prabhuNew ONS figures reveal the risk of automation to a range of occupations in the UK, estimating around 1.5 million jobs in England are at high risk of some of their duties and tasks being automated in the future.
According to the figures, 43% of marketing roles are at a risk from automation – while more senior marketing directors at just 28%.
The key for professionals and businesses will be ensuring they have the right skills in place to benefit from increased automation and the advent of AI-style technologies in the future.
In fact, recent figures from the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing (IDM) identify AI & machine learning skills as the most important area organisations must address, with 87% of marketers stating that these skills are already vital to their organisation’s success. Yet this area of expertise has the largest skills gap present in the data and marketing industry today.
The ‘Business Skills Census 2019’ asked marketers to identify the skills and challenges facing organisations today and their importance in the future. Skills in AI & machine learning were found to be available within 45% of organisations, according to marketers. 64% stated that these skills would be important to the future success of their respective organisations, revealing a substantial skills gap (19%) within this survey.
Furthermore, 87% state that developing skills in AI & machine learning is vital to their organisation’s current success. This highlights the urgency with which businesses will have to address this knowledge gap if they hope to succeed.
“Future-proofing a business requires a commitment to supporting the development of knowledge, workers and their ability to take advantage of technology in the form of AI in particular,” said Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA.
“As data and marketing intelligence continues to transform the way businesses communicate with customer, the demand for marketers that are equipped with an ever-expanding skillset will increase. In the not-too-distant future, businesses and their marketing teams will need to be equally proficient in analytics, creative thinking and AI integration.”
