Employers are struggling to search out one of the best ways to pinpoint the expertise they should drive their companies to success within the quickly altering world of AI. Accenture CEO Julie Candy, although, has a easy query to establish whether or not her interviewees are prepared for the job.
In an interview on the In Good Firm podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norges Financial institution Funding Administration, Candy was requested what she regarded for when hiring new consultants on the $64 billion tech big.
“One query that we ask everybody, no matter in the event you’re a marketing consultant otherwise you’re working in know-how … we are saying: ‘What have you ever discovered within the final six months?’
“A variety of the time individuals are asking me, ‘How do I do know if somebody’s a learner?’ And it’s a quite simple solution to know. If somebody can’t reply that query—and by the way in which, we don’t care if it’s ‘I discovered to bake a cake’—if they will’t reply that query, then we all know that they’re not a learner.”
When requested by Tangen what Candy herself had discovered within the final six months, the Accenture CEO stated it had principally been round AI. Throughout an investor name in December, Candy stated she had met with 30 CEOs within the previous two months, with AI purposes on the prime of most of their agendas.
Candy additionally stated she had managed to learn to bake bread amid her hectic schedule within the final six months.
Candy’s curveball query for brand spanking new hires is indicative of how firms are shifting their recruitment practices following the onset of generative AI, which is upending job specs in each division, requiring a brand new sort of worker.
Bosses have argued that new workers should be dynamic relying on the altering wants of their enterprise and the way AI can be utilized to complement their work.
LinkedIn’s chief working officer, Daniel Shapero, advised Fortune that he asks potential hires to inform him how they used AI to find out whether or not they have the will to be taught the tech on the job.
”What that demonstrates is, in the event you’re comfy utilizing AI, you then’re extra prone to be somebody that helps their group change into extra AI-centric,” stated Shapero.
“You hear about individuals planning household journeys, you hear about individuals summarizing assembly notes. You hear individuals producing artistic concepts for purchasers. And so there’s a really wide selection of issues AI can be utilized for.”
Amid elevated uncertainty concerning the abilities and aptitude required for the way forward for work, Accenture’s Candy says a robust human sources division has change into more and more very important.
“I feel the most effective factor to be proper now, top-of-the-line fields to be in is HR, as a result of proper after gen AI on CEOs’ agendas is expertise, and the way you prepare expertise has to utterly change.”
Editor’s be aware: A model of this text first appeared on Fortune.com on January 8, 2025.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
