Artificial Intelligence and Work: What Are Employers Looking for in 2026?
The job market is changing rapidly with the spread of artificial intelligence, where the hiring criterion is no longer just based on the ability to perform tasks, but on the ability to provide qualitative contributions in the collaboration between humans and machines.
This shift, according to Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, has become the critical question that every job candidate must be prepared to answer by 2026.
The effects of artificial intelligence are beginning to appear in productivity data, as revealed by Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari, indicating that large companies are starting to hesitate in hiring due to the technology, while achieving tangible productivity gains.
However, the picture is not uniform; while some companies are reducing their workforce, others are expanding their teams, but under new conditions.
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, said at the CES conference in Las Vegas:
"We are not hiring fewer people, but hiring different people… people with an advanced mindset in artificial intelligence."
* New Skills or Job Endings?
Last year saw a wave of layoffs in major companies like Shopify, Accenture, and Fiverr, but at the same time, they urged employees to develop their skills in artificial intelligence to maintain their relevance in the market.
Mikha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, confirmed:
"Our encouragement for teams to deepen their skills in artificial intelligence was not symbolic, but an acknowledgment of the reality that artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry."
Companies focus on the idea that artificial intelligence will take over routine tasks, while humans concentrate on creativity, judgment, and complex decision-making, in a shift from the concept of "replacement" to "augmentation."
However, experts warn that these promises may hide cost-cutting objectives, and Rus points out that the transition to artificial intelligence is not just about efficiency, but about trust and transparency, warning of the risk of eroding human skills instead of enhancing them.
* Who Fears Training Their Competitor?
Kaufman points to a natural concern among employees:
"People may fear they are training tools that will replace them, but the truth is that those who learn to direct artificial intelligence and improve its outputs become the engineers of the next generation of work."
A report from Fiverr for 2024 revealed that 40% of freelancers use artificial intelligence tools, saving more than 8 hours weekly, with better quality and higher wages.
* Does History Reassure Us?
A study from the Budget Lab at Yale indicates that the job market has not experienced widespread disruption since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, confirming that major technological shifts take decades, not years, to have a full impact.
A report from McKinsey indicates that artificial intelligence could theoretically automate more than half of the working hours in the United States, but this does not necessarily mean job loss, rather a reshaping of jobs with the emergence of new roles based on collaboration between humans and machines.
Even companies that adopted an "AI-first" policy faced challenges:
The company Klarna laid off 40% of its employees but had to rehire some after a decline in customer service quality.
Professor Armando Solar Lezama from MIT explains:
"Organizations are designed to deal with human errors, not artificial intelligence errors, and this will take time to adapt."
