The language service providers surveyed rated the most important skills for employees over the next 3 years to be service orientation and customer service – selected by 38% of respondents – followed by AI and big data (34%), and resilience, flexibility and agility (28%).
The findings are broadly in line with the 2023 World Economic Forum survey findings, which concluded that the top three skills in demand globally are analytical thinking, creative thinking, and resilience, flexibility and agility. Technical literacy was listed at 6th place by the World Economic Forum, and 8th by the Association of Language Companies.
The survey also revealed that almost a quarter of companies plan to expand the use of contract work, with respondents citing independent translators and interpreters as key roles in this expansion. The language service providers surveyed also expected a 65% increase in sales/business development manager vacancies, and a 55% increase in project manager positions over the next 12 months.
The expected increase in hiring over the next 3 years comes against a backdrop of increased operational costs, primarily from labor costs, cited by more than half of the companies surveyed, and an increase of interest in automation, with more than 70% of respondents planning to accelerate process automation in the run-up to 2025.
