Digitalisation and AI are no longer trends but have become a structural reality. According to the World Economic Forum (2023), 44% of current skills will change over the next five years. The OECD (2024) warns that skills obsolescence is occurring in increasingly shorter cycles, forcing companies to adopt models of permanent upskilling and reskilling.
According to the OECD, the most innovative organisations are those that integrate continuous learning into their corporate culture, promoting adaptability as a strategic value.
Research agrees that adaptability, resilience and learnability (the ability to learn continuously) have become essential competitive advantages. At the same time, fluency in AI and digital literacy represent a new standard of employability. In this regard, reports from Udemy Business 2026 highlight exponential growth in demand for training in AI and adaptive skills such as critical thinking, decision-making and emotional intelligence.
Ultimately, the future of work will depend not only on technological mastery, but also on the ability of individuals and organisations to strategically integrate the human and the digital through immersive learning, ethical leadership and a culture of innovation.
Adaptation and adaptive skills: the new competitive advantage
Adaptability is no longer a desirable trait, but a requirement for professional survival. Consultancies such as Hays (2024) and ManpowerGroup (2023) point out that power skills surpass technical skills in perceived value by employers, precisely because of their impact on change management.
The Udemy Business Report 2026 provides solid evidence:
- 38% growth in learning about decision-making.
- 37% increase in training on critical thinking.
- Resilient and adaptable professionals are 3.8 times more innovative (McKinsey, 2025).
Adaptability thus becomes a cross-functional and organisational skill, enabling productivity and relevance to be maintained in uncertain environments.
Continuous learning and the immersive learning model
Learnability is identified by the FEM and PwC as the core competency of the digital age. However, learning must evolve towards immersive formats, integrated into workflows.
- According to a study by Carnegie Mellon University (2024), practice-based learning triples effectiveness compared to exclusively theoretical instruction.
- Udemy Business 2026 highlights that more than 950 role-play simulations were created in just three months by its corporate clients to train adaptive skills in real-life situations.
- Companies such as Prodapt managed to get 90% of their workforce to acquire the fundamentals of generative AI thanks to a learning model integrated into the workplace.
Learning, therefore, is no longer an isolated event but has become a continuous and contextualised process.
Skills of the future: AI fluency and power skills
The future of work requires a balanced combination of human and digital skills.
AI fluency
The Udemy 2026 report defines ‘AI fluency’ as the ability to understand, experiment with and integrate AI into work processes, beyond its instrumental use. It proposes three levels:
- Basic AI literacy for the entire workforce.
- Integration of AI into specific roles to increase productivity.
- Agentic AI that, under human supervision, redesigns business processes.
The data confirms an explosion in demand:
- +3,400% in training on Microsoft Copilot.
- +13,534% in learning GitHub Copilot.
- More than 10 enrolments per minute in GenAI courses on Udemy.
Power Skills: the irreplaceable human factor
The World Economic Forum and LinkedIn Learning highlight these five as priorities
Analytical and critical thinking
In a world saturated with data, the real value lies not in the amount of information, but in the ability to interpret it, question it and make informed decisions. AI offers recommendations, but it is people who must evaluate biases, risks and consequences. Critical thinking becomes the filter that prevents blind reliance on algorithms and allows for more ethical and strategic decisions.
Creativity and innovation
Automation frees up time and resources, but it is human creativity that drives differentiation and value creation. AI can suggest ideas, generate drafts or inspire, but only people are capable of connecting emotions, culture and purpose to transform those ideas into innovative projects. In this context, innovation is not limited to products or services, but also encompasses processes, business models and forms of collaboration.
Effective communication
Globalisation and digitalisation have multiplied the channels of interaction. However, the challenge is not to communicate more, but to communicate better. Effective communication involves clarity, empathy and adaptation to the interlocutor, something that even the most advanced AI cannot completely replace. Leaders and professionals who manage to convey messages with impact, both in face-to-face and virtual environments, will have a decisive competitive advantage.
Resilience and change management
The speed at which technology evolves requires a constant ability to adapt. Resilience is no longer just about enduring adversity, but about learning and growing amid uncertainty. In a market where professional roles are rapidly being redefined, those who manage change with flexibility and vision will be able to reinvent themselves and remain relevant.
Ethical and collaborative leadership
AI raises ethical dilemmas around data use, privacy and job replacement. Therefore, organisations need leaders who can balance innovation with responsibility, prioritising transparency and social impact. The leadership of the future will be less hierarchical and more collaborative, based on building diverse teams that combine human and technological talent.
In conclusion, the labour market is undergoing a process of radical transformation, in which many skills are rapidly becoming obsolete. In this scenario, adaptability and learnability —the ability to learn continuously— are consolidating their position as the main factors for sustainable employability. Immersive learning, integrated directly into the workflow, is the most effective strategy for consolidating skills in real-world contexts. At the same time, fluency in artificial intelligence will become an essential standard: it is no longer enough to use tools; it is necessary to understand and manage them ethically. In this environment of increasing automation, power skills remain the human factor that sets leaders apart and enables them to lead with impact. In short, the employability of the future will be guaranteed by a strategic balance between the human and the digital, accompanied by ethical leadership and a strong culture of continuous learning.
‘The future is not a place we are going to, it is a place we are building. And the best way to predict it is to create it’ (Peter Drucker).
