Remote work and flexible schedules have become the norm, and the trend is expected to persist. Employers lacking a reskilling and upskilling strategy for in-demand and emerging skills are at a significant competitive disadvantage. This trend is driven by evolving business needs, as shown by a McKinsey survey which found that 64% of companies said they need to build new digital businesses to stay economically viable by 2025. Through a more targeted learning and development strategy that can repurpose people with adjacent skills, companies can help their employees stay marketable and relevant to a highly dynamic labor market.
The Future of Digital Skills: Trends to Watch in 2025
There are rising needs for a range of related skills. The number of online job postings listing digital skills connected to business and sales has diffused across jobs 8.5 times faster than the average, with the strongest growth in social media skills. Demand for programming skills shot up eight times faster than the average, while growth in demand for IT automation skills spread six times faster. In the US, for example, online job postings for digital roles increased by 24% between 2018 and 2024, led
by a 116% increase in the number of listings seeking data engineers. Postings for computer scientists rose by 72%, followed by increases of 70% in adverts for chief investment officers and directors of IT, 63% for data scientists and 55% for marketing specialists. This means continuous investments in the digitalization of the labor market should be a priority. Identifying the occupations that will thrive as the market evolves — and the skills needed to perform these roles — will allow policymakers and employers to focus education and training on the skills and tools that workers need to succeed.
For company leaders, tracking the development of the labor market will help them future proof their businesses and lead the race to hire and retain the best talents. This vital task will require detailed, up-to date information on the most relevant labor market trends related to the adoption of digital technologies.
Skills for the Digital Transition
Assessing Recent Trends Using Big Data, applies AI and machine learning techniques to analysis of the information contained in job postings published online, with the aim of highlighting the occupations and skills that are most in demand in labor markets. It also shows how to identify effective reskilling pathways for those in jobs that are
threatened by the digital transformation, helping to prepare them for the careers of tomorrow. Digital technologies are likely to have the biggest impact on roles requiring lower levels of education and training, especially in areas that are more vulnerable to computerization. Driverless vehicles, for example, could displace millions of commercial drivers around the world, while other technologies are expected to gradually replace humans in certain manual and cognitive tasks. But workers in these and a wide range of other sectors already have skills that they can adapt and transfer to new digital roles
Rapid changes are already underway and are being reflected in the jobs that employers need to fill. That means digital jobs are accounting for a significant share of all vacancies posted online. The advancements in technology are taking away jobs from the people but, at the same time, it is creating new jobs as well. If you understand what services people would need in the future and start working on them from today you could earn a lot of money. You need to understand the world is evolving rapidly and to survive here, you need to continuously upgrade yourself.
Here are the lists of digital skills that you can start learning today to future-proof your career.
- Copywriting
- Data Science
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Machine Learning
- Cloud Computing
- Mobile App Development
- UI Design, UX Design
- Social Media Marketing
- Graphic Designing
Copywriting:
To put it in simple words, copywriting is creating, optimizing, and publishing content strategically that can build brand awareness as well as persuade a prospect to do business with the brand.
Copywriting is an occupation carried out by content creators to promote or advertise a brand through writing text to generate conversions and goals as much as possible. However, only good copywriting could take your brand up a notch.
Copywriting is the process of crafting persuasive messages for ads, marketing materials, and websites that inspire people to take action. And mastery of this art can elevate your earnings.
Many people don’t understand the potential of this field.
But, let me tell you that every business on this planet needs a good copywriter.
Why?
Because every business needs someone who can use words that piques curiosity, connect emotionally, and increase sales.
Difference Between Copywriting and Content Writing:
Now, a lot of people get confused between copywriting and content writing.
Although these two fields are completely different, both of them are very important for the functioning of the business.
What Does a Copywriter Do?
- Brainstorm new ideas for marketing campaigns
- Pitch marketing ideas to clients.
- Conduct market research and understand the psychology and behavioural pattern of the target audience.
- Research about the product and competitors.
- Write advertisements, slogans, emails, sales letters, speeches, billboards and posters copy, etc.
- Analyze campaign results.
Skills Required to Become a Copywriter:
- Stellar research skills.
- Ability to write with empathy.
- Storytelling.
- Desire to write something new.
- Understanding of human psychology.
- Command on sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary.
Data Science:
Data is the most valuable asset of any organization.
Businesses need to analyze its customer information and market conditions along with a detailed study of competitors .
Of course, the companies also need to analyze their revenue, profits, capital appreciation, market capitalization, number of investors, total assets and liabilities, and much more.
It is estimated that by 2025 the global data volume will touch 180 Zetta bytes, 572 Zetta bytes by 2030, and it may even go up to 5,00,000 Zetta bytes by 2050.
As you can guess, all this data is extremely big. All companies need someone who can analyze this humongous data, find recurring patterns and provide insights that help the company grow.
This is where a data scientist comes in.
Data science in simple words is applying advanced analytics techniques and scientific principles to extract information from data.
The valuable information extracted from the data is further used to improve business efficiency, find new business opportunities, improve the product or service, increase sales and ultimately boost revenue.
What Does a Data Scientist Do?
- Improve the quality of the data using machine learning techniques and identify patterns and trends.
- Validate the data to ensure accuracy, completeness, and uniformity.
- Create algorithms and data models that can find valuable information from the data.
- Integrate data tools such as Python, R, SAS, or SQL in data analysis.
- Find solutions and hidden opportunities from the data.
Skills Required to Become a Data Scientist:
- Expertise in programming languages like Python, R Programming, SQL, and Scala.
- Strong command of statistics and mathematics (Linear algebra and matrix, statistics, geometry, calculus, probability, regression, dimensionality reduction, and vector models)
- Deep understanding of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
- Web Scraping.
- Data analysis and visualization.
- Database management.
Artificial Intelligence (AI):
When we hear the word AI we usually think about an army of robots ruling mankind.
We might even think about Siri, Alexa, facial detection, chatbots, self-driving cars, movie recommendations that we get on Netflix, and much more.
Although these applications of Al are very basic. To be very frank, we haven’t scratched the surface of Al.
In the future AI would be in used in almost aspect of work from healthcare, transportation, finance, e-commerce, real estate, gaming, advertising, entertainment.
This means that every other company would be looking for professionals who know how to effectively use the power of Al for the growth of their business.
In 2020, LinkedIn listed Al specialist as the top emerging job.
What Does an Al Specialist Do?
- An Al specialist is responsible for creating machines and software problems that can analyze the data and make human-like decisions.
- Use machine learning (ML) and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to build creative solutions for business problems.
- Create solutions that will streamline tedious or repetitive business tasks.
- Convert the machine learning models into application program interfaces (APIs).
Skills Required to Become an Al Specialist:
- Proficiency in programming languages like Python, C++, and JavaScript.
- Linear Algebra, probability, and statistics.
- Bayesian networking (including neural nets).
- Cognitive science theory.
- Engineering.
- Robotics.
- Physics.
Machine Learning:
You must have heard about machine learning a lot of times these days. It is one of the most innovative and rapidly evolving industries that provides lucrative salary packages.
Machine learning can be defined as the subfield of Al where historical data is used by the software applications to produce accurate results and outcomes.
Basically, they are doing the task and learning from their experiences without being explicitly programmed to do so.
Differentiating between illegitimate and legitimate transactions in applications like PayPal and GPay, face detection in images, speech recognition, and medical diagnosis are all popular examples of machine learning.
What Does a Machine Learning Engineer Do?
- Design self-running software for predictive model automation.
- Perform statistical analysis and fine-tune models using test results.
- Discover, design, and develop analytical methods to support novel approaches to data and information processing.
- Identify differences in data distribution that affect model performance.
Skills Required to Become a Machine Learning Engineer:
- Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, R, Python, and C++.
- Knowledge of how different machine learning algorithms work.
- Data evaluation and modeling.
- Advanced understanding of linear algebra, calculus, and bayesian statistics.
- Software engineering skills.
- Knowledge of computer architecture.
Cloud Computing:
More and more companies are moving towards cloud solutions.
It is estimated that by 2025, the cloud will store over 100 zettabytes of data in it.
In simple words, cloud computing can be defined as the storing and accessing of data and computing services such as servers, data storage, networking, and databases over the internet (cloud).
What Does a Cloud Engineer Do?
- Build and maintain cloud infrastructure.
- Monitor cloud infrastructure components like networking and security services.
- Migrate databases of the companies to the cloud.
- Design cloud solutions for clients.
- Manage software and hardware associated with the use of cloud computing.
Skills Required to Become Cloud Engineer:
- Knowledge of programming languages such as SQL, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, Golang, and PHP.
- Cloud database management skills.
- Understanding of DevOps practices.
- Knowledge of open standards, such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration)
- Linux.
Mobile App Development:
As of 2024, there are approximately 4.88 billion smartphone users worldwide, accounting for about 60.42% of the global population. The number of smartphones in use globally is around 7.21 billion.
Smartphone penetration rates are higher in advanced economies like France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, China with adoption rates exceeding 80%.
All these stats show us that if a company wants to succeed they need to develop its own apps.
This means that companies would be actively looking for mobile app developers.
If you know how to develop an awesome app you can earn a lot of money.
What Does a Mobile App Developer Do?
- Understand what are the objectives of the brand and how it aligns with the customer needs.
- Develop application programming interfaces (APIs) to support mobile functionality.
- Create, program, and test the app on all mobile platform devices like smartphones and tablets.
- Coordinate with the UI/UX designers.
- Ensure all the things are functioning properly both in the front end and back end.
Skills Required to Become a Mobile App Developer:
- Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, React.js, and Objective-C.
- Knowledge of Syntax.
- Understanding of Ul/UX design.
- Angular.
- Cross-platform application development.
- Expertise in using GIT.
Ul Design:
User Design (UI) refers to the visually appealing elements on the website or app like buttons, toggles, icons, images, colours, typography, and animations.
Ul designers are in high demand since every other company wants an attractive and convenient interface for their website or app.
What Does a UI Designer Do?
- Design all the screens through which a user will move. Add buttons, icons, images, and animations.
- Decide which fonts and colours to use.
- Understand human behaviour and make an intuitive interface that is easy on the eye and simple to use.
Skills Required to Become a UI Designer:
- Ability to solve problems with innovative solutions.
- Desire to push the boundaries of design.
- Attention to detail.
- Understanding the impact of colours, fonts, and design elements on human psychology.
- Knowledge of design principles.
- Expertise in using design tools like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Sketch, and Proto.io.
UX Design:
A User experience (UX) is concerned with enhancing the personal experience a user will get while interacting with your app or website.
Think of the last time when you were using an app to book a movie ticket or while you were browsing through the website.
Did you find it easy to navigate?
Was the experience of using the app smooth?
The UX designer is concerned with all of these interactions.
The demand for UX designers is rapidly increasing.
UX Design is ranked as one of the top in-demand skills.
On the other hand, Glassdoor has ranked the UX designer job at 24th position in their list of the best 50 jobs to have.
What Does a UX Designer Do?
- Identify the goals, behaviour, and pain points of the user.
- Understand what problem your brand is trying to solve.
- Create flow diagrams, prototypes, and wireframing to help the client understand what the final product will look like.
- Conduct A/B tests, polls, surveys, and usability tests to improve the user experience.
Skills Required to Become a UX Designer:
- Wireframing and prototyping.
- User testing.
- UX writing.
- User empathy.
- Understand how users will interact with your design.
Social Media Marketing:
I don’t have to explain to you the importance and craze of social media in today’s world.
A single notification from Instagram will disturb our whole working schedule.
Previously, it was used to communicate with our family and friends.
But, now social media can influence our decisions and change our behavioural patterns.
Companies use social media to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and increase sales.
Companies regularly need social media marketers who can utilize the power of social media and help them increase their sales.
What Does a Social Media Marketer Do?
- Understand the interests, goals, professions, and demographics of the target audience and create social media posts that resonate with them.
- Analyze the social media metrics
- Stay up-to-date with social media trends and best practices.
- Engage with the users on social media.
- Use social listening tools to understand what people are saying about the company on social media.
- Create ads that generate leads and increase sales.
Skills Required to Become a Social Media Marketer:
- Passion for storytelling.
- Understanding of statistics and analytics.
- A knack for building strong relationships.
- Knowledge of colour theory and typography.
- Expertise in using Facebook Ads.
Graphic Designing:
Every other company is looking for innovative graphic designers who can visually communicate their brand message, increase brand visibility, build credibility, turn leads into customers and ultimately increase the conversion rate.
What Does a Graphic Designer Do?
- Develop the overall layout and production design for books, advertisements, brochures, magazines, etc.
- Build brand identity by designing logos and selecting the right color palettes and typography.
- Develop an attractive packaging of a product.
- Understand the brand message and the psychology of the target audience.
Skills Required to Become a Graphic Designer:
- Expertise in using Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
- Audience targeting.
- Understanding of how UI and UX design work.
- Creativity and ideation.
- Understanding of color theory and typography.
Conclusion:
Learning any of these on-demand digital skills will ensure you a bright future and with a good experience, you will get a high salary as well.
Since all of these skills have a huge demand in the future; building a career in these fields will always be fruitful for you.
Now, it’s not necessary that you have to choose skills from this list only. There are tons of other digital skills that we have not mentioned in this article.
So, research more about them and find the skill which you find interesting.
Do courses online and find internships. You can even learn more than 1 skill as well.
