FS sector values ‘soft skills’ despite digital advances, says PwC

Leaders and employees in financial services still value “soft skills” despite the uptick in digital and tech advances such as blockchain, machine learning and gen artificial intelligence, according to PwC’s Workforce Hopes and Fears survey.

According to the data, 70% of those asked agreed that digital skills are important for employees working in banking, insurance and investment management. However, critical thinking skills, such as emotional intelligence and judgement were slightly more important with 77% of those asked agreeing that it was a “crucial” skill for their business.

Meanwhile, the findings also show a mixed picture regarding AI. For Financial Services employees, the views regarding AI were “optimistic”, being the sector most likely to believe that “AI will boost productivity” in comparison to other sectors such as retail, manufacturing, government and health.

However, UK workers in general are seemingly less enthusiastic about AI than their global counterparts – under a fifth (19%) believe AI will increase their productivity and efficiency at work (versus 31% globally).

Additionally, only 17% think AI will create opportunities to learn valuable new skills (27% globally). A further 12% believe AI will require them to learn new skills they are not confident they have the capacity to learn.

The report also highlighted that nearly half of UK workers (47%) are “oblivious” to the impact of AI on their job in the next five years.

Just over a third (32%) don’t believe AI will impact their job in the next five years and a further 15% responded as unsure – compared to 22% globally.

The data also depicted a generational split, with a higher proportion of the older workforce, including 47% of Baby Boomers and 37% of Gen-X believing AI will not impact their jobs in comparison to 28% of Millennials and 18% of Gen-Z.

In fact, the younger generation viewed AI slightly more positively, with 19% of Gen-Z and 17% of Millennials believing that AI will create new job opportunities for them.

Isabelle Jenkins, Leader of Financial Services at PwC UK, said: “Being adaptable, collaborative and exercising critical thinking skills still matters, so it is interesting to see that the value of ‘soft’ skills remains of importance for the FS sector.

“If we are to really take advantage of tech advances like generative AI, cloud and advanced analytics, we will need the right people, with the right skills so that we can truly solve problems, drive productivity and create growth.”
She added: “Investment in technology is critical in achieving all these goals, but it must be guided by human ingenuity, expertise and understanding if we are going to effectively tackle the big global challenges.”