Specialists Without AI Skills Are Becoming Irrelevant in the Job Market
Experts are debating which professions will be pushed out of the labor market in the near future as artificial intelligence spreads. AI is already reshaping entire industries – from creative work to finance – and the ability to use new tools is quickly becoming a mandatory requirement for hiring.
A Baseline Skill
AI has freed people from large amounts of routine work. In banking, for example, specialists no longer need to spend hours checking credit histories and analyzing the income of potential borrowers – an AI agent can complete credit scoring in seconds and deliver a reasoned assessment. Designers no longer need half a day to search for references or fine-tune color correction – generative models handle these tasks faster than it takes to make a cup of tea.
Technology is freeing up time for strategy, conceptual work, pure creativity and the development of new solutions, while also boosting productivity. But that only applies if employees know how to use these tools. Employers are no longer interested in a “confident PC user.” They are looking for staff with baseline AI skills. In Russia, the number of vacancies requiring AI-related competencies has grown nearly tenfold since 2020, according to recruitment market data. Separate employment analytics show that demand for workers able to handle advanced technologies rose by about one-third over the past year.
Sber Changes the Hiring Rules
Some employers have already made AI tool proficiency mandatory. In July 2025, the career portal of Sber updated all listings to reflect this requirement. The change applied not only to new hires but also to existing staff.
“We see that employees who master these technologies show significantly higher productivity, sometimes several times higher,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy CEO of Sberbank, in comments cited by industry media.
The bank is developing its own system for assessing AI skills while also offering employees training courses on its internal education platform, allowing them to acquire the necessary competencies.
Market Pressures
At the national level, work is underway to create a unified system for certifying AI skills among IT professionals. Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development launched the initiative in May 2025 in partnership with a major recruitment platform. The system already offers dozens of tests designed to assess candidates’ competencies. By the end of November 2025, more than 367,000 people had used the platform, many of them seeking jobs outside the IT sector.
In 2024, banks and IT companies generated the highest demand for specialists with AI skills. By 2025, job market data showed similar requirements spreading into the real economy. Vacancies specifying AI competencies rose by 124% in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and by 33% in retail trade.
Everyone Has to Learn
AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of everyday life – not only at home, but at work. Neural networks will not eliminate people from the labor market, but in the medium term they will clearly reshape its logic and industry standards. Educational institutions, from vocational schools to universities, need to take this into account now to prepare graduates with skills suited to the digital economy.
Learning will not be limited to students. Those who have already found their place in the job market will also need to adapt. AI literacy is no longer an optional add-on – it is becoming the new baseline and a prerequisite for professional relevance.
