Bengaluru: As artificial intelligence takes over more human tasks, industry veterans say the next generation must unlearn old ways of working and prepare for an era where “machines will take most decisions humans were once hired for.“Speaking at a fireside chat on “From Trends to Transformation: Building Tomorrow’s Skills” organised as part of the Bengaluru Skill Summit here Wednesday, industry experts stressed that traditional classroom learning and long training cycles are outdated, urging a shift to flexible, digital, and experience-based models like hackathons and microlearning. Atul Kumar Tiwari, former secretary to Govt of India and chairperson of the board of governors, University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, said states must adopt “future-first” policies that convert disruption into opportunity. He emphasised that traditional skills should be integrated with modern elements and urged industries to take a more active role in creating apprenticeship and internship programmes, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. He added education must move away from rote learning towards AI-enabled, simulation-based training and virtual labs, which enhance problem-solving skills. Offering the industry’s perspective, Jiten Chadha, managing director and country head, GlobalFoundries described how companies are shifting from long classroom-style training to short, flexible learning formats that blend technology and collaboration. “We are replacing six-month programmes with short, video-based modules or gamified learning. Innovation days and hackathons work far better than lectures,” he said, adding people learn faster and more effectively when engaged through experience and experimentation.
