According to LinkedIn’s most recent Future of Work research, Singaporeans are embracing AI capabilities at the quickest rate in the world.

The study, which used data from 25 nations, discovered that Singapore has the highest “diffusion rate”; since January 2016, the proportion of members who added AI skills to their profiles has increased 20 times.

According to LinkedIn, that is much more than the eight times global average.

According to the survey, the top five nations with the highest rates of AI skills dissemination are Finland (16x), Ireland (15x), India (14x), and Canada (13x).

Singapore has always been a “fertile ground” for AI disruption, according to Pooja Chhabria, a career specialist and the Asia-Pacific head of LinkedIn’s editorial division.

This is due to the nation’s “vibrant ecosystem of venture capital firms, angel investors… that provide capital, and a robust digital infrastructure, strong framework for the protection of intellectual property,” she said.

“We have seen rapid growth in AI development and adoption fueled by startups and businesses over the years, in their efforts to carve out new niches or achieve greater competitive advantage.”

According to LinkedIn, the five AI-related skills that were added to member profiles the fastest in 2022 were all those that “hinted at the emergence of generative AI.”

This includes categorization and recommender systems, question-answering, which increased by a staggering 332%, and other talents.

In the past year, the chatbot ChatGPT has spurred a fresh surge of interest in generative AI (GAI) technologies, and Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft have since sought to integrate AI into every aspect of their operations.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn introduced capabilities in May that let users construct AI-generated user profiles, job descriptions, and recruiter messaging.

The capacity of generative AI to produce text, images, and other content in response to human input, however, has given rise to fresh concerns about the threat of technological job replacement.

According to a Goldman Sachs estimate, 300 million jobs, including office and administrative support positions, might be impacted by AI and automation globally.

For instance, 45% of teachers’ talents are “potentially augmentable” by generative AI, according to LinkedIn, which examined some of the most popular vocations on the network.

“New GAI tools present an opportunity to potentially lighten workloads and help professionals, like teachers, focus on the most important parts of their job,” LinkedIn wrote.

According to the report, teaching skills that could be augmentable include lesson planning, curriculum development, literacy and tutoring.

However, 53% of a teacher’s abilities, including as classroom management, elementary education, and special education, still require the use of human humans. 

Only 3% of a software engineer’s skills require human assistance.

“AI will certainly change the way that many of us do our jobs, and the time we spend on tasks that potentially can be aided by generative AI,” Chhabria added.

“As a result, people skills … like creative thinking, leadership and communication, and ensuring ethical outcomes – are also becoming increasingly important.”

One of the most important ways software engineers may put their interpersonal abilities to use, according to her, is by “communicating more effectively with business and non-technical audiences.”

Oil field operator (1%), environmental health safety professional (3%), nurse (6%) and doctor (7%), according to LinkedIn, have the lowest percentages of potentially augmentable abilities.

Soft skills are becoming more crucial as AI starts to automate many aspects of the workforce, according to LinkedIn.

According to the research, self-management, adaptability, professional ethics, and social awareness have seen the fastest increases in demand in the U.S. since November 2022.

Analytical judgement, flexibility, and emotional intelligence were identified to be the three top abilities that leaders believe are crucial in Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index survey.

“The human is always in control and … with a generated AI response, you have a moment of, ‘Do I want to keep this content? Do I want to modify it? Do I want to discard it?’” Colette Stallbaumer, the general manager for Microsoft 365 and “future of work” told CNBC Make It in May.

“You still have to use those judgment skills when thinking about when to use AI and making those calls — that’s really where the human agency comes into it.”

Microsoft noted that emotional intelligence is essential in assisting with the decision of “when to leverage an AI capability instead of a human capability.”

(Adapted from CNBC.com)