The Davos Forum is one of the most important and prestigious economic events in the world. It is a meeting of political leaders, representatives of business, science and civil society - a total of around 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries, including 60 heads of state. This year's 55th edition is being held under the theme “Cooperation for a Smart Era”.

The labour market in times of change

The energy transition, automation and new technologies in the context of the labour market were discussed by participants in the panel “Spotlight on workers”, which was attended by the Minister of Labour, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk.

The development of artificial intelligence may be an opportunity - it creates new jobs, but it is also a necessity for employees to retrain, to acquire completely new qualifications. I would very much prefer not to see that any country in the European Union, especially Poland, is not prepared for these changes. No employee should become a victim of such a shock doctrine, where his or her job disappears overnight and something new, for which he or she is not prepared, appears," said Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk during a meeting with journalists in Davos.

We must be ready for change

In the opinion of the head of the MFLSP, we already need to prepare for the changes that await us - and are already happening.

We already have to prepare - to create the conditions, to acquire new qualifications, to create appropriate regulations. Since digital technologies are, for example, algorithms. The question is how to control these algorithms. What do you do, when an app, algorithms, artificial intelligence decides whether or not to renew the contract? How to ensure that the human factor and human control over these mechanisms is functioning? This is something we need to talk about right now, the labour minister pointed out.