Navigating Pandemic and AI Influences on Employability Competencies

The COVID-19 epidemic/pandemic has transformed the global business landscape, requiring a comprehensive review of the necessary competencies to navigate it. In this context, it carefully examines the changing dimensions of employability skills in the “new normal,” as well as the seismic impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the job market. Our study's primary objective is to identify post-pandemic proficiencies in demand and examine how educational institutions promote them to boost employability. To achieve this, we undertake a comprehensive survey of higher education institutes, human resource managers, students, and academic overseers to examine the gap between competency development and graduate employability. We aim to understand the discrepancies between graduates’ skills and knowledge and employers’ demanding requirements in the new normal. A complete examination of the complex values, capacities, and assumptions driving the growing need for new skills and knowledge among aspiring professionals is the key focus of this study. This study's unique contribution lies in its thorough analysis of AI's revolutionary impact and the new normal's demands on employability through a comprehensive exploration of these intricate dynamics. It seeks to understand how higher education institutions foster and improve employable skills in the new normal. Furthermore, it considerably contributes to the ongoing discourse on pedagogy and workforce preparation by revealing the complex interplay between educational provision, AI, and job market changes. Laced with AI's revolutionary dynamics, this research proposes a paradigm shift in educational methods to bridge the gap between graduates’ competency and the complex set of labor market's proficiencies.