Employers are struggling to seek out one of the simplest ways to pinpoint the expertise they should drive their companies to success within the quickly altering world of AI. Accenture CEO Julie Candy, although, has a easy query to establish whether or not her interviewees are prepared for the job.
In an interview on the In Good Firm podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norges Financial institution Funding Administration, Candy was requested what she appeared for when hiring new consultants on the $64 billion tech big.
“One query that we ask everybody, no matter when you’re a guide otherwise you’re working in expertise … we are saying: ‘What have you learned in the last six months?’
“A lot of the time people are asking me, ‘How do I know if someone’s a learner?’ And it’s a very simple way to know. If someone can’t answer that question—and by the way, we don’t care if it’s ‘I learned to bake a cake’—if they can’t answer that question, then we know that they’re not a learner.”
When requested by Tangen what Candy herself had realized within the final six months, the Accenture CEO stated it had principally been round AI. Throughout an investor name in December, Candy stated she had met with 30 CEOs within the previous two months, with AI purposes on the prime of most of their agendas.
Candy additionally stated she had managed to discover ways to bake bread amid her hectic schedule within the final six months.
Candy’s curveball query for brand new hires is indicative of how firms are shifting their recruitment practices following the onset of generative AI, which is upending job specs in each division, requiring a brand new sort of worker.
Bosses have argued that new staff should be dynamic relying on the altering wants of their enterprise and the way AI can be utilized to complement their work.
LinkedIn’s chief working officer, Daniel Shapero, instructed Fortune that he asks potential hires to inform him how they used AI to find out whether or not they have the need to be taught the tech on the job.
”What that demonstrates is, when you’re snug utilizing AI, you then’re extra more likely to be somebody that helps their group develop into extra AI-centric,” stated Shapero.
“You hear about people planning family trips, you hear about people summarizing meeting notes. You hear people generating creative ideas for customers. And so there’s a very wide range of things AI can be used for.”
Amid elevated uncertainty concerning the abilities and aptitude required for the way forward for work, Accenture’s Candy says a powerful human assets division has develop into more and more important.
“I think the best thing to be right now, one of the best fields to be in is HR, because right after gen AI on CEOs’ agendas is talent, and how you train talent has to completely change.”
Editor’s be aware: A model of this text first appeared on Fortune.com on January 8, 2025.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
