The continuing rise of AI has left many workers trying to keep up. In a 2023 survey by the med-tech firm Multiverse, 83 percent of employers said that AI knowledge is their most in-demand skill—however, a World Economic Forum report from the same year showed that only half of workers have access to AI training.
Looking to close this skills gap, Google announced in April the launch of the AI Opportunity Fund. Distributed through the tech giant’s philanthropic arm, the $75 million initiative will distribute grants to organizations and institutions like Goodwill and Miami Dade College. The funds will enable these groups to offer for free the Google AI Essentials course, which teaches basic generative AI skills.
According to Goodwill CEO Steve Preston, the course will allow people to develop “gateway skills” that are increasingly becoming necessary in an AI-dominated world. “All jobs are going to be AI jobs,” he told Fast Company, and with low-wage workers most at risk of being replaced by AI, the training has the potential to give them skills that will help them increase their earning power.
Goodwill’s partnership with Google dates back many years. Since 2017, the tech company has provided digital-skills training to 11 million workers. According to some experts, this approach is key to maintaining a well-trained workforce in a fast-changing world.
Along with low-wage workers, another group some believe to be threatened by AI is older workers. A 2024 report from online tutoring company Preply found that 30 percent of senior-level employees worry about losing their jobs because of their lack of AI skills.
However, a July 2024 article from CNBC pushes back on this concern. Because being able to deftly select inputs and apply discerning judgment to outputs is necessary for using AI effectively, senior-level employees who have a complex understanding of a business topics are actually best positioned to benefit from AI.
Preston does warn that some companies may assume that older workers lack the adaptative ability to learn AI. He urges companies to retain these employees, however, saying that employers should work with senior-level employees to “help them be more productive.”