AI is reshaping both employers’ and employees’ expectations within the workplace, but the extent of its effect is still hard to narrow down. We can all acknowledge that AI has become a baseline skill within the workforce already, rising as one of the most in-demand qualifications within the job market. Many workers are still holding on to the belief that they will be able to get by without these skills once the initial excitement surrounding artificial intelligence dies down, but this might be easier said than done.
While there is a chance that this current rush to embrace AI will slowly peter out into something more subtle and slow-paced over time, it is hard to pretend that AI adoption will stop being the workplace norm in 2025 and beyond. Most tech experts and business leaders are in agreement that AI tools are going to cut the job market in half, eliminating a vast number of roles and reshaping the remaining positions to a great degree.
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AI Will Be a Baseline Skill like Email or Excel, Says Mark Cuban
American Businessman and ex-Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban has managed to build a career by reading the market and making investments in key areas before they blow up, and he had some insight to offer on where we are headed with AI. In a written interview with Fortune, he explained that AI will become a “baseline skill like email or Excel” in the next 5 years.
He also added that in 10 years, we will eventually witness a rise in entrepreneurs who work for themselves, relying on AI teams to keep their businesses running. With AI assistants turning “solo founders into full teams,” we could witness a world where work is performed by AI or AI experts exclusively, leaving behind workers who don’t adapt to the changing times.
Cuban also told Fortune, “[AI isn’t] just a tool, it’s leverage. If you’re not using AI to move quicker and make smarter decisions, you’re at a disadvantage.” He added, “The most successful entrepreneur will understand how to properly use AI.”
Cuban’s support for AI tools comes as no surprise, particularly due to his connection with AI provider ZenBusiness. The company’s Velo AI agent is set to take up the mantle of the ultimate AI assistant, offering to manage a range of tasks for businesses that want to automate key functions. While Mark Cuban’s AI business advice could be seen as an attempt to promote the business he advises for, his words do reflect an undeniable truth—AI skills are leading the way for employment.
Skills-First Hiring in the Era of AI
Are AI-based baseline skills going to be standard for any workplace? Yes, it does appear to be the case. Many employers are now hiring workers with some degree of AI expertise regardless of whether they are recruiting for a tech role. Many job applications now ask employees how familiar they are with AI, even encouraging workers to show them how they might use genAI to perform their tasks better. While it was once taboo to rely on shortcuts at work, getting things done faster appears to be a key priority.
AI adoption has also become the norm across most workplaces in 2025, whether the business has a clear plan for AI adoption or not. Cuban equated AI as a baseline skill like Excel, and we see the sense in this comparison. Many of us have little use for Excel in our roles, but we do slap it on our resumes just in case employers have an intended use for that skillset.
We expect that AI tools will gain a similar function eventually, either becoming as normalized as our current familiarity with emails or fading to a background skill that not every employer will have use for, but might still consider as a criterion. Inevitably, most employees will likely have to use AI to some degree in order to find employment, regardless of whether the skill is regularly put to use at work.
AI Is Reshaping Employer Expectations at an Unprecedented Rate
If you need evidence to believe that AI knowledge is becoming mandatory across multiple workspaces, you merely have to look at some top organizations and how they are goading workers into mastering AI. Duolingo, for example, has been at the center of considerable negativity ever since its AI-first strategy was announced. While there are a lot of reasons for the criticism, one point of relevance here is that employees have been asked to try and embrace AI in their work in some way. The organization asserted that it would not increase its headcount until employees proved that they would be unable to complete their task with just AI.
Similarly, Microsoft has begun mandating AI use for its employees, charting it down as a way to assess employees during their performance reviews. More recently, it has come to light that Amazon Ring employees who want a promotion will have to prove that they are using AI in their work and managing to apply it effectively to improve their performance.
These kinds of arbitrary methods are being used to force employees to discover new ways of implementing AI, but instead of making it a creative endeavor or a task of discovery, most tech businesses are forcing employees to see it as a hurdle in their path to success. In 2025 and beyond, we expect such short-sighted practices will only grow in number rather than evolve into something collaborative. As a result, there is no escaping the fact that AI knowledge and skills are going to become standard for a large number of roles across industries.
Do you agree that AI will be a baseline skill in the workplace in the coming years? Let us know what you think. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights into the ever-evolving landscape of work and employment in 2025.