Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the intelligence of machines. This phrase is itself frightening. As kids, we never knew machines could become intelligent too. All we were told was about their features such as speed, accuracy, automation, versatility, storage etc. But little did we know that they would mimic the human intelligence too one day. The advent of AI has transformed the world and shaped many realms of it. It has revolutionised numerous sectors by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and innovation. Some key sectors profoundly impacted by AI include IT, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, logistics, education, media, HR and much more.
The demand for skills in today’s world is closely tied to the rapid advancements in AI. Today, almost all the IT companies and employers look for professionals who have at least got some basic knowledge regarding the designing, implementation, and managing of data through by the utilisation of AI models. Employers seek for potential workers who have the ability to optimize AI-driven solutions. Being college students, there is a need to develop and enhance our skills in order to be at equal position with the changing scenarios. This can boost our critical thinking and we can engage in things beyond our academics. As far as soft skills are concerned, they play an important role in success in any professional field, including those related to AI. Skills such as interpersonal communication, problem-solving, team work and collaboration, leadership, negotiation, network building, management etc. can be learned and acquired in our day-to-day life wither by engaging in co-curricular activities or simply trying to learn them from any institution which is willing to provide one with such skills.
But apart from these skills, we need to look out for skills in demand. According to the survey conducted by BestColleges.com, 70% of fresh graduates believe that basic generative AI training should be integrated into courses, and 69% feel that they need more training on how to work with emerging technologies in their current roles. The need to inculcate such skills is dependent in major ways to the course you are pursuing, although not always. You can simply learn a new skill, ensuring that it fits well with the course you are pursuing. Some of the skills which are found to be commonly hunted for include Technical Skills such as getting proficient enough with programming languages such as Python (most important) besides Java, R and C++. Familiarity with some Machine learning models such as supervised and un-supervised learning can also add a feather to your cap. For Data Analysis and Visualisation, you can gain proficiency in libraries such as Matplotlib, Pandas, NumPy, Seaborn and so on. The concept of Natural Language Processing is recently seen to be taking a dominant position in most of the work areas. Therefore, it is important for us as students to at least try to equip ourselves with the knowledge of such emerging models. Expertise in models like GANs, Stable Diffusion, and ChatGPT for creating content and synthetic data is also taking up the current scenario. So, combining the soft skills with such technical skills can prove very beneficial for us in the long run especially when we step out looking for work opportunities.
Therefore, to remain competitive and relevant, we must not only be adept in technical skills like programming and deep learning but also be equipped with critical thinking, adaptability, and creativity to tackle the challenges we might face in future.
