MTN CEO identifies skills that ‘ll be in high demand

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, has identified some skills that employers will be demanding for in the future.

According to him, technology will continue to make a lot of skills obsolete because Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon be able to carry out complex work, albeit better and faster than humans.

Specifically, he said accounting and engineering skills are fast becoming outdated as apps and AI are taking over those roles.

Toriola identified robotics as a key area of the future of work, emphasising that the more skills employees have in the field, the more employable they will become.

Content creation is yet another area Toriola believes will continue to be profitable, as there will always be demand for online entertainment.

“If it’s accounting or law that you’re studying, or if it is engineering, going by the way we teach engineering, a lot of that knowledge is going to become near obsolete, because there are apps that are going to do all those calculations, or you plug in the court case, it picks up the few keywords, using the artificial intelligence and tells you, this is the best defence, etc.

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“A lot of those skills are obsolete, and they have been effectively enmeshed into our computing and knowledge system that doesn’t require the human brain for it, and they can pull on it when they need it. So, the skills that are needed for the future are skills around being able to imagine things in a completely different light, reinvent business models, change the way things are done, increase things on productivity like food production; help with environmental issues like waste management, and all the other issues that are facing the world of tomorrow.

“So, why is Cristiano Ronaldo a billionaire? Do you know why? Is it just because he’s the best footballer or Messi is the best footballer? It’s because they create content through their sport. And then leverage brand and consumer relationships in creating content and all sorts of other values across multiple industries; even through YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms, that’s what’s making the money. So, the space for entertainment is going to be incredibly important. And creating content and entertainment, and knowledge for the future is important.”

The MTN CEO, who has almost three decades of experience working in the telecom sector across Africa and America, noted that while there is no clear-cut guarantee to success, young people should consider acquiring skills in areas that are in high demand.

“The ability to build and manage relationships, to interconnect all of those things is key. So social skills are also going to be incredibly important for people to succeed in the future,” he added.