The world is being re-imagined. We are see a wave of new technologies, an increase focus on skills and how we work, and career paths that are plural, non-linear, and constantly shifting. The Influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is deteround increasingly unquestingly unquestionable. The Global Ai Jobs Barometer 2025.
The World Economic Forum (Wef) UndersCores This Trend: By 2030, The Fastest-Growing Jobs will be “Big Data Specialists”, “Fintech Engineers”, and “Ai and Machine Learning specials”. Skill sets too are evolving at breakneck speed; In jobs that are more expected to ai, the skills employers Want today are changing 66% faster, with a strong emphasis on ai and technology literature, and cyber skills.
The focus on ai and technology at work is clear, and rightly so, Given their dramaatic effects – initially overwhelming but gradually positive Roles and the Nature of Jobs Within An Organization.
In such an age of machine intelligence and automated assists, it gets easy to overlook the degree (and quality) of human collecting with technology that enables the “outputs” outputs “that we find id and what Useful. AI is not simply automating routine tasks and decision a default personally assistant, it is also amplifying our discontinctly human abilities to think, ideate, and solve problems.
According to Wef, Analytical Thinking, Resilience, Flexibility and Agility, And Leadership and Social Influence Top The Core Skills Needed for the WorkPlace Today. These are what people call soft – or duable skills – that are foundational to being human. And this is fascinating: because while technology and digital agility are anchoring the attraction of talent and skill set by employees, these new-age skills help us achiave Individuals with such skills are able to think critically and creatively, with the right judgment of context and situationsitivities. As Human Beings, We Imagine, Exercise Curiosity, and Engage With the World and All Its Excitement and Frustrations; We do this with both text and subtext that often transcend what we typically write in our prompts to ai.
Let us Ask Oyselves: Can Ai Dream? To what extraction can it picture a future reality for us while it has trained on certain history and current data? Such Critical Questions must be asked because the reasons why we take up jobs and engage in work go beyond ticking off routine tasks, production models, OR Summarising Reports. We work to be able to full essential needs, meet our ends, Achieve Stability, Self-Supacity, Discover Our Passions, Socialise, LEARN about the World We Live in, Constrabit to Oouri Environment, Influence Lives, and Much More. And, these are deeply human intenses and desires. While Ai and Technology May Not Dream, They are indeed helping us dream and extend our imaginations. They are helping us expand our thinking and our view of the world with vast Amounts of information and insights. They are also enableing interactions of interesting, ideas, and disciplines. This is the future of work, where Ai and Technology, In Close Companionship With Human Skills and Our Ever-Expanding Interests, Are Leading to New Possibilities for Work and Innovation.
History Tells Us That Every New Technology Revolution Brings With It Certain anxiatiies Concerning Job Loss, Transformation of Roles, and the Need for Skill Evolution. So, the works with ai are not entrely new – Although the resultant shifts will be a lot more pronounced giving Yet, At Its Core, It is Set to Fundamentally enhance the way we work and Pursue Our Interests.
A Question Thus Arises: How Ready are the Young Minds of the Country to Embrace This? India’s universities face an unprecedented responsible here. Striat Departmental Silos, Traditional Classrooms, and other existing structures of narrow focus will not get us there. We need disciplines to interact with each other-bot for Structural renovation of institutions and departments as well as for ensuring holistic, multidisciplinary, and future-prere duution for students. Similarly, While Research in Universities is often measured by publication counts, there is a growing need for relevant, impact-focused research that helps addresses attenders Supports collaborations Across Disciplines and with Industries.
These expectations can’t be realized as mere co-curricular pursuits; INTEAD, they must form the core of what and how students learn. For Decades, Rote Learning and High-Intensity, Competitive Entrance Exams Have Shaped Indian Higher Education, often Limiting Curiosity and Critical Thinking in students. A Moderated Shift Towards Just-In-Time Learning and Pedagogical Innovations, Cented on Inquiry and Exploration, as Encouched in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Can Lay the Ground for how will and work in a World of Rapid Changes. The implications of the interactions amon the humanities, social Sciences, and Natural Sciences Need to Emerge from Learning EcoNing EcoSystems that Foster Interdiscipline Knowledge Systems, Digital Fluency, Digital Fluency, And a culture of love for learning, raather than realized only once individuals enter the workforce. Who need to do this for Higher Education, The Foundation of Learning Begins Much Earlier. Our children need to be equipped at the earliest level to expand their abilitys to think, Solve, Communicate, Learn and Relearn.
India is at an inflection point. With a Massive Young Population and Growing Global Ambitions, We have a Unique Opportunity, which requires a bold new movement to prioritise future-future education. If we dream of become viksit bharat, this movement is not optional; It is required.
Ashish Dhawan and Pramath Raj Sinha Are Founders, Ashoka University. The views expressed are personal
