Skills and creativity at a premium in era of AI

Editor's note: The spread of artificial intelligence is posing a major challenge to many traditional jobs. Cai Fang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with www.ce.cn that it is a challenge that people, as well as the government, need to actively respond to. Below are excerpts of the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period will mark a critical phase in the integration of artificial intelligence and employment. The principal contradiction in China's job market has turned into a structural imbalance. While there are many high-quality vacancies in the market, employers are struggling to recruit workers with the necessary professional skills. On the other hand, many job seekers are unable to find positions that match their skills. Technologies such as AI are both creative and destructive. AI acts as both an "amplifier" and an "accelerator" that intensifies the current structural imbalance in the job market. Given this, multipronged approaches are needed to mitigate AI's effect on employment.
The authorities should implement industrial policies, establish industry standards and enforce laws and regulations to guide the healthy development of the AI sector. Aligning AI research, development and application with the country's employment policies is crucial. So are addressing workers' skill gaps, improving the quality and efficiency of traditional jobs, and unlocking AI's potential to create new employment opportunities.
Workers must actively seek vocational skills training, continuously update their expertise and keep pace with AI's advancement. By doing so, they can revamp their professional skills to meet the demands of jobs in the new era.
The authorities should ensure equal access to basic public services, and refine a multitiered social security system tailored to new forms of employment in the AI era. This will help secure people's livelihoods and provide the workforce with enough time to upgrade their skills and reshape their careers.
Fundamental economic logic says that sustained wage growth depends on steady improvements in labor productivity across society. AI's greatest value lies in its ability to significantly boost overall labor productivity. Thus, from a macro perspective, AI creates conditions for gradual wage growth across society.
However, the benefits from higher labor productivity will not automatically be distributed equally among all workers. AI is likely to widen the income disparities across enterprises, industries and worker groups at a faster pace.
Efforts by individuals will not be enough to address this divergence in incomes. The government should improve the income distribution system and use redistribution mechanisms to narrow the income gap, enabling the whole of society to share the dividends of productivity gains driven by AI.
There was a time when a higher level of education meant greater rewards. But AI has changed that. Large language models can now replace a vast number of white-collar jobs, erasing the competitive advantages of certain academic courses that were once considered premium.
The value of academic degrees would have declined even without AI. The rapid development of AI has only intensified this trend.
While academic degrees may become less valuable over time, lifelong learning to enhance one's core competencies remains crucial. People don't have to fixate on obtaining a high academic degree in the AI era, but they should pursue knowledge and expertise that are truly valuable.