Think Tank

Fully recognizing the 'new type of worker' in the era of artificial intelligence

2025-12-16   

Recently, Ren Zhengfei discussed with the global winners and coaches of the International College Student Programming Competition about the need for a new understanding of the term "worker" in the future. Some precision industry production personnel need to receive higher education. As the 'future factory' increasingly shines into reality. Factories are changing, workers need to change, and our understanding of workers should also keep pace with the times to adapt to the development requirements of the artificial intelligence era. What should a 'new worker' look like? Or more precisely, what should the 'new type of worker' look like? It is a social issue that needs to be solved. With more and more advanced science and technology gradually entering our lives, the boundaries of physical and mental labor are becoming increasingly blurred. Workers no longer rely solely on physical strength, but need to master more knowledge, achieve deep integration with knowledge and skills, in order to be competent in their positions. On the demand side of modern enterprises, intelligent production lines do not just require workers to press buttons to get everything done. Some workers have found that controlling robots requires overcoming thousands of professional English vocabulary and over 500 sequence codes; others have realized that there are still shortcomings in theoretical knowledge and difficulties in transformation. From the perspective of the whole society, facing the new situation of technological change and industrial upgrading and development, the total number of skilled talents in China is still insufficient, and there is a structural shortage of high skilled talents, especially compound skilled talents. On the one hand, the development and application of emerging technologies such as digital technology are causing profound changes in production, and new skill requirements such as production line system integration, on-site management, and equipment operation and maintenance are emerging. Workers are transitioning from simple and repetitive mechanical work to high value-added tasks such as management, analysis, and operation; On the other hand, in the future, more professions will be concentrated in emerging fields, while more segmented new job types will emerge, constantly building a new modern occupational ecology. The occupational boundaries of skills, technology, and even scientific research will continue to intersect and integrate. Unlike traditional ordinary skilled workers who rely mainly on simple and repetitive labor, new types of workers need to possess profound technological and digital literacy, be proficient in mastering and applying key core technologies in digital production, promote the transformation of industries towards high-end, and promote the construction of a modern industrial system. New types of workers should have stronger learning abilities. Whether it is disruptive innovation at the forefront of science or applied innovation for general production, it requires workers to have the ability to learn and update knowledge quickly. Behind the new quality productivity lies new technologies, new models, new industries, new fields, and new driving forces. Workers should timely learn and master new knowledge that matches the development requirements, and possess the ability to quickly update knowledge, providing intellectual support for the development of new quality productivity. The new group of workers will inevitably include compound skilled talents. The development of new quality productivity relies more on strategic emerging industries such as new energy and new materials, as well as future industries such as quantum information, synthetic biology, blockchain, and deep sea. A composite skilled talent who is familiar with new industries and combines technology, knowledge, and management abilities will become a key force in industrial development. Of course, new workers also need more comprehensive abilities such as collaboration. They are practitioners of high-quality development and pioneers of innovation driven development. Based on this, the portrait of the new group of workers is gradually becoming clear: characterized by the iterative upgrading of knowledge-based, intelligent, and digital labor capabilities, with technological literacy, professional spirit, and innovative consciousness as its connotation, and high-level labor productivity as its significant advantage. It is a talent team that adapts to and supports the development of new quality productivity in the era of artificial intelligence and industrial revolution. As Ren Zhengfei said during the discussion, talent creates the future. The proposal for the 15th Five Year Plan has already outlined the blueprint for future industries. Now, we urgently need to cultivate a large-scale, widely distributed, structurally reasonable, and technically skilled new workforce to empower development and the future. (New Society)

Edit:Wang Shu Ying Responsible editor:Li Jie

Source:people.cn

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