Christoph M. Schmidt

Mr Schmidt, to what extent can AI contribute to securing skilled labour?

Christoph M. Schmidt: Not only is the potential labour force in Germany shrinking due to demographic change, it is also becoming increasingly difficult to get young people interested in vocational training. This has a negative impact on the recruitment of skilled labour, orders remain unfulfilled and companies are unable to adequately pass on experience to the next generation. This problem is exacerbated by the rapid changes in the world of work, as digitalisation and automation in a wide range of areas do not lead to an overall reduction in demand for labour, but they do require completely new skills.

AI can help to leverage previously untapped labour market potential, for example by precisely matching existing skills to job profiles or through the tailored identification of training needs. This primarily involves the currently unemployed, but also people with disabilities and older people. AI can also help with the integration of immigrants into the labour market and support the further training of existing employees.

In the workplace, AI can complement human activities and tend to replace rather monotonous and meaningless routines. This should make it possible to maintain the ability to participate in working life for longer, create space for creative and meaningful tasks and at the same time ensure productivity growth.

What risks do you see in the use of AI in companies and administration?

Christoph M. Schmidt: I see by far the greatest risk in the fact that we will not embrace the digitalisation and automation of the world of work and other areas of life quickly enough to keep up with the global competition between economies. This is because we will only be able to preserve values that are central to us, such as freedom and democracy, on the basis of economic strength. AI will in all likelihood never be able to replace human abilities such as empathy and creativity. But it would be extremely foolish not to see it as an important part of the solution to the challenges we face in our domestic context, particularly demographic change, and in the global context, for example, climate change.

In order to take those directly affected by change with them, both companies and the state must provide them with suitable training opportunities and the prospect of continued participation in the labour market. Furthermore, it will not work without the willingness of employees to proactively engage with new work roles and develop themselves further. It will depend very much on how the transformation is organised. Pure work intensification or (perceived) disempowerment due to AI decision-making requirements must be prevented. On the one hand, the (personal) rights of employees must be protected. On the other hand, it is important to explain the performance limits of the respective systems and thus avoid excessive trust in AI.

Is Germany ready for the AI transformation in the labour market?

Christoph M. Schmidt : Germany is currently rather poorly prepared for the upcoming changes in the world of work. It is therefore more than overdue to start teaching AI skills at school so that the educational content in training companies and universities can build on this. It is not least the responsibility of teaching staff to further develop their content. AI can contribute directly to the modernisation of the education system by supporting teaching and learning.

Economies with far less public funding than is spent annually in Germany are well ahead of us when it comes to the digitalisation of public administration. There is an urgent need to prioritise the development of data and computing infrastructures more strongly and, above all, to make public administration more agile and efficient by proactively embracing digitalisation and AI in particular. To this end, there is an urgent need to build up AI expertise in public administration itself.

The German economy has so far been able to draw particular strength from its entrepreneurial SMEs. However, small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are now at risk of being left behind in the move towards a digitalised working world. Targeted support services for AI, but also a general unleashing of entrepreneurial forces through less bureaucracy and a significantly lower density of regulation could help here.

The white paper ‘Using AI to secure skilled labour’ (in German) provides detailed expertise on the potential and challenges of AI solutions to secure the skilled labour base.