation is yet another area Toriola believes will continue to be profitable, as there will always be demand for online entertainment.
What the MTN CEO is saying
While commenting on the future of work during an exclusive interview with Nairametrics at his office, Toriola said:
- “If it’s accounting or law that you’re studying, or if it is engineering, going by the way we teach engineering, a lot of that knowledge is going to become near obsolete, because there are apps that are going to do all those calculations, or you plug in the court case, it picks up the few keywords, using the artificial intelligence and tells you, this is the best defence, etc.
- “A lot of those skills are obsolete, and they have been effectively enmeshed into our computing and knowledge system that doesn’t require the human brain for it, and they can pull on it when they need it. So, the skills that are needed for the future are skills around being able to imagine things in a completely different light, reinvent business models, change the way things are done, increase things on productivity like food production; help with environmental issues like waste management, and all the other issues that are facing the world of tomorrow.
- “So, why is Cristiano Ronaldo a billionaire? Do you know why? Is it just because he’s the best footballer or Messi is the best footballer? It’s because they create content through their sport. And then leverage brand and consumer relationships in creating content and all sorts of other value across multiple industries; even through YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms, that’s what’s making the money. So, the space for entertainment is going to be incredibly important. And creating content and entertainment, and knowledge for the future is important.”
The MTN CEO, who has almost three decades of experience working in the telecom sector across Africa and America, noted that while there is no clear-cut guarantee to success, young people should consider acquiring skills in areas that are in high demand.
- “The ability to build and manage relationships, to interconnect all of those things is key. So social skills are also going to be incredibly important for people to succeed in the future,” he added.
Pls. For indepth knowledge of app and AI you must know the basis of algorithm, from where? Engineering, computer science. AI and robotics are multidisciplinary fields from bioengineering, electronic, mechanical, computer etc. And who build the AI and robotics, is it from heaven? no by human. Just ask those in the profession to always update themselves.
A perfect response
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Great response, update, growth and improvement is the goal. Positive change is constant.
While uou may be right, but not with africa or Africans. We are yet to get to that stage. You only got to know because of the level of exposure you are opportune to know. We have a more bigger problem in Africa; and that is the ability to manage the resource we have to the best of our optimum. Then we can more to the next stage of life.
Yes i like nigerians when they are doing their counter claims to protect their non existence ego and show how lowkey underdeveloped they are and uninformed plus misinformed. The point remain we lack in these aspects even know it going to be obsolete it just show the gap that will be left open by ignorance and greed
Lol olodo country to be exploited. nothing new about that, na we all go suffer am
I have seen the best of AI in real world application, FRUSTRATING! While you have great points, technology taking over human intervention completely in business will take a long time of perfection.
Love how technology is simplifying the way we live life and how it makes us more productive but taking virtual customer service support for instance you discover that aside the random questions and solutions programmed into the AIs – either at production or via machine learning process – the Ais often fail to resolve myriads of challenges, especially unique ones. You then are left with “press 0 if you want to speak with our expert staff…”
So, man isn’t going to be of the business grid too soon.