We need a skills-based approach to harness the AI opportunity in Southeast Asia

The labor market across Southeast Asian countries is undergoing significant transformation, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GAI). As these technologies continue to evolve, they will bring profound changes to the skills required for our jobs.

LinkedIn’s data shows that the skills needed for any given job across Southeast Asian countries have changed by as much as 40% since 2016. With the advent of GAI, we expect this pace to accelerate, with skills changing by as much as 72% by 2030 compared to 2016. This means that almost every job role, from customer service representatives to recruiters and software engineers, will soon require a different set of skills.

Building a skilled regional workforce is fundamental to ensuring Southeast Asia’s continued economic growth. Governments must adopt a different approach to workforce development, one with skills at its center. Developed in collaboration with Access Partnership, LinkedIn’s new report “Harnessing AI: Transforming Southeast Asia’s workforce” explains why this is crucial for the region and how we can collectively ensure Southeast Asia remains competitive and inclusive in an AI-driven economy.

We need to grow the AI talent pool

In the six Southeast Asian countries covered in our report, the proportion of AI talent has tripled between 2016 and 2024. The compounded annual growth rate was between 5% and 17%. However, much of the region’s AI talent is small compared to other emerging and high-income countries.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of job postings that mention AI or GAI increased by over 2.4 times.  Applications to these jobs increased by 1.7 times. This indicates a growing demand for AI talent, as well as a growing worker interest in these roles.

To meet the growing demand for AI talent, a skills-based approach to hiring is important. Skills-based hiring is the recruitment strategy of focusing on a candidate’s skills to do the job, whether or not they meet typical education, prior employer, or job title requirements. This approach can be particularly beneficial in rapidly evolving fields like AI, where the demand for specific skills often outpaces the supply of formally qualified candidates. According to our report, a skills-based hiring approach can expand the global AI talent pool by up to 7.4 times.

A skills framework offers a nuanced view of GAI’s impact

While most jobs will require skills that can be performed by GAI technologies, not every job will be affected the same way. To assess how GAI is likely to affect different segments of Southeast Asia’s workforce, we developed a framework based on LinkedIn’s taxonomy of over 41,000 skills. By analyzing data on the skills listed by LinkedIn members through the lens of GAI’s evolving capabilities, we identified:

• The roles, population segments, and industries that rely most heavily on skills that GAI is likely to replicate—potentially increasing the urgency of reskilling, upskilling, and other future-proofing efforts.

• The segments that stand to benefit the most from investing in skill-building efforts that 1) boost workers’ ability to leverage AI technologies, and/or 2) strengthen employees’ skills in areas that are unique to humans and will remain important.

We estimate that 57% of workers (164m) across Southeast Asia may be impacted by GAI. These are workers in job roles that are likely augmented or disrupted by GAI.

• Augmented by GAI. These jobs require a significant share of both GAI-replicable and people skills. Data analysts, for example, can use GAI to automate the computation and interpretation of metrics— allowing them to focus on complementary people skills like cross-functional influencing and stakeholder engagement. Our analysis suggests that between 23-27% of Southeast Asia’s LinkedIn members are in occupations that could be augmented by GAI.

• Disrupted by GAI. These jobs require a large share of GAI-replicable skills but a relatively low share of people skills—meaning that those who hold them will likely need to adapt their skills relatively quickly. Language translators, for example, may shift from doing translations from scratch to reviewing and certifying machine-generated translations, or to specializing in, for example, legal or literacy domains that require more nuance. We estimate that between 31-32% of Southeast Asia’s LinkedIn members are in jobs that could be disrupted by GAI.

• Insulated from GAI. These jobs require a relatively small share of GAI-replicable skills. Real estate agents, for example, might use GAI to write enticing descriptions of houses—but their relationship management skills are unlikely to be replicated by GAI. Some jobs in this category may be susceptible to other forms of automation, like robotics. This study estimates that between 41-44% of Southeast Asia’s LinkedIn members are in jobs that are insulated by GAI.

Women and younger workers may be disproportionately impacted by these changes. In Indonesia and Singapore, over 70% of women are in roles that may be augmented or disrupted by GAI, compared with 62-64% of men.

​In the short-term, younger workers may also be disproportionately impacted by GAI. Between 73% and 76% of Gen Z workers in Indonesia and Singapore respectively are in job roles that may be augmented or disrupted by GAI.

Skills-based hiring is critical to harnessing the AI opportunity

Our key recommendation is for Southeast Asian governments to ensure a skills-based approach is central to workforce development. This has the potential to increase talent pools by as much as 9 times in some countries.

A skills-based approach is critical for two reasons:

 

1. Our report finds that the supply of AI talent is not growing quickly enough to meet demand for AI talent in Southeast Asian countries. Skills-based approaches to hiring can be particularly beneficial in rapidly evolving fields like AI, where the demand for specific skills often outpaces the supply of formally qualified candidates.
2. Our report estimates that 57% of job roles could experience some change as a result of GAI. This means that as many as 164m workers across the region must be reskilled and upskilled, and supported in their transition into in-demand jobs. Women and younger workers will need specific and targeted interventions. Managing through this transition will require government support and incentives for employers to adopt skills-based hiring approaches.

Our report introduces a 1-4-10 Skills-Based Roadmap for an AI Economy. The Roadmap offers 4 key pillars and 10 strategic initiatives to ensure we can create a resilient, modern workforce that will power innovation, drive investment, and position Southeast Asia as an engine of economic growth.

For the full report and analysis, download here.