AI is changing what employers expect from workers across every industry. Employers are adopting AI tools to handle tasks that once required significant time or manual effort, and they are looking for people who know how to use those tools. 28% of employers are seeking early career talent who can use AI, according to NACE’s Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, and nearly 60% are assigning interns projects that involve AI tools and skills. The ability to work effectively with AI is becoming a meaningful advantage in the job market—and for many roles, AI fluency is now an expectation.
How AI Is Changing the Way We Work
For years, entry-level technology jobs served as a stepping stone. Helpdesk tickets, data entry, QA testing, basic coding, reconciliation—these tasks allowed people early in their careers to build skills, demonstrate reliability, and prove themselves ready for new opportunities. Now AI is handling many of those tasks.
NPower conducted research with the Burning Glass Institute, analyzing 52 entry-level tech job titles and more than 500 skills across financial services, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, IT support, retail, and data centers. The research found that many of the roles with the highest AI exposure are roles that have historically served as starting points for workers entering tech, especially without a college degree.
Employers participating in roundtables that were part of the research were clear about what they look for in AI workforce readiness: the ability to assess outputs, spot errors, identify ethical concerns, and flag risks.
Businesses across every sector are adopting AI to accomplish more in less time—streamlining tasks, analyzing information, improving communication, and supporting decision-making. Customer support teams use AI to handle routine inquiries so human agents can focus on complex cases. Marketing teams use it to analyze campaign performance and personalize outreach. Operations teams use it to automate workflows and flag inefficiencies. Project managers use it to summarize meetings, track action items, and generate reports.
For employees, this is changing how day-to-day work gets done. Routine, well-defined tasks are increasingly handled by AI tools, and employers are prioritizing human judgment, critical thinking, and the ability to work effectively alongside AI.
Employees who understand AI can use it to enhance their existing skills. Someone who knows how to use AI tools effectively can analyze a data set, identify patterns, and prepare a summary in minutes rather than hours, leaving more of the workday for the judgment calls that require a human. Tech upskilling can help people better understand both the capabilities and the limitations of AI tools, and be better prepared for the future of work.
The Growing Demand for Employees Who Can Use AI Effectively
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 39% of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2030, with analytical thinking, leadership, resilience, and creative thinking among the fastest-growing capabilities sought by employers. Employers are looking for people who can apply AI strategically and integrate AI tools into real workplace processes. That means people who know when to use AI, how to evaluate what it produces, and how to adapt their workflows as AI tools change.
Domain knowledge has become a key differentiator because workers with business context can frame useful prompts and evaluate AI outputs effectively. This type of knowledge can be demonstrated through portfolio projects.
Jobs requiring AI skills have grown by 69% since 2019—almost eight times faster than the overall job market—and the average wage premium for workers with AI skills has reached 62%, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. Employers already expect early-career workers to interpret and challenge AI outputs, translate insights for the business, and operate ethically with sensitive data. AI fluency is becoming a baseline expectation.
The Most Valuable AI Skills for Today’s Workforce
The most in-demand skills focus on getting better results from AI tools. Workers who complete artificial intelligence training can develop prompt engineering skills and get useful, accurate output from AI tools faster. Workers who understand automation can build processes that handle repetitive tasks without manual effort, freeing up time for work that requires human decision-making. Both skills translate directly into measurable productivity gains.
AI Prompting: Getting Better Results From AI Tools
The quality of what an AI tool produces depends directly on the quality of the instruction it receives. Prompt engineering is knowing how to give AI tools precise, context-rich instructions—specifying what is needed, why it matters, and what good output looks like.
A worker drafting a client email, summarizing a long document, brainstorming solutions to a process problem, or pulling together a status report can get better results faster when they know how to communicate their needs to an AI tool clearly. Prompt skills are, at their core, communication skills—applied to a new kind of collaborator.
Automation Skills: Saving Time and Improving Productivity
Automation is the practice of using technology to handle repetitive, well-defined tasks so that people can focus on higher-value work. Understanding automation tools helps workers streamline how work gets done. Organizing data, scheduling tasks, routing requests, and managing recurring workflows are all candidates for automation—work that once required manual effort on a daily basis.
Workers who understand how to set up and maintain these processes are valuable across roles, not just in technical ones, because the underlying need to reduce low-value repetitive work exists in every function.
NPower and the Burning Glass Institute’s research identifies automation skills as sitting in the AI Productivity Power Zone, where AI amplifies both the quality and quantity of worker output.
Level Up with AI Prompt + Power Automation Program
NPower’s AI Prompt + Power Automation program is structured artificial intelligence training designed for tech upskilling and AI workforce readiness. In 20 weeks of no-cost training, participants develop prompt engineering skills, gain hands-on experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Power Automate, and complete a portfolio-ready capstone project that demonstrates their ability to design and implement AI-powered workflows.
The program is designed for people with 1-3 years of professional experience who want to move into AI-era tech roles. No coding background is required. Graduates are prepared to sit for Microsoft certification exams AI-900 and PL-900 and pursue roles including AI Operations Analyst, Automation Analyst, and Junior Data Analyst.
Apply today to be ready for the future of work.
