(Yicai) Sept. 22 -- The 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, a competitive arena for young craftsmen from around the world and a window into shifts in global labor market supply and demand and new trends in human capital investment, has introduced multiple new categories that reflect industrial upgrading trends in digitalization, intelligence, and green transformation, many of which are closely tied to artificial intelligence use.

Among the seven new categories at the event, which runs from today through Sept. 27, rail vehicle technology, unmanned aerial systems, smart security technology, software testing, and digital interactive media design are deeply integrated with AI tech, highlighting a profound transformation taking place on the demand side of the labor market.

In the smart security tech category, the scoring criteria indicate that software configuration, operation and maintenance, and optimization debugging account for as much as 85 percent of the score, while hardware installation makes up the rest. In addition, existing software application development projects have added new requirements for skills such as Python programming and data analysis, comprehensively assessing competitors' ability to use AI tools for end-to-end development.

The design of these "human-machine collaboration" competition categories reveals a new logic for valuing human capital where AI eliminates the calculable aspects of skills while amplifying the unquantifiable ones. The overall efficiency of future industries will depend on the synergy between "people who can effectively leverage AI" and "human-machine collaboration systems."

While many people worry that AI will replace humans at the workplace, it is also creating new opportunities, Hao Bin, assistant director-general of the International Labor Organization, said in an interview with media, including Yicai, during the eighth APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting in Nanjing yesterday. The key lies in people's ability to seize these chances, Hao pointed out.

This year's WorldSkills Competition serves as an important platform in the AI era, Hao noted, adding that it not only raises societal awareness of the importance of skills but also motivates a wide range of workers to master specialized talents.

Chris Sun Yuk-han, secretary for Hong Kong's Labor and Welfare Bureau, who is also attending the APEC meeting, called on all relevant parties to invest more resources in skill training to help workers better adapt to the future AI-dominated economic environment. The ultimate goal is to ensure that young people and ordinary workers can secure ample employment opportunities in the future economic structure, he said.

The WorldSkills Competition, known as the "Olympics of Skills," is held every two years. This year's contest features 1,385 participants from 68 countries and regions competing in 64 events, making it the largest edition in history.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev