Nearly Two in Five Work Skills Will Change by 2030. Is Your Team Learning?

Five years ago, the receptionist at a busy veterinary practice spent most of her day answering the phone, writing appointments in a diary and taking payments at the counter. Today, clients book online, reminders go out automatically, and payments happen by card or instant transfer. Her job still exists, but in a different shape. She now manages the online booking system, answers questions on WhatsApp, handles the trickier conversations with worried pet owners and helps older clients who struggle with the app.

Nobody sat her down and announced a new job description. The change happened gradually, one new tool and one new expectation at a time. She learned most of it on the go, sometimes with help and often without.

That quiet reshaping of everyday work is happening in almost every small business. And according to employers around the world, it’s set to continue at a remarkable pace over the next few years.

One Like insight: Most jobs won’t vanish. They’ll change shape faster than anyone writes the new job description.

The numbers behind the shift

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 surveyed more than 1,000 large employers, together representing over 14 million workers in 55 economies, about how they expect work to change between 2025 and 2030. Overall, employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. That’s a high figure, though lower than the 44% expected in the 2023 survey and the 57% recorded at the height of the pandemic.

The report identified technological change, particularly AI and digital access, as the biggest driver, alongside economic uncertainty, the green transition and demographic shifts. Skills expected to grow in importance include technology literacy and working with AI, but also analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, curiosity and a commitment to lifelong learning.

One detail is especially relevant here. The report found that lower-middle and upper-middle-income economies, a group that includes South Africa, tend to expect greater skill disruption than high-income economies. In other words, the pace of change may be felt more sharply here, not less.

The survey reflects the expectations of large employers, not small businesses, and expectations are not the same as outcomes. But the broad message is hard to ignore: a significant share of what people do at work is likely to look different within a few years, whatever the size of the business.

Learning as a habit, not an event

Large companies respond to skill change with training budgets, learning platforms and formal reskilling programmes. Small businesses rarely have those resources. What they do have is closeness: everyone can see what’s changing, and learning can happen in the flow of everyday work.

A few habits make that learning deliberate rather than accidental.

Notice what’s changing. Once a quarter, ask each person which parts of their job have changed recently and which new tools or tasks they’re struggling with. Those answers are your training plan.

Share what people learn. When one person works out how to use a new booking feature or an AI tool effectively, ask them to show the others for fifteen minutes. In a small team, peer teaching is often faster and more practical than any course.

Protect a little time. Even an hour a month for each person to learn something relevant to their changing role signals that learning is part of the job, not something squeezed in after hours.

Value the human skills too. Many of the skills the report expects to grow, such as curiosity, resilience, flexibility and handling difficult conversations, are exactly what makes small businesses feel personal. As routine tasks become automated, these skills become more important, not less.

Preparing your team for 2030

A practical starting point is a simple skills conversation with each person in the business, including yourself. Ask three questions. What part of your job has changed most in the past two years? What do you expect to change next? What would help you feel confident with it? Write down the answers, look for common themes, and choose one or two skills to focus on as a team over the next six months.

It also helps to think about skills when hiring. A candidate’s willingness and ability to learn may matter more over the next five years than whether they already know a particular system.

A few questions can help:

• Which roles in our business have changed most in the past two years?
• What new tools or tasks are people currently learning on their own, without support?
• How do we share useful knowledge between team members?
• When we hire, do we look for the ability to learn as well as current skills?

Which brings us back to the veterinary receptionist and her quietly reinvented job. She adapted well, mostly on her own initiative. Imagine what might happen if the practice made that learning deliberate: a monthly hour to try new tools, a quick session where she teaches colleagues what she’s worked out, and recognition for the human skills that keep worried clients calm. The next five years of change would still arrive. The team would simply be ready to meet it.

Sources

1. World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025, chapter 3: Skills outlook, published 7 January 2025. Source of the 39% and 44% figures, the drivers of change and the income-group finding.
2. People Matters, reporting on the same report, for the 57% pandemic-era figure.