Our technical skills and specialist knowledge are still valuable even if AI can ‘do it quicker’. We can still evaluate, tweak and improve. However, staying employable in the age of AI demands that we adapt, create value, collaborate and otherwise navigate our relationships with others. Employability is not static; it manifests in different ways depending on age, experience, and career stage:
- Early and developing career (20s): Young adults in the UK are taking longer to secure stable employment than previous generations. Graduates today experience more complex and uncertain early careers, often navigating “patchwork careers” of temporary roles and short-term contracts (cls.ucl.ac.uk).
- Mid-career (30s–40s): Employees benefit from roles that challenge them cognitively and socially. Research from Nottingham Trent University highlights that engaging in complex work helps mid-career professionals remain adaptive, proactive, and high-performing (ntu.ac.uk).
- Late career (50s–60s): Employment rates are lower for older adults, and long-term unemployment is a significant risk. UK government data shows that while 71.3% of people aged 50–64 are employed, this is lower than the 85% rate for those aged 25–49 (gov.uk).
It is a truth universally acknowledged…. that workers must keep an eye on our own employability and ensure we maintain valuable skills. So often when people leave employers due to redundant skills or career paths, they are right to feel frustrated. The organisation ‘has gone in a different direction’ or ‘invested in different departments or teams’. The worker is left wondering why there was no trail of training breadcrumbs to help them move with the business. At the same time, employers may be under financial pressure to make wholesale changes to the business. A skills gap emerges between business and the current workforce. So how do we navigate this elephant in the room?
Taking ownership for your employability in the age of AI
While employers play a role, we each have a responsibility to manage our own career development. This includes:
- Continuous learning and upskilling
- Building emotional resilience and relational intelligence
- Developing adaptability and problem-solving skills
- Enhancing AI fluency to collaborate effectively with technology
By taking these steps, you not only safeguard your own career, but also become a more reliable, effective, and valued member of your team:
- Students Explore and reflect on your strengths, values, and interests. Also, pursue practice teamwork and communication in school projects to develop early relational intelligence.
- Early Career Take ownership of your learning and career path. Also, experiment with AI and productivity tools to enhance your performance and team contribution.
- Developing Career Develop collaboration and leadership skills within teams. Also, reflect on your work habits, resilience, and adaptability to handle complexity and change.
- Mid-Career Invest in mentoring and knowledge-sharing. Stay current with emerging technologies, AI, and market trends to maintain relevance.
- Late Career Focus on strategic influence and sustaining team value. Also, mentor others in emotional resilience, adaptability, and collaboration.
The moral responsibility of employers
Employers have a moral and practical obligation to support workforce employability to enable resilience in the face of business changes.
- Develop AI related competencies. Provide accessible learning pathways for technical, digital, and interpersonal skills.
- Mentoring from more experienced employees. They are service oriented and have institutional knowledge that isn’t systematically shared
- Balanced workforce planning. Balance between core capabilities needed by the organisation with the employability of individual
- Foster psychological safety. Diversity of experience and perspective valued so employees at all career stages can learn, experiment, and ask for help.
- Build team-level collaboration. Provide guidance or tools to collaborate effectively supported by AI
Despite this, evidence suggests that UK employers are not consistently supporting employability across life stages. For example, older employees are less likely to access back-to-work support or development opportunities, putting their career sustainability at risk (ageing-better.org.uk).
Employability is a shared responsibility. Individuals must proactively manage their development, while employers must create environments that support growth and meaningful contribution. By doing so, we can ensure careers are resilient, impactful, and valuable—both for ourselves and the teams and organisations we serve.
If you want to strengthen your employability and team impact in the age of AI, explore our Employability in the Age of AI coaching programme.