IMD World Digital Competitiveness

Figure 3: Digital Talent and Digital Competitiveness Source of x axis: IMD World Competitiveness Center. The vertical axis plots the percentage of graduates from tertiary education graduating from Information and Communication Technologies programs, both sexes (%) in 2022. Source of y axis: OECD.

2. Digital talent

The evidence of this can be seen in Figure 3 , where the relationship between graduates with ICT degrees in tertiary education and the overall digital competitive ness of a country is statistically insignificant (with an R-Squared of 3.5%). Although it seems that most digitally competitive countries nurture high numbers of digital graduates, it is not a pre-requisite for digital competitiveness. Saudi Arabia has improved its digital skills thanks to the implementation of Vision 2030, yet it still requires opportunities for those graduates. At the same time, Switzerland and the Netherlands, say, do not specialize in digital education, and yet they are able to attract the talent they need, ending up on the top of the rankings. Replacing humans with algorithms requires regulation. We need to control the extent to which private data is exploited, we need rules that solve new and important ethical dilemmas, and we need to protect a person’s personal image, voice, and output so they are not misused by technology. Such regulation is starting to take shape at the national and regional level, and it looks set to continue in the coming years with a global standardization of practices and rules. Without global 3. AI regulation

If AI is going to provide employment opportunities for citizens, nations need to provide the necessary digital skills. There is ample evidence across our rankings that national competitiveness results from investment in education and the provision of those skills required by the labor market. When it comes to technology and AI, the need is even greater. However, in our analysis of the 2023 IMD World Talent Ranking, we emphasized how, in a world in which talent is global, the importance of national education systems is decreasing. This is so because, today, companies can hire talent anywhere. Besides, because of the oppor tunities provided by technology, employees can now work remotely–and, in the post-pandemic era, we have seen the emergence of digital nomads and international remote workers. So, for countries, it is important to develop AI skills so locals can innovate and come up with AI applications that make the economy more efficient and encourage the manufacturing of AI hardware (like sensors) at home. For other AI-related activities (like control and monitoring of systems, compliance-related tasks, and so on) the labor market will be global.

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