The 2025 Impact of Tech on the Workplace Report* has revealed that business leaders favour AI skills over languages when hiring. 1,036 business leaders were surveyed*. When asked to rate each skill based on their importance for hiring, 46% said AI skills are “very” or “extremely” important to them.
However, just 33% of senior leaders said they consider multilinguism skills to be “very” or “extremely” important to them when hiring . Though last year’s report findings show multilingualism was previously considered a more valuable skill for hiring than AI knowledge, the latter has now taken precedence in the eyes of senior leaders.
Year-on-year increase in importance of AI expertise
The past year has witnessed a dramatic shift in the perceived importance of tech skills such as AI expertise and data analysis when hiring. The Tech.co survey highlights a 23% year-on-year increase in the importance of AI skills when hiring.
Despite being the eighth most important skill for business leaders that are hiring, its yearly increase in popularity amongst business leaders indicates that AI expertise has the potential to become even more favourable in the future.
Ranking of the most important skills for hiring according to senior leaders:
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Communication: 89%
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Problem-solving: 88%
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Time management: 84%
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People management: 76%
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Networking: 73%
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Data analysis: 70%
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Financial literacy: 64%
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AI expertise: 46%
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Multilinguism: 33%
AI adoption in businesses is soaring
Currently, 85% of businesses are using and investing in AI – that’s a 20% increase compared to last year’s figure. Last year, many business leaders were unconvinced by the technology’s potential – now, just 15% of the businesses surveyed had yet to invest in it in some form.
Editor of Tech.co, Jack Turner, comments:
“With many companies investing heavily in AI, it’s perhaps no surprise to see a large increase in the desirability of AI skills in new hires. While it isn’t as important as traditional skills such as communication and problem solving, at least not yet, our research suggests that all of us could do with learning AI skills if we want to impress our next employer.”
*Report tech.co
