The Future-Proofing Instinct: Tomorrow’s Skills vs Today’s Gaps

Download this report if you’re a

• HR or Talent Leader seeking to align hiring, workforce planning, and skills development with evolving workforce needs
• Learning & Development Leader focused on creating upskilling and reskilling programs that meet current needs while preparing employees for the future
• Business Decision-Maker guiding your organization through AI-driven transformation
• Strategic Professional proactively navigating AI-driven skill trends to advance your career and stay ahead
• Udemy Instructor looking for guidance on skills trends that are top of mind for global learners

What happens when Indeed’s Hiring Lab data meets Udemy’s skills trends? An up-close look at employee and employer behavior. What we’ve learned: Workers have heard the warnings about the evolving future of work, and they’re leaning into it.

While employers post jobs for today’s needs, employees are quietly building tomorrow’s capabilities for strategic survival. This is a rational reaction: according to a recent Hiring Lab study, 41 percent of all work skills are likely to be significantly transformed by AI, with the technology performing much of the tasks currently – or formerly – performed by humans. The future-proofing instinct isn’t paranoia—it’s prophecy.

Analysis from Udemy and Indeed reveals the hidden dynamics reshaping work across manufacturing, technology, and professional services in the US, UK, India, and Australia.

Download the full report to discover:

• Why workers are learning skills for jobs that “don’t exist yet” (spoiler: they’re coming fast)
• The surprising soft skills gap that could derail even the most AI-savvy workers
• How each industry is writing its own playbook for the AI transition

The bottom line: Tomorrow’s most successful professionals will master both cutting-edge AI capabilities AND the fundamentally human skills that make tech implementation actually work. The question isn’t whether to prepare for the AI future, it’s whether you’re preparing for the right parts of it.

Ready to see what the data reveals about your industry?

Future-Proof Your Workforce with Udemy & Indeed

Here’s what’s happening in the job market: Workers are building tomorrow’s capabilities while employers focus on the skills they desire to fill today’s roles. Only 4% of job postings on Indeed [1] mention AI today, but it’s driving 67.5% of employee upskilling efforts at Udemy, according to the markets and industries assessed for this brief*.

*Our report examines skill demand trends across manufacturing, technology, and professional services in the US, UK, India, and Australia, comparing data from September 2023 to September 2025* to identify the “high-growth skills” – the top 10 skills showing the largest increases in both job postings on Indeed and course enrollments on Udemy Business. With insights from 24 country-industry combinations, this data-driven resource reveals which skills are driving career success and business growth across four major economies. Whether you’re planning professional development, designing training programs, or making strategic hiring decisions, this report provides actionable insights you need to stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving job market.

Why Organizations Should Understand Emerging Skills

This worker behavior makes rational sense. Every day, employees around the world are seeing statistics and reading headlines about the potential for AI to disrupt their jobs.

According to Indeed’s 2025 AI at Work Report [2], virtually every job will be impacted by AI to some degree — some far more than others. More than a quarter (26%) of jobs are likely to be highly transformed by AI, and a small majority (54%) will be moderately impacted. Even if AI cannot or will not fully replace a human at any single job, it will replace at least some elements of all jobs. It is clearly to workers’ benefit to start learning now how the tools work and how best to use them.

Sources

1. Indeed: “Indeed AI Tracker”
2. Hiring Lab: “AI at Work Report 2025: How GenAI is Rewiring the DNA of Jobs”