Through the lenses of two online surveys involving both groups of respondents, five areas of expectations and experiences were identified

Using data from two surveys (4,664 employers and 14,896 employees) in nine countries (Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand) in Oct/Nov 2023 on topics such as technology skills, AI skills and career strategies, a cloud computing service provider has shared some key job trends and sentiments forecast for the next five years.

First, some 92% of respondents in the employers’ survey expected to use AI-related solutions and tools, such as chatbots and speech recognition, in their organizations by 2028, with those from the IT, telco, financial services and public sectors leading the expectancy. The benefits were likely to improve IT departments, human resources, business operations and work processes and communication.

Second, 93% of the employers’ group and 90% of the workers’ group of respondents expected to use generative AI (GenAI) tools on the job within the next five years. Also, 65% of “tech-specialist” workers (those whose work required specialized tech knowledge) polled expected to use GenAI significantly in five years, followed by 47% of “tech-adjacent” workers (those whose work involved the use specialized tech products that did not necessarily require specialized knowledge) and 29% of “non-tech” workers.

Other findings

Three other trends were discerned from the two sets of surveys.

    1. Career-linked benefits: 93% of the workers’ group of respondents indicated beliefs that AI will have some positive impact on their careers. This included a pay jump of 33% or more (depending on their field of work), with IT (44%) and Research and Development (41%) seeing the highest bumps. Also, 68% of baby boomers (a demographic usually contemplating retirement) indicated they would enroll in AI upskilling course, while 83% of workers polled were interested in developing AI skills for career advancement, with increased job efficiency (59%), higher job satisfaction (49%), and faster career progression (46%) as their top motivations.

    2. Perceived productivity payoffs: The employers’ group of respondents indicated beliefs that AI could boost productivity by 51% through automation of routine tasks, and the workers’ group responses indicated their beliefs that AI will help them complete tasks 50% more efficiently. Also, 92% of the workers surveyed expected to use AI in their daily work by 2028, of which 34% expected to use it extensively.

    3. Perceived benefits of training: The employers’ group of respondents ranked AI development as the most important technology skillset a job candidate can possess, outranking other skills such as digital marketing, application development, and the use of cloud-based tools. Also, 79% of the employers surveyed cited prioritizing the hiring of AI-skilled talent, of which 75% cited hurdles with. Also, 79% of the employers surveyed cited not knowing how to implement an AI workforce training program, while 74% of the workers surveyed cited not being sure what AI training programs were available to them.


The survey was commissioned by Amazon Web Services “to address a critical information gap on the demand for and supply of skills training for Artificial Intelligence and its applications” in the Asia Pacific region, and involved similar surveys for other regions.