{"slug": "raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs", "title": "Raul Eamets: Only those who learn to lead can compete for good jobs", "summary": "A PwC global AI jobs barometer analyzing nearly one billion job advertisements found that entry-level jobs now require senior-level skills as artificial intelligence automates routine tasks, according to University of Tartu professor Raul Eamets. Eamets warns that AI's widespread use in education inhibits brain development and that the labor market demands increasingly mature workers while education produces increasingly childish ones.", "body_md": "# Raul Eamets: Only those who learn to lead can compete for good jobs\n\nThe labor market wants increasingly mature people, and education prepares increasingly childish ones. What are the solutions? The honest answer is that we do not yet know, writes Raul Eamets.\n\nThe impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on everyday life, our ability to think, and children's mental development has received great attention for a couple of years already. Our brain researchers' claims that the widespread use of AI already in basic school or even earlier inhibits brain development are worrying. Connections in the brain that normally form during learning remain incomplete if we start asking AI about everything very early on. It is quite frightening to think that in 20 years the parliament will be filled with representatives who think like fifth‑ or sixth‑grade teenagers.\n\nAnother major field that has been studied since ChatGPT became public is AI's impact on jobs. The media has published articles claiming that artificial intelligence takes away jobs from beginning white‑collar workers. I mean young people with higher education who enter the labor market through simpler assistant, intern and similar positions. Sorting letters, answering them, preparing memos and organizing documents is increasingly done by artificial intelligence, and for these positions there is no need to hire newly graduated bachelor's degree holders or applied higher education graduates.\n\nThis concerns all kinds of officials and office workers. Considering the rampant bureaucracy around us, which is needed to enforce all kinds of regulations, one must admit that we cannot do without this army of officials. Someone has to deal with these matters, not only in the public sector but also in the private sector. If we did not have payroll accountants, quality controllers or HR people, even an ordinary bell ringer or electrician would not get their salary, although we would prefer to think otherwise. We cannot escape white‑collar workers.\n\n**Entry‑level jobs now demand senior‑level skills**\n\nLess has been said about how job requirements are changing — that is, what employers expect from those entering the labor market. Some time ago, the Financial Times published a small but interesting overview of how requirements for entry‑level jobs have changed. It was based on PwC's 2026 global AI jobs barometer, which relied on the analysis of nearly one billion job advertisements published online. Most likely AI was used to analyze such a massive database.\n\nIn summary, the report describes that our jobs are becoming increasingly professional (more complex), meaning simpler and more routine tasks are given to AI. The term \"aging of jobs\" is also used. In the context of the report, this means that jobs that used to be simple now require more experience, decisiveness and a broader outlook than before. In other words, jobs meant for juniors now require seniors' knowledge and skills.\n\nAnother trend is the democratization of jobs — we give a wider group of people AI tools that previously required a professional or specialist level. From an education perspective, this means that people with lower education and skill levels can solve more complex tasks thanks to artificial intelligence.\n\nAgainst this background, I imagine a picture of people with relatively poor basic knowledge using powerful tools, and no one can check the results because they simply lack the prior knowledge. A rather chilling future.\n\nExternally simple and clear trends, but they raise very large and complex tasks for the education system. How to reach a point where an executive assistant (secretary) must essentially be able to do the same work as a manager — that is, be able and willing to make decisions, have a broader picture, communicate freely with people. It seems like an impossible mission? Non‑technical skills and knowledge — those that distinguish humans from machines — are becoming increasingly important. Such skills include communication ability, creativity, empathy, strategic thinking, creating vision, ethics, decisiveness.\n\n**Education and labor market moving in opposite directions**\n\nEssentially, we must reach a point where a fresh school graduate or university graduate thinks and decides like an experienced leader. I exaggerate a bit, but we clearly see that a young person with a bachelor's degree is required to have prior work experience when applying somewhere. At the same time, universities want them to study as much as possible, not work.\n\nThe situation is made worse by what is happening in the education system: the advance of artificial intelligence reduces the role and importance of all these \"human\" qualities in our lives. When people sit down for a moment to pass time, or around a table waiting for a menu in a restaurant, they do not talk to each other — they are nose‑deep in their phones.\n\nFor my generation, when problems arise, it is customary to call the other party or meet — which would be even better — but younger people prefer text messages, not face‑to‑face meetings or conversations. They are rather feared.\n\nI have seen how helpless people are in job interviews or oral exams, and that was when AI had not yet reached the masses. When they struggle with problem‑solving, they ask AI for advice. I have myself successfully repaired a Chinese robot vacuum cleaner with AI's help — it was not complicated. When they need to decide what to do in the evening, they ask AI. When relationships go wrong, they ask AI for help. Teamwork is preferred online, preferably with cameras off. This list could go on.\n\n**Human qualities losing ground to digital habits**\n\nThe conclusion is rather ominous. The labor market wants increasingly mature people, and education prepares increasingly childish ones. This applies not only to general education but to the entire education system.\n\nWhat are the solutions? The honest answer is that we do not yet know. Right now, the ship of education and the labor market are sailing in completely different directions. How to develop these so‑called human qualities when AI is forcefully advancing and rather inhibits the development of these skills? Do we ban computers (smartwatches, smart rings, smart glasses, etc.) in school until a certain age to force children to think with their own heads? This is more of a theoretical possibility, practically impossible to implement.\n\nDo we give higher education only once a person has reached a certain age and maturity? What do they do in the meantime? Serve two years in the defense forces and only then continue their education. The defense forces are a cross‑section of society, and every young man would see what group he belongs to and where he could belong. Or elite‑school bubble gymnasium students would have their eyes opened that, oh, such people also live in Estonia. There are likely more out‑of‑the‑box solutions.\n\nAbove all, the process of providing education must change — the approach to each student must become individual. In reality, more teachers are needed in classrooms, at least in the coming years. At some point, when student numbers begin to fall drastically (in about five to six years), teachers will begin to be in surplus because schools will start closing. Until then, it is necessary to attract people with practical experience who want to teach, to alleviate the shortage of mentors. This is not easy.\n\nIf we do nothing, high‑paying jobs will be taken by specialists brought or attracted from abroad, who already have life and leadership experience. There would certainly be willing candidates. Ways will be found to bring them here. AI offers more and more solutions for language problems, especially when communication is written.\n\nAbout ten years ago, in an introductory course lecture, I asked first‑year economics students what they wanted to become after three years of study. Many thought they wanted to become managers immediately. I quickly dismissed this idea and explained at length that it takes 10–15 years before they can truly become managers. Adding that not everyone becomes a manager anyway, because you also need a separate gene for that.\n\nIt turns out that in today's context the students were right and I am completely outdated in my understanding. One must indeed become a manager immediately after receiving a diploma and behave, communicate and decide as if one had already done it for ten years. Tough stuff.\n\n--\n\nEditor: Kaupo Meiel, Argo Ideon", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs", "canonical_source": "https://news.err.ee/1610085523/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs", "published_at": "2026-07-24 09:45:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-24 10:05:55.207456+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Raul Eamets", "PwC", "Financial Times", "University of Tartu"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/raul-eamets-only-those-who-learn-to-lead-can-compete-for-good-jobs.jsonld"}}