Digital Reskilling: Challenges and Strategies

Automation, especially generative AI, which has evolved dramatically in recent years, is expected to transform the nature of work in a wide range of occupations. For example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD 2019) predicts that over the next 15 to 20 years, 14% of existing jobs in developed countries will disappear due to automation, and an additional 32% of jobs could be radically changed as more specific tasks are automated. Many examples also suggest that effective implementation of reskilling will be very difficult in practice, requiring systematic changes at the strategic, organizational, and employee awareness levels. In this symposium, we will ask companies in Japan that are leading the way in reskilling to share (1) how they developed reskilling plans consistent with their DX strategies, (2) what problems they faced (and how they dealt with them), and (3) what complementary innovations, such as incentives and skills visualization, were used in the process of implementing reskilling? The aim of this session is to share our knowledge and experiences with each other, and to provide suggestions for companies that are planning to implement reskilling in the future. The keynote speaker, Professor Sadun, will share the results of a survey she has conducted of U.S. firms. In comparison to U.S. firms, we will discuss the corporate-level initiatives of leading Japanese firms and highlight the challenges facing the latter.