As part of its pre-budget document, the Malta Chamber of SMEs has proposed the establishment of a national taskforce to discuss how Malta can react to a potentially massive workforce disruption driven by AI and technology developments in the coming years.
The document quotes an Oxford University study estimating that 47% of current jobs will cease to exist by 2033 and a forecast by the Institute for the Future think tank that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 don’t even exist yet.
Lovin Malta spoke to Beppe Muscat, the CEO of the NM Group accountancy firm and a Chamber of SMEs council member, who helped draft their pre-budget document.
“We want to bring stakeholders together to devise a common and holistic vision of where we’re going to go,” he said.
“As things stand we’re still in time to possibly make this an opportunity for our nation and our workforce, but we’re worried that if we don’t initiate this process, then soon enough it will become a threat to our businesses and our employees.”
“The studies are clear, and we even have practical cases and examples that make it clear, that technology is extremely powerful and is advancing at an extremely rapid pace.”
“This is the fourth industrial revolution and futurists estimate that the advancements of the next ten years will be more impactful than the past hundred. Jobs will be changing, roles will be changing and this implies that our people need to adapt.”
“We need to understand what skills our people need to adapt to the changes that are going to take place in our workforce and to ensure that our education system is preparing our students for the workforce of the future and not the workforce of today’s economy.”
Muscat said that various jobs are at risk of disruption, including professional ones like accountancy.
“Although we often feel like, as things stand, there is huge demand for professionals like accountants and a limited supply of them, the World Economic Forum estimates that the top three jobs to decrease in demand are all accounting-related,” he warned.
“This is going to hit us in the areas that might seem least possible as things stand today. So let’s bring all stakeholders together, let’s understand, analyse and strategise to address this and make of it an opportunity.”
Muscat said the education system needs to be reformed to identify what skills will be most crucial in this new world. He argued that these will be mainly human skills, such as emotional intelligence, communication, relationship-building, decision-making and thinking, that technology cannot replicate.
“We’re saying we should bring the experts in. Let’s analyse and understand what people in the most advanced jurisdictions abroad are doing, and let’s reform our education system so our people and workforce can be prepared for these changes in the world of work.”
