AI and the Labour Market: How to Keep People Competitive
An opinion piece in Latvian business daily Dienas Bizness examines how artificial intelligence affects Latvia's labour market and why companies and the state should plan for retraining. It stresses cooperation between government, schools and employers, as well as the role of mentoring.
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is changing company workflows, as well as demand for employees and their skills. In Latvia's labour market, this raises the question of whether efficiency gains from technology will create new jobs or simply cut staff costs. The issue is discussed in an opinion article published by Latvian business daily Dienas Bizness.
The choice facing companies
The author notes that raising productivity is essential for the Latvian economy, and that AI allows firms to work more efficiently and compete internationally. What matters, however, is how the resulting efficiency is used: whether freed-up resources go into new products, services and competencies. A company focused only on short-term savings risks losing experience and knowledge that will be hard to rebuild later.
Skills and retraining
Change also affects professions that were recently seen as a safe choice, including in technology. A qualification earned once therefore no longer guarantees a stable future, and competitiveness will depend partly on how quickly people can learn new skills. The author argues that retraining should not be left until after a job is lost. Closer cooperation is needed between the state, educational institutions and employers to identify in good time which skills will see falling or rising demand. Otherwise, unemployment risk could grow while a shortage of qualified specialists persists.
Losing a job after several years in one field can be not only an economic challenge but also a crisis of professional identity. The author says the problem is often difficulty in seeing how accumulated experience can be applied in another professional context. Learning new skills alone may not be enough if people are not helped to link them with their earlier experience.
The role of mentoring
Mentoring is mentioned as an additional tool. The author's experience with participants of the Riga TechGirls Mentor Programme suggests that during career changes, feedback, testing ideas and gaining confidence about next steps are important. The cooperation benefits both sides, as mentors develop leadership skills and gain new ideas.
The author concludes that technology will change the labour market, but its effect on people will be determined by decisions of the state and companies and by the availability of support for professional development.
