A lack of data literacy, not artificial intelligence (AI), poses the biggest threat to today’s workforce, according to Zethu Lubisi, ICT manager for planning and governance at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Speaking yesterday at the ITWeb Data Insights Summit at The Forum, in Bryanston, Lubisi said organisations are creating unnecessary fear by framing AI as a job killer, while failing to equip employees with the skills and confidence needed to work with data-driven technologies.
“We are constantly being told that AI is going to take our jobs,” she said. “That messaging creates anxiety, especially for employees who are new to an organisation or nearing the later stages of their careers.”
Instead, Lubisi argued that the real risk lies in skills obsolescence, warning that workers who lack AI skills and data literacy are the ones most likely to be displaced.
Lubisi noted that anxiety around AI is not limited to non-technical staff. Even IT professionals, she said, are questioning their long-term relevance as technologies evolve at unprecedented speed.
“The technology is changing very quickly, and that uncertainty makes people ask: will I still have a job tomorrow?” she said.
She encouraged employees to actively assess how AI could reshape their roles by analysing their day-to-day tasks and exploring how emerging technologies may automate or augment them over the next few years.
Lubisi cautioned against viewing the data skills gap as purely a technical problem. While organisations often focus on advanced tools and platforms, the real challenge is cognitive and cultural.
“The gap shows up when people struggle to interpret data in context,” she said.
Dashboards and analytics systems may be widely deployed, but many employees lack the confidence to question insights, challenge assumptions or understand what the data actually means for the organisation.
“When people don’t understand data, they avoid engaging with it. They don’t ask questions and critical thinking disappears from decision-making,” she added.
Exclusion creates risk
According to Lubisi, many technology initiatives fail because the people expected to use new systems are excluded from decision-making processes. She pointed to a pattern where organisations invest in platforms that later go unused because key stakeholders were not consulted.
“When people with institutional knowledge are left out, you end up implementing solutions that don’t fit the organisation,” she said.
This lack of inclusion, she warned, increases operational and security risks, particularly when governance and policy considerations are only addressed late in the implementation process.
Lubisi also highlighted structural barriers to upskilling, noting that employees are often expected to train after hours, despite growing workloads and competing priorities.
“Learning time is productive time,” she said, adding that organisations must formally allocate time for skills development if they expect meaningful adoption of new technologies.
She advocated for inclusive, role-specific training that uses real organisational data, rather than generic, one-size-fits-all programmes.
“AI moves fast. People need permission to learn at a human pace,” Lubisi concluded.
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