Recent data shows that between 40 and 45% of employees use AI for their job tasks, and these numbers are expected to increase even more in the upcoming years. The education experts at Bright Heart Education, a company dedicated to special educational needs tutoring, analysed the changes in the job market, creative careers with the most perspectives, and the skills that children will need the most for an AI-shaped future.
What Skills Will Be Essential For the Next Generation?
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Metacognition
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What is it: understanding of your own thought process
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Why it matters: Metacognition improves critical thinking, helps to navigate overwhelming information and constant changes.
“As AI handles more thinking tasks, children risk "outsourcing" their cognition and just accepting what tools tell them as truth,” explains Dr Ryan Stevenson, Co-founder & Director at Bright Heart Education. “Together with critical thinking skills, metacognition helps to question received information, check sources, and helps people not to over-rely on AI.”
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Creative Problem Solving
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What is it: coming up with new ideas instead of just relying on previous methods
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Why it matters: Creative problem-solving develops cognitive skills, helps children be creative in other fields, and is currently among the most demanded skills.
AI can synthesise information from other sources, but it is unable to come up with new ideas. While many perceive ‘creative’ as a sign of limited use, multiple job fields require specialists with this skill, including the high-paying insurance sector.
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Emotional Intelligence
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What is it: understanding your own emotions and the ability to empathise with others
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Why it matters: emotional intelligence helps to navigate all interpersonal relationships, build trust with family and friends, and boost the development of soft skills
“Many career paths, like healthcare, social services, and leadership positions, require emotional intelligence. It’s another skill that AI lacks. That’s why most jobs like that show almost zero chance of AI automation.” Dr Ryan Stevenson comments. “Education research also established that emotional intelligence helps to develop critical thinking and improves studying processes.”
How Is the Job Market Changing Because of AI?
Fastest-growing jobs also show high levels of AI resilience, while sectors in decline are marked as ‘high risk’ for artificial intelligence automation. Nurse practitioners show the lowest AI replacement risk at 0%, while the job market for them is expected to grow by over 45% by 2032.
Big data analytics are also not at risk of losing their jobs, because the results they produce need constant human oversight. This can also be said about the cybersecurity specialists, which is another tech sector that isn’t projected to lose jobs to artificial intelligence.
Can AI Replace Creative People?
When it comes to creative careers, they are not likely to disappear because of AI tools, even though many people are concerned about it. Choreographers show the highest growth potential among creative professions, with almost 30% by 2032, while musicians, fine artists, and artisans get 0-5% of AI risk.
Expert Takeaway
“Some companies want to use AI instead of people, but this won’t work. So many human skills cannot be replicated, and they’re directly linked to our intelligence, communication, and community building. These skills are also needed in the majority of fields, so adapting children to new AI realities isn’t forcing them towards one specific path, it’s giving them the ability to build their own future and not stay behind.
Parents need to look at how the job market is changing and what skills are the most needed, since they have a better perspective than the kids. At the same time, families don’t need to discourage children if they’re leaning towards creative work, like dancing or singing. Not just because AI can’t replace them, but also because it’s always good to support creative activities.”
