Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally altering the nature of work globally. Yet its impact and adoption varies significantly across regions and industries. In Asia, companies tend to adapt to new technologies faster, focusing on the competencies of AI-trained staff rather than addressing job-displacement concerns. European firms take a more cautious approach to AI implementation, in part due to the EU’s robust regulatory framework for data privacy and AI ethics, and the region’s comparatively strong labor protections.

Several countries in Asia have been proactive in formulating policies and initiatives aimed at providing white-collar workers with the skills to use AI. 

China plans to become the global center of AI innovation, Singapore has the SkillsFuture Initiative and its TechSkills Accelerator, South Korea aims to train 100,000 AI-specialized personnel by 2029 and integrate AI courses in all levels of education, India uses its #AIForAll strategy to upskill 2 million tech professionals and train another 2 million potential workers and students in the industry, while Japan is adapting its education system to include AI and is encouraging companies to train their staff.

European governments are also increasingly focusing on equipping their workforce with the skills to use generative AI productively, though the approach to AI in the workplace varies greatly between Asia and Europe, due to cultural, economic, and regulatory differences.

In this webcast, we'll explore how the introduction of AI in the workplace is managed in both Asia and Europe. How are companies and governments adjusting their employment and education policies? Who is leading the way with successful policies – and what are those? And who is at risk of falling behind? 

What's the impact of AI on enabling work from anywhere, anytime, and on opening new types of work to new groups of people? What's the right balance between the advantages AI brings to the workplace versus the risks regulators often focus on, and is there a country on the way to strike this balance?

Join Sapna Sood, President, Adecco APAC (ex Japan) at The Adecco Group, and Marguerita Lane, economist and AI expert on the Future of Work team at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who will dive into these issues.

SPEAKERS

Sapna Sood is President, Adecco APAC (ex Japan) at The Adecco Group.  In this role she oversees Australia/New Zealand, East Asia ( Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, South Korea) , ASEAN Countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and India.   She is also a Non-Executive Director at Marks & Spencer PLC and an Advisory Board member of Imperial College Business School. Previously she held leading senior operational roles in the services, building materials and chemical manufacturing sectors in Europe and Asia-Pacific (Singapore, China, Philippines, and Australia) and was a Non-Executive Director at Kering SA, the French luxury goods company. Sapna has driven a step-change in diversity in all her teams and is deeply interested in the influence of technology on the Future of Work. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Sydney, Australia, and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland. 

Marguerita Lane is a labor market economist in the OECD’s Future of Work team. She led the OECD AI surveys of employers and workers and contributes to many strands of the OECD’s programme on AI and Work, Innovation, Productivity and Skills, as well as the OECD’s research on the platform economy and new forms of work. She has recently authored the reports The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the labour market: What do we know so far? (2021) and Defining and classifying AI in the workplace (2023). Marguertia holds a degree in Economics and Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin.

This webcast is organized together with The Adecco Group.