Main image of article Will Lack of AI Skills Prevent You From Getting Hired?

How critical is it to learn artificial intelligence (AI) skills? A new report suggests that employers see this skill-set as increasingly crucial—and knowing nothing about AI could ding your chances of landing your next gig.

According to LinkedIn and Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, some 66 percent of leaders “say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills.” Even more (71 percent) claimed they’d hire a less experienced candidate who knew how to use AI tools over a more experienced candidate without AI knowledge. 

“And junior candidates may have a new edge: 77 percent of leaders say, with AI, early-in-career talent will be given greater responsibilities,” the report added.

Bottom line: remaining competitive in the job market will require learning at least some AI-related skills. Those who master AI, meanwhile, may find themselves ideally positioned for promotions, salary boosts, and other perks. At the very least, these tools can help swamped tech pros potentially manage their workloads and focus on more creative work.

AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity

Curious about which AI tools can boost your productivity, including helping you churn out code? Here are some options:

  • ChatGPT (OpenAI): A chatbot rapidly becoming synonymous with generative AI, ChatGPT can help you produce code in all kinds of languages. Now available in ChatGPT-4o, with all kinds of scary/cool multimodalities!
     
  • Gemini (Google AI): Google’s version of a commercial generative AI chatbot is free, pretty good at producing code and text, and doesn’t seem to hallucinate terribly often. Have some fun asking it the same prompts as ChatGPT and examining the respective outputs.
     
  • Copilot (GitHub): Positioned as an AI developer tool, Copilot aims to be the Chewbacca to your Han Solo when it comes to coding efficiently. GitHub claims that Copilot-generated code is elegant and secure.
     
  • DeepCode AI (Snyk): The creators of this generative AI chatbot claim it’s security-minded; it has nifty features like recommending fixes and adjustments to your code.
     
  • Midjourney/Stable Diffusion: Popular options for image generation.

This is just a selection of generative AI tools, of course, and more will emerge with time (last week’s Google I/O, for example, revealed how the search-engine giant is attempting to infuse its entire tech and product stack with AI). By learning AI skills, you’ll stay ahead in this rapidly emerging field.