What WEF's latest jobs report means for enterprise leaders and the future of work
What does this mean for CIOs?
While technology is driving displacement, it's also creating exponentially more value-generating roles, but the urgency and opportunity mean CIOs need to consider the following:
- Skills gap acceleration: Positions within cloud architectures, AI engineering and cybersecurity that were seen as cutting-edge just a year ago are already evolving. Reskilling talent is important for maintaining the competitiveness of IT organizations.
- Hybrid technical/business expertise: The report also highlights that the most valuable IT talent in the future will combine deep technical expertise with business domain knowledge, a combination that's not easy to find in today’s market.
- Infrastructure for learning: Because of this need for reskilling and training at breakneck speed, CIOs need to build infrastructure that delivers business services and enables continuous learning across the enterprise. Learning platforms are quickly becoming a critical part of an organization’s tech stack.
What does this mean for CMOs?
Marketing leaders likely encounter the most significant transformation specific to their role in most organizations. As such, they will need to be agile in how they interpret the following.
- AI-native marketing teams: With 87% of talent acquisition leaders already using AI in hiring, CMOs must build teams that leverage AI as a core competency rather than a “nice to have.”
- Evolving analytics: Talent with marketing analytics experience is rapidly shifting from dashboard builders to strategic data interpreters who translate complex patterns into actionable strategies for their leaders.
- Customer experience integration: As digital and physical experiences continue to blend, marketing teams need professionals who understand both dimensions and can create seamless journeys across all business areas.
What does this mean for HR leaders?
HR executives find themselves at the center of this transformation as the workforce's responsibility lies in their hands.
- Strategic workforce planning: The WEF report is clear that reactive hiring is no longer scalable. HR must lead enterprise-wide skills forecasting to identify capability gaps and have a sustainable plan to fill those gaps.
- Talent marketplaces: Forward-thinking HR leaders are creating dynamic talent communities where employees and contingent labor can easily transition to roles within the organization rather than looking externally. But it’s not just the technology alone that delivers value; it's the partnerships that create a competitive advantage.
How our talent network enables transformation at scale
For organizations navigating this complex landscape, Horizontal's talent network offers a compelling solution for accelerating skill transformation for agile organizations.
- Capability-based matching: Rather than traditional role-based staffing, we map specific capabilities against emerging needs, allowing organizations to precisely target skill gaps without overstaffing.
- Hybrid teams: Our talent network enables organizations to rapidly assemble hybrid teams combining your internal talent with specialized external experts who transfer knowledge while delivering immediate value.
- Learning frameworks: Instead of separating skill development from production work, our approach allows learning directly into delivery models, ensuring new capabilities immediately translate to business outcomes.
The WEF report makes clear that workforce transformation isn't coming, it's already here. Organizations that view this shift as simply a hiring challenge will struggle to compete. Those that embrace reskilling as a strategic priority will find themselves with a powerful advantage: teams that continually evolve their capabilities at the pace of this rapid technological advancement.
Whether you're a CIO seeking to build an AI-fluent technical team, a CMO transitioning to data-driven marketing models or an HR leader implementing next-gen talent strategies, our tenured team provides the expertise, flexibility and speed needed to thrive in this new landscape. Learn more about how our talent, team and project solutions can help you achieve your goals today.