Skills‑Based Hiring, AI, and Workforce Pressures — What Employers and Employees Need to Know in 2026

As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, the shift toward skills‑based hiring and new‑collar is accelerating. At the same time, workers are navigating rising stress levels, evolving performance expectations, and the realities of multi‑stream careers. These forces are reshaping how people grow, move, and succeed at work — and the implications for employers and employees are profound. Here’s what to watch, and why it matters now more than ever.

Singapore’s workplace is undergoing a significant transformation. AI is moving from pilot projects into everyday workflows, reshaping how jobs are designed and what workers need to thrive.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted that the world is experiencing an erosion of norms and trust built up over decades. In such an environment, he emphasized the need to strengthen trust by starting where people are and focusing on what they value most — access to good jobs, confidence in their career prospects, and the dignity that comes from being able to contribute meaningfully.

On the topic of AI, President Tharman said that firms, cities or economies that's more exposed to AI are going to face the challenge soonest. Singapore, being small, open, and highly digitized, is experiencing these shifts more quickly than many others. As he explained, Singapore sees AI as a productivity advantage, but the real test lies in ensuring its benefits reach the “large middle layer” of the workforce. Doing so requires active public‑private partnership and a sustained commitment to continuous upskilling so workers can take on roles that complement AI or move into fast‑growing areas such as healthcare and other emerging sectors.

ManpowerGroup’s latest workforce data reflects this same need for renewed trust and confidence. In this blog, we explore the key workforce trends shaping how employers and employees in Singapore can navigate the Now while preparing for the Next.

As AI Reshapes How Work Gets Done, Roles and Skills Must Evolve

AI is fundamentally reshaping how work gets done. What were once static job descriptions have become dynamic, evolving portfolios of tasks that combine human judgment with AI‑enabled capabilities — a shift highlighted in ManpowerGroup’s The Human Edge: Global Future of Work Trends report, which identifies role redesign and AI augmentation as major forces transforming the workforce.

As AI adoption accelerates, more organizations will shift from ad‑hoc, general use of AI tools within existing roles to purposeful, workflow‑specific integration within redesigned human jobs. This means redesigning roles by breaking them down into their core tasks and reallocating them between humans and AI so each job is reconstructed around the distinct value people contribute and the efficiencies technology enables.

At the same time, as AI capabilities advance, augmentation will deepen. Intelligent AI agents will increasingly participate in workflows — working alongside humans and with one another — to automate routine tasks while still keeping knowledgeable people in the loop to guide decisions, ensure oversight, and maintain critical expertise.

What this means for employers:

Employers must take an intentional, structured approach to integrating AI into work. This includes:

Adopting skills‑based hiring with a stronger focus on new‑collar talent: To support redesigned, AI‑enabled roles, employers need to widen access to candidates who may not have traditional degrees but possess the technical, adaptive, and problem‑solving skills required to thrive in more fluid, AI‑supported workflows.
Redesigning roles at the task level: As work shifts from fixed jobs to task portfolios, organizations should identify which activities demand human judgment and which can be augmented or automated by AI, ensuring each is applied where it adds the most value.
Building structured AI literacy pathways: To enable workers to operate effectively in reconfigured roles, training must move beyond basic tool usage to include prompt writing, evaluating AI output, and understanding how AI fits within redesigned processes.
Preparing managers to lead hybrid human–AI teams: Because roles and workflows will evolve continuously, leaders must adapt how they set expectations, communicate, and manage performance in environments where human expertise and AI capabilities are tightly interwoven.

What this means for employees:

For employees, evolving roles and increasing AI adoption open new opportunities — especially through new‑collar pathways, where skills, adaptability, and digital fluency matter more than formal credentials. To succeed as work becomes more fluid and AI‑enabled, employees can:

Build AI literacy and complementary human strengths: As AI becomes embedded in day‑to‑day workflows, understanding how to use AI tools — and when human judgment matters most — enhances relevance and impact.
Develop transferable skills that match emerging role requirements: Because tasks will continue to shift between humans and AI, problem‑solving, communication, and critical thinking remain essential anchors across changing roles.
Stay flexible as tasks and expectations evolve: As workflows are redesigned, embracing new responsibilities, learning new tools, and adapting to shifting expectations become critical to long‑term employability.
Engage proactively in upskilling and development conversations: To stay aligned with organizational transformation, seeking guidance on evolving roles and requesting support for learning helps employees keep pace with change and pursue growth opportunities.

When Productivity Pressures Meet Changing Work Norms, Workers Feel the Strain

ManpowerGroup’s report also highlighted how the productivity push and changing work norms are shaping the worker experience today.

The definition of job competence is shifting quickly, even as many leaders expect AI to deliver immediate gains—at a pace that often exceeds workers’ ability to adapt. At the same time, broader societal pressures—from loneliness to geopolitical and environmental instability—are fueling uncertainty, making long‑standing systems feel less reliable. These tensions show up at work through renewed return‑to‑office mandates, growing ambiguity around careers and workplace expectations, and rising confusion as information becomes harder to interpret.

Against this backdrop, it’s important for leaders to ensure they bring all employees along by committing to pay equity and transparency, developing career paths that support family‑sustaining livelihoods, and providing holistic wellbeing benefits that help people thrive through change.

ManpowerGroup’s Global Talent Barometer 2026 – Singapore findings shows how these pressures surface locally. While 60% of employees intend to stay with their current employer, a notable 73% are simultaneously exploring new opportunities — signaling a workforce bracing for uncertainty while seeking better prospects. Concerns about AI‑driven displacement also remain pronounced, with 58% fearing automation could replace their roles within two years. Daily strain adds to this unease: more than half (53%) report significant stress, and burnout remains high at 72%, driven by factors such as stress, heavy workloads, and job insecurity. Together, these findings reflect a workforce navigating demanding workloads, shifting expectations, and heightened emotional pressure as the world of work continues to evolve.

What this means for employers:

Reframe productivity expectations for the AI transition period: The Human Edge report reminds leaders that performance often dips before it rises when new technologies and workflows are introduced. Employees need time and space to adapt.
Provide clarity amid uncertainty: With 39% expecting potential job loss and 58% fearing AI displacement, transparent communication and accessible information about role changes, skills expectations, and career pathways are essential.
Protect well‑being as a business priority: High stress and burnout point to the need for load balancing, workflow redesign, and psychological safety — all critical to sustaining performance.
Use data to guide work‑norm decisions: Instead of rigid workplace policies, organizations should evaluate engagement, turnover intent, and team‑level outcomes to design norms that support both productivity and people.

What this means for employees:

Seek clarity on shifting expectations: As roles evolve with AI, proactively asking about KPIs, workflows, and performance standards helps reduce stress and improve focus.
Have early conversations about workload: Discussing barriers, timelines, and support needs can prevent burnout before it escalates.
Explore internal mobility as a stability strategy: With many workers “job‑hugging,” internal pathways can offer growth without the risks of external change.
Invest in both career and emotional resilience: Managing uncertainty requires not only skills development but also practices that support mental well‑being.

Career Pathways Become More Fluid as Skills Become the New Currency

The Human Edge report also highlighted how career pathways are changing.

While the four‑year degree remains a global status symbol, its practical value is declining as the labor market shifts. AI is reshaping early‑career expectations and altering the traditional degree‑to‑job pipeline, contributing to rising unemployment and underemployment among graduates in a more challenging business environment. In Singapore, graduate employment surveys still show stable outcomes, but it remains essential for graduates to be prepared for a rapidly evolving workforce and to develop the skills most relevant to their career goals.

At the same time, upskilling is moving from a periodic intervention to a continuous expectation, with workers needing to build new capabilities as roles evolve. In addition, the pressure to respond quickly to shifting business demands is pushing organizations toward rapid talent assembly — forming short‑term teams of employees, contractors, freelancers, and AI agents to tackle specific challenges with greater speed and flexibility.

These global shifts are already visible in Singapore’s workforce. ManpowerGroup’s Global Talent Barometer 2026 found that 85% of employees in Singapore feel confident in performing their current jobs, yet tech‑specific confidence dropped nine points to 69% when AI‑related questions were added. Training gaps also persist, with more than half of workers reporting no recent training (54%) or mentorship (54%). The findings also show that workers are diversifying their income streams, with 56% supplementing their primary income through investments, part‑time roles, or freelance work.

Taken together, these insights reflect a future where career pathways are increasingly fluid, multi‑stream, and driven by skills rather than traditional job ladders — and where continuous learning becomes essential to sustaining long‑term career health.

What this means for employers:

To stay competitive in this skills‑driven, fast‑moving environment, employers can:

Build structured, skills‑based development pathways: Use clear skills frameworks aligned with evolving, AI‑enabled roles so employees can understand how to progress and which capabilities matter most.
Close the training and mentorship gap: With more than half of workers reporting no recent training or mentoring, organizations can stand out by making learning more accessible, continuous, and embedded into daily work.
Recognize new‑collar and non‑traditional experience: Many employees build skills through side gigs, freelance work, and online learning. Employers that value these experiences in hiring and promotion decisions can tap into a broader and more diverse talent pool.
Support more fluid career models: Encouraging internal mobility, project rotations, and cross‑functional assignments helps retain talent that might otherwise seek external opportunities for growth or variety.

What this means for employees:

For employees, a skills‑based, multi‑stream future creates both opportunity and responsibility:

Treat skills as your core career asset: Combining AI literacy with human strengths — such as communication, problem‑solving, and collaboration — opens more pathways across roles and industries.
Use supplemental work strategically: With 56% already supplementing their income, choosing part‑time or freelance opportunities that build relevant skills and networks can create long‑term career advantages, not just additional earnings.
Seek out learning and feedback: If formal training or mentorship isn’t readily available, workers can ask for development opportunities, pursue stretch assignments, or tap into external platforms to broaden their skill base.
Think beyond linear career ladders:As careers become more fluid and project‑based, focusing on an evolving skills portfolio — rather than a fixed title — helps employees navigate change with greater confidence and clarity.

Shifting Demographics Make Talent Scarcity a Long‑Term Challenge

ManpowerGroup’s The Human Edge 2026 Global Trends Report identifies Talent Droughts as a major long‑term challenge for mature economies — and Singapore is no exception. With a rapidly aging population, the balance between experienced and emerging talent is continuing to shift. This deepens concerns about knowledge loss and leadership continuity as experienced workers exit the workforce more quickly than organizations can replace them.

According to the Q3 2025 ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, 57% of global employers say workforce aging is already impacting their HR strategy, underscoring that this is not a temporary issue. In Singapore, 58% of companies are proactively future‑proofing their HR strategies for an aging workforce, reflecting growing awareness that demographic change requires long‑term, intentional planning.

This dual challenge — declining experienced talent on one end and tightening supply of next‑gen talent on the other — heightens the risk of both “brain drains” and insufficient leadership pipelines over the next decade.

Furthermore, in ManpowerGroup’s 2025 Global Talent Shortage survey, 83% of employers in Singapore reported struggling to find the talent they need.

Together, these demographic and skills pressures reinforce that talent scarcity may become a structural, long‑term reality rather than a short‑term fluctuation.

What this means for employers:

As demographic pressures intensify, organizations will need to rethink how they attract, retain, and develop talent:

Design multi‑generational workforce strategies: Build roles, work environments, and support systems that accommodate different life stages — from flexible scheduling for mature workers to accelerated development pathways for early‑career talent. This helps organizations slow the loss of institutional knowledge while strengthening the progression path for younger workers.
Invest earlier in succession and leadership pipelines: With a shrinking pipeline of younger workers, organizations must identify and develop high‑potential employees sooner to ensure continuity and avoid future leadership gaps. The emerging leadership cohort — particularly Gen X and Millennials — will need targeted development to bridge both experience gaps and new technology expectations.
Broaden talent pools with skills‑based and new‑collar approaches: Skills‑first hiring enables employers to tap mid‑career switchers, returning workers, and non‑traditional talent sources who bring strong potential even without traditional academic credentials.
Leverage experience while enabling transition: Create opportunities for mature workers to contribute through mentoring, advisory roles, knowledge‑transfer initiatives, skills‑bridging programs, and project‑based work that extends career longevity. These practices directly address the risk of brain drain and help preserve critical expertise as older workers transition out of full‑time roles.
Harness AI to preserve and extend organizational knowledge: Using AI to capture and analyze insights from retiring senior talent helps safeguard organizational knowledge. Maintaining key legacy systems can also support employees in managing hybrid human‑and‑machine teams while providing valuable data to further train AI models that enhance decision‑making and workforce planning.

What this means for employees:

Demographic shifts change the opportunity landscape for workers across all ages:

Younger employees: With fewer early‑career entrants and as senior leaders retire, younger workers may have opportunities to step into leadership roles earlier — but they will need broader skill sets, agility, and readiness for expanded responsibility, including stronger AI‑augmented skills such as data literacy and tech‑enabled decision‑making.
Mid‑career employees: Reskilling into emerging roles, especially those that complement AI or address societal needs such as healthcare, can help secure long‑term relevance and resilience in a changing labor market.
Mature employees: Experience remains a significant asset. Transitioning into flexible, part‑time, project‑based, or mentoring roles allows mature workers to stay engaged while supporting team continuity and organizational knowledge transfer. At the same time, learning how to use AI‑enabled tools can help mature workers share expertise more efficiently, mentor others, and transition into advisory roles that leverage their deep experience.

TL;DR — Navigating the Now and the Next

Singapore’s world of work is shifting at speed. AI is reshaping roles, skills are overtaking credentials, workers are juggling rising pressure and more fluid careers, and demographic realities are tightening the talent pipeline. For leaders, this moment demands the ability to steer their organizations across two horizons at once.

The Now requires sustaining business performance while guiding people through rapid digital transformation — redesigning jobs for AI, setting clearer expectations, supporting well‑being, and rebuilding trust amid uncertainty. The Next calls for equipping the workforce with future‑ready skills, enabling multi‑stream career pathways, and strengthening the confidence employees need to thrive in an AI‑enabled future that is still taking shape.

In this dual‑horizon world, employees also play an active role in shaping their future. Staying competitive means treating skills as a long‑term career asset, building AI literacy alongside distinctly human strengths, and remaining adaptable as roles and expectations continue to evolve. Multi‑stream work can become a strategic advantage when aligned to career goals, while continuous learning and proactive feedback‑seeking ensure workers can grow in both the Now and the Next.

Ultimately, thriving in this moment comes down to how well leaders and workers move forward together — developing skills that grow with them, using AI as an enabler, and approaching change with clarity, empathy, and shared purpose across both horizons.

If you’re a HR or business leader, connect with us to explore how we can support your talent and transformation goals as you navigate both the Now and the Next.

If you’re a jobseeker, discover roles that align with your skills and open new possibilities for your career journey.