Automotive Industry Masterclass Insights

Nuno Goncalves: Mike, good morning. How are you? 

Mike Reed: You know, never better.

Nuno Goncalves: Getting warmer every day.

Mike Reed: How are you going?

Nuno Goncalves: Beautiful, beautiful week and great week as well. All good, all good here as well. It's been an exciting, it's been an exciting beginning of the year. I can't believe it's already February 5th. It's going very fast.

Mike Reed: It is, isn't it? It's, everything seems to be going faster day to day. It's, that's,, been a great start to the year. Yes, but, but yeah, what a, what a great start to the year.

Nuno Goncalves: What a great start of the year. But welcome everybody and we'll give it 30 more seconds. I know it's a, it's a busy year for everybody as well. , Mike,, we're very excited about all the, all that we have to share today on the automotive,, industry as, as well., it's, it's it's very interesting the insights that we continue to see,, Mike to your point on how fast things are becoming, right?, the question is then what are we going to do about it? And and, in anticipation, for every single one of us professionally personally, but also for the companies that we work for as well. So,, why don't why don't we start? Is that okay? Mike? Can we go? Let's go. Hopefully

Mike Reed: I'm, hopefully I'm sharing the,, the cover slide. So let's go. 

Nuno Goncalves: You are, you are, we can see, we can see our pictures., so I think that's the agenda already. So,, we, we can definitely start. So, but anyway, so welcome back everybody,, to Rejigged Skills Masterclass., it's a place where we unbundle work one industry at a time., today's session is all about the automotive industry. , one of the largest and most influential sectors in the global economy as, as, as,, it contributes to 3. 9 trillion to the global economy, accounting for approximately 5 percent of global GDP,, and directly employing nearly 14 million people worldwide. So huge industry that, that we're eager to deep dive onto as well. , in the U. S. alone, if we focus only on the U. S., the automotive industry.

Constitutes and contributes to 1.6 trillion, making up 4% of the country's GDP,, and employs 1.7 million people directly,, with millions more related industries such as spart, manufacturing, logistics, and sales as well. So,, with demand for automotive professionals, expected to grow significantly. , actually the industry is on track to,, for a 7.2 compound annual growth rates, pe a from 2024 for to 2028., driven by advancements in technology, electrification, autonomous driving,, and connected car technology as well. So a lot,, has evolved in the past years and will continue to evolve, as Mike was saying, and rightfully so, at a faster pace than ever before, right? , electric vehicle sales,, have skyrocketed., we see that every day,, for those of us on the, on the streets, with a 40 percent global increase in 2023., and projected to make up to 30 percent of all vehicle sales by 2030, which is around the corner as well.

So on my side,, welcome everybody. I'm new to themselves. I'm the head of workforce strategy here at rejig. And I'm joined by Mike Reed. Mike is the chief product officer and co founder of Rejig. We will try to give you some insights and good insights for you to take to your day. And if you're in this industry or if you this industry as well. So we're here to simplify the complexities of this industry and any other industry. Using data to help you unlock your workforce potential, which is something that is very dear to the heart of rigid as well. So let's deep dive on what's happening right now and how we can build the bold and responsible workforce for the future., let me talk you through a little bit of our agenda as well. , if you can just a bit before Mike, just to give a little bit of a framing of everything that we will be doing today.

Okay., we'll,, start with what's happening in the automotive industry very wide. You've seen a slide there with the CEOs and how leaders are prioritizing and discussing how to build a bold and responsible workforce. You continue,, to listen. Reggie talking about bold and responsible. What is this and how some of the CEOs are taking this,, approach as well. We'll look at practical strategies to reinvent our workforce., dive into some examples., and wrap up with,, key takeaways and a personalized opportunity for you to take action as well. So Mike will cover the data in depth. It's, it's, it's, he's brilliant in telling the stories,, about,, behind the data and you'll, you'll have a blast there and I'll guide you through some of the stories and strategies as well.

So industry outlook. We'll talk about our work of work ontologies. We'll talk about, Okay. Something that for this industry in particular is very important, which is this A. I. Impact assessment risk killing strategy. How do we do this? And then from here, how do we how do we take action as well? So if we go to the next slide, then,, Mike, what you what you see is that from a general overview of the automotive industry. So 2023 the global automotive industry was valued in 3. 9 trillion. Contributing to 5 percent of global GDP and supporting directly nearly 14 million jobs. Worldwide. It's a massive economic footprint, making this one of the most influential industries in the world., last year alone, there were nearly 92 million vehicles produced globally, with revenue growing 4. 5 percent fueled by strong demand.

Across North America, Europe and a rebound in the Chinese market as well, which has an interesting landscape of competition. Also, they're looking ahead. If you look forward, the industry is set to continue, as we said, for continued expansion projected 7. 2 compound annual growth rate, as I mentioned before, from 2024 to 2028. And driven by key trends, as I said, electrification, automation, connected car technology, all the things that we as car users and owners and drivers have seen evolved in the past years as well. If we focus on the US, we saw a strong rebound in 2023, with 5 percent of market growth and 15 million vehicles sold. But one of the biggest shifts is,, as you've seen, electric car vehicles, sales surge by 50 percent a year over year., thanks to government incentives and growing consumer demand, at least The incentives that we've been having and we've been seeing in the us for the time being and that might eventually be Changing and evolving in the future as well.

So these numbers are very clear. and paint a very clear picture This is an industry in transformation., as you can see with automation with technology and for us in which is a lot of our focus is not only to understand what is the What is this transformation? How much are the companies transforming in this industry? But also what, what's the impact on work? And then what's the impact on people and on the skills? So on one side, you have this industry with big transformation,, that will impact the workforce the way that,, these companies will do the work. And on the other side, that means that there will be an impact on the skills that ultimately. , these companies will need and how can we upscale and re skilled the employees of these companies as well.

So a deeper dive. Let's deep diver. Let's get deep dive on further on what does this mean for us?, and for the overall workforce strategy that bridging continues to lead as well. So if we click on the next slide, you'll see what you'll see is,, some of the most iconic and permanent CEOs of this industry. So if we look at the future of the automotive industry, which is the focus,, it's important to understand what's on the minds of the leaders shaping it, right? So,, you can see the,, Jim, Jim Farley,, Ford CEO focusing on, on scaling EV businesses,, the electric vehicles businesses,, while ensuring it remains profitable. It's been a big shift., in,, in the past decade or so,, the question is now is, is, is from a,, profit margins,, how do we.

How do they ultimately ensure it continues to remain profitable as well? So big challenges from a sustainable perspective, but also from a financial perspective, our battery costs. , remain, which remained the most expensive part of an electric vehicle., that's why Ford is investing heavily in battery production and recycling., a move that could definitely shape the next era of,, employee,,, electric vehicles affordability as well., Mary, Mary Bauer from,, an iconic,,, CEO of General Motors is tackling another major challenge for us, which is around supply chain supply chain resilience. , the semiconductor shortage was that was a wake up for the industry, highlighting the risks of relying on distance supply chains., General Motors is Now making aggressive investments in U.

1. Based,, battery and semiconductor manufacturing to secure its,, EV strategy,, and maintain long term competitiveness is well a side note here. We were having a conversation with,, someone and a client on the automotive industries. And,, there's a there's a significant concern that is new as well in the past weeks around the tariffs that are impacting also some of the supply chain.,, value chain and the supply chain strategy as well. Imagine that you're having some of those companies,, parts moving from country to country. And if it means every single one of those countries, the tariffs become bigger than obviously there will be more pressure on Profitability and cost overall to produce the cars and therefore being pushed to the to the consumer.

So how to overcome some of those external economic challenges as well is something that all of these CEOs will have to,, to tackle. And in this case, in particular, on the supply chain and on the costs built from there. And then we have Oliver. Oliver Zipsy is CEO of BMW emphasizing on workforce transformation. Required for the shift of electric to autonomous vehicles as well. It's just it's not just about investing in new technology It's also about the skilling the upskilling and re skilling The workforce to ensure that they have the right expertise to design to build And service the next generation of vehicles so if there is any doubt that this is a An industry that is transforming it, it will require new skills.

They will require new skills because work is transforming it as well. And again, this connection between being very bold in the way that you transform in the way that you do your work,, and the skills that you'll need and upscaling and rescaling of your workforce as well. So,, so beyond these, these executive,, priorities,, that are,,, there are key themes emerging across the industry. One strategic investments, workforce reskilling, manufacturing delays, regulatory hurdles,, and advancements in autonomous systems as well. So the message is very clear for us. It's,, the automotive industry is undergoing massive transformation., and, and we believe that companies that prioritize both the technology advancements, the transformation of work, and Also prioritize the upscaling and rescaling the preparation of their talent will lead the way.

That's true. Not only on the automotive industry, but in every single industry that is going through massive transformation that we've been seeing so far. So,, if we dive even further and how we can apply these insights to workforce strategy. And go to the next slide., those of us, those of you guys that have that follow region. , it's that we are all about,, optimization and making sure that all companies have the ability to transform and be bold in the way that they transform. We know that,, where we are, work will not be done ever as it was done in the past decades. What does this mean for every single industry? What does this mean for every single,, company?, every single one needs to be very bold to make sure that they are as efficient and as fast.

And,, as profitable as possible and creating the value in innovation,,, and in sustainability as well. So be very bold, but on the other side, and this is what I love about 3G is that we believe that while we're being bold, we also need to be very responsible. And what is this is that we need to drive the way towards a place where work will be faster, will be better, will be more valuable, but where we will have human beings. with the right skills to do the right job,, and sustainable, sustainable jobs as well. And this is where this intersection and this, I love this mutuality of these two pieces on one side of being bold and responsible, where we believe that we want a world where, where,, we will have zero wasted potential as, as well.

So,, how do you leaders in the automotive ensure that you're bold and responsible? So, as I said, we believe on this on this balance of work and of bold and responsible. We believe that it's all about and you first need to understand your workforce at a deeper level. And for you to do that, you need to understand the work. So you understand the work, you go to the level of the task, to the level of the sub tasks, you understand how are you automating some of those sub tasks and those tasks, and what is the impact of those sub tasks on your overall organizational design, on your overall,, skills demand and skill supply as well. So if you have that visibility, And you leverage A. I. To remove inefficiencies and decrease duplications as well.

Then you'll be able to be bold on the way that you transform and be able to understand what will be the impact on your workforce as well. So for us, as I said, very important that no one is left behind, right? It's it's we need to bring people along this very fast journey of change and transformation. And this is about creating access to meaningful work. A work that will be sustainable work that will continue to coexist. We all be AI agents that will continue to see more and more in the workforce. And where we'll continue to complement each other, AI and humans,, to create value for the organizations for the society and for the world at large as, as well. So it's about creating, as I said, access to meaningful work for everyone.

Ensuring that your workforce, our workforce evolves as the industry changes as well. So bringing everybody along, so how to build a bold and responsible workforce., and this, these are the three dimensions that we believe are key dimensions of this journey. Step number one, reinvent your workforce, be bold, as we said, understand work at a task level,, to uncover AI opportunities to eliminate,, duplication and future proof your workforce. Then, then as you understand work, then you need to understand what is the impact, the work on the worker, on the person,, and it is what we call move work to worker. To boost productivity by aligning tasks with the right people through opportunities gigs, projects, and mobility, and so on and so forth., last but not least, as you understand the impact on people, you understand you will uncover and you'll understand that will be net new tasks and you'll uncover that you will eventually need to upskill or even reskill people moving forward.

What does this, what does this mean? So retaining and reskilling, creating a culture of growth. Of development by rescaling employees and pivoting them into roles that will meet future demands, which is absolutely critical as well. So if you follow these three steps, which for us is our guiding principles, reinvent your workforce, move work to work or retain and risk skill, you'll design a workforce that will be ready for what's coming and will be ready for what's next as well. So if we move to the next slide, you'll see some details on our,, very interesting. So cool., a key insight that I believe is, was,, was an insight that we had,, two and a half years ago is that ultimately while we were trying to understand the needs for the skills and with the skills of tomorrow, a key insight is the following, the skills do not get automated.

So follow the logic here. Jobs have tasks. AI automates those tasks. And the task needs skills. So people have skills. So what does this mean? So with our ontology, we're able to bring and somehow triangulate these two. Actually, these three,,, dimensions one, the jobs in itself, the tasks that are within the jobs and the skills that are needed to perform those jobs as well. So Everybody is made up of every job is made up of tasks as you see on the real building blocks of work., and that's very clear,, critical for us as well. Let me give you an example. So take,, in this industry, take a dealership administrative assistant. Their job is just about managing schedules. It's about completing tasks billing, data entry, customer service,, with AI automating many of these functions, these roles will be and are at risk one way or the other.

But the reality is, those are skills that can be done and ultimately used in many other places as well. So how do we find the places that are the best use of those skills one way or the other? When you view work through the lens of tasks, Everything becomes clearer because most of the times we try to understand what are the skills that are going to need. But that's only a consequence of how you evolve your work. So if you first look at the task, then the connection of the skills that you'll need will become much faster as well and much easier as well. So,, AI and automation, as we say,,, aren't replacing skills. They're performing specific tasks generating reports, analyzing data sets. Tasks are also measurable.

You can evaluate whether a sales pitch closed or a deal or a campaign hits its target or not. Skills, on the other hand, are more abstract and harder sometimes to quantify one way or the other. Tasks are stable, stay stable while skills evolve. Writing a report is still writing a report, but the tools to do it, whether it's pen, paper,, or a I riding assistance are constantly changing, right? The way that we do the task one way or the other. So work is always organized around tasks, not skills. So businesses don't hire for vape qualities,, problem solving,, they hire for someone that is able to ultimately to. Solve a specific problem and complete a specific task. And of course, you bring the skills with you so that you're actually able to perform on those, on those tasks.

So the toolkit,, as, as we said,, for the future is, is very simple., jobs have tasks,, tasks need skills. People have skills., and I automate tasks, not skills. So this for us and rejig is as this fast first approach because it is the foundation of finding and identifying what the impact will have on the workforce and on the people as well. And how, and guide you through an action to upskill and reskill your employees as needed as well., that's that's both bold,, to be,, both bold in innovation and responsible in execution as well. So that bold and responsibility piece as you can see. So if we actually go to,, to the next slide, we'll see,,, an extract of the work ontology,, that we,, that we build, that Rejig builds.

Rejig has built 23 different industry specific ontologies. This is an extract of some of the data that we are able to provide to the, to the organization. So,, It helps map your entire your job architecture., and it helps map the tasks that are within each of the jobs that you have in your organization. It helps understand what is the correlation between the jobs and tasks and the skills. So you will understand what are the skills that you'll need to deliver every single one of these tasks. And the interesting thing is that most, most of the times the relationship between tasks and skills, it's typically one to three or one to five, meaning for one task, you're, you, you will need three to five skills to be able to actually deliver on that task.

And, and that's one of the things that Rijik's work ontology is actually delivery is that correlation between jobs. All the jobs in the industry between the tasks, the work, but also what are the skills then needed to do these tasks. So if we have that information, that's our foundation of work. And if we start understanding what is the potential for every single one of these tasks, we can aggregate by jobs. We can aggregate by subfamilies and by families and understand ultimately what is the exposure? For AI automation for every single one of those tasks. And therefore, what is the exposure for every single one of those jobs? And if you continue to aggregate, what is the exposure for every single one of your sub families and families,,, to AI as well.

So that will give you key insights on that exposure, but it will give you key insights on many of the other things that you can see also there, which is how can you be faster How can you be more efficient? How can you ultimately,,, reduce,, duplication and so on and so forth. So Rejig's work ontology will help you map the entire job architecture, as I was saying, revealing the AI potential for tasks, identifying opportunities to re skill employees., it's, it's about creating a workforce that it's more agile, efficient, and ready to take the, the future. , if we see the, the next slide, slide,, you, you'll see,, a bit more information on. On what we can reveal about your workforce and industry as well.

So those are four critical dimensions for us. I've I've double clicked on the air potential index this aggregation between tasks and then at jobs and sub families and so on and so forth. You will be able to see which side of your organization is more exposed to potential to automation within likely the place where you want to start Automating and where you have eventually more advantages and benefits for automation. We are also looking at workforce both and task duplication., how do you streamline work to increase productivity by identifying redundant tasks? , and companies are very complex and most definitely and typically are have tasks being done in many different places that ultimately don't produce the efficiency levels that we that we require.

So,, if we identify these redundant tasks, we then can be free up free up our workforce for high value activities as well. So if we consider A. I. Return of investment in timeline, what's the cost impact of implementing a I? How long until you start seeing results? This starts to give you a clear picture of the value of the that I can deliver as well. So and finally, the reskilling, which is the other piece, the responsibility side, right? What are the roles that are most impacted? What are you going to do from?, if you impact those roles, how are you? Will you redesign your organization for the future? To do the,, the work of the future. And then also, how do you ensure that you have the right people with the right skills to deliver the critical jobs and,, of your organization to help you be successful moving forward as well.

So this is how we provide a roadmap for a more productive future ready workforce., as, as, as you can see, so let's let's take,, the dealer administrative assistant in back off clerks as an example, as we were saying. So these roles handle critical tasks billing, scheduling customer records, as, but with AI driven,, customer service tools and digital sales platforms up to 60 percent of these tasks can be automated. , we've been talking about robotic process automation, RPA tools, right, you, I path and automate to motion and automation anywhere, for example, organization can achieve 35 percent savings in time savings and time reduction in 25 percent cost savings by streamlining repetitive tasks.

So how do you do this? Right? How do you transform and be very bold and actually be able to streamline? What do you do? Accelerate what you do as well. So if you ultimately. Have this transformation and you're fast to implementation one way or the other, you will need some time to be able to start re skilling your,, your associates, your employees and ultimately to ensure that you have this adoption within your organization and start ripping some of the benefits of your,, of this automation as well. So and the workforce benefits as well, right? So employees can transition into process automation specialist roles, right? Data analyst roles,, leveraging data analytics and AI powered CRM tools as well to drive efficiency rather than being displaced.

So the, as we continue to say, it's about giving clarity of the evolution of work. Upskilling rescaling people to actually do the work that we need in in the future as well. So we'll unpack more of this later in our conversation as well. So let's let's move to next slide. And as we take a closer look to at the automotive workforce composition, how it's evolving right now, the industry is made up of 40 percent manufacturing skilled technicians, a significant part of big chunk. 25 percent of sales and aftermarket service,, specialists, 20 percent engineering and R and D roles and 50 percent in other roles, right? Smaller portion, but ultimately,,, 85 percent manufacturing skill technicians, sales and aftermarks,, service specialists and engineering and R and D roles are the bulk of this industry.

But these numbers are shifting, right? And this is the most interesting thing, is with AI and automation reshaping the industry, the portion and percentage of these numbers are shifting. In manufacturing, 20 to 25 percent of production processes are becoming automated. We've talked about this. Reducing costs and freeing up workers for more, for example, for more EV specific tasks, which is something that is newer as well. , Meanwhile, engineering and R and D roles are seeing 30 to 40 percent annual growth, particularly in AI, battery technology and autonomous systems. This shift means companies need to re skill and up skill their workforce, not just to keep with, keep up with the automation, because it's the pace of, of, of change and innovation has been growing as,,, significantly.

And we believe that will become exponential. So not just to keep up with the automation, but to actually lead the industry transition to electric and autonomous vehicles as well. So,, very clearly as,, if anything in the past. Minutes that we've been talking about significant transformation in an industry. , Every single player trying to understand how to be better more efficient faster, and then Also trying to understand how to reskill and upskill their workforce So how do business ensure that they have the right talent for this transformation?, that's what we will be exploring Next as well. So if you go to the next second, yeah

Mike Reed: You made a really interesting point there about the shifting numbers and the automotive industry, I think, in the in the data is an interesting one where the nature of the work is shifting, but that high level perspective of where people sit in an organ, what they're doing maybe isn't shifting so much. I think that the things that are at play here., are significant. It's it is a significant transformation to go from a combustion engine platform to what is effectively you're delivering a software platform in a lot of instances. That's that's a very big shift at the same time. I think we saw back early that there's a Corporately, there's a real focus on what in the manufacturing industry we call reshoring, concern over supply chain, taking responsibility for the whole of the production cycle from batteries and all of the other componentry around it.

So I think we see What in some areas we might have been weighed on, we're going to lose roles to robots while the nature of production is changing significantly. There's also this expansion in responsibility. So I think there's a lot of those what would have been considered the directly relevant workforce on the shop floor delivering some of these outputs because of that expansion of the reshoring exercise to secure up supply chain and resilience. I think the automotive industry is really powerfully positioned. To leverage the investment they've got in their people and the experience they have in their people and transition from this old way of working to the new. So I think the numbers that we're looking at here are indicating that we're not, maybe not in the middle of it, but we're already on that journey.

Nuno Goncalves: It's a great point., Mike, and I think,, for, for those of us that are in the call that also are more focused on, on, on the, on the people development side, on the skills development side, we, we know that developing skills takes time. Right. And understanding what are these transferable skills, right? Because you're you're transfer transferring and transforming work. How can you utilize the skills that everybody has built in your organization so that they you transition them to the to this new work is will be will be essential and it will take time. So the earliest you can understand the impacts of your work, the earliest you can have a perspective of how you are rejigging Your workforce,, the earliest you will be able to understand and act on, on, on the reskilling and upskilling of your people and accordingly as well.

So I think it's, it's a great point. Thank you.

Mike Reed: No worries. Let's jump into looking at the, some key elements within the industry. So we're just, we're focusing here on three roles that are Most immediately most impacted by potential optimization and improvement in efficiency. So in this industry, it's it's a manufacturing workers,, A. V. Engineering and I. I. Developers again. This is rapidly emerged in this industry is a key., subsector of the workforce will continue to evolve and aftermarket surface service technicians. So we jump into those. What we see looking at the manufacturing workers is potentially,, in the existing. infrastructure, a legacy of having been through this process of roboticizing production lines. So that, that in the, in the historic,, historic being maybe five years or five years ago,, delivery of cars to market., a lot of that efficiency has been already been deployed to manage inventory, manage process, manage delivery, manage farm to plate.

Getting it, getting the car in the hands of the buyer., but we're also now really looking at bolting onto that, the EV market and reshoring the battery market. So that, so all of those skills that go around that are happening at the same time. The benefit we saw in, we've seen the data around this element is that it's, it's started to some extent from a reasonably blank slate. So the production facilities around EV batteries and the production facilities around,, AV and EV vehicles themselves. can be set up with the benefit of AI and robotics and automation there on day one. So they're already established with that framework in mind, which has obviously seen such a rapid growth in the AI elements of that workforce.

There is an expectation of a workforce impact here,, significant in the 20 to 30%. My feeling from the data is that needs to be balanced with this reassuring exercise where organizations are taking more responsibility, more of the food, more of the supply chain. So it's not just bringing together all the parts into the factory that puts them together. It's also those manufacturing parts with it. Electronic componentry, whether it's the onboard systems, whether it's the batteries themselves. So while there is a significant likely impact on existing workforce, the opportunities to, to upskill and redeploy that workforce across the whole of the, the supply chain that you're looking to make resilient is significant.

The other thing that stands out here clearly is that this is not, this is a capital intensive exercise. It is not a short term exercise. It's not, it's not giving a copyright and grammarly and they've improved their output. These are significant capital expenditures, whether it's in a brand new facility or it's refitting and refurbishing existing facilities. So the timelines here are significant. The opportunity here is significant for the organization. The opportunity for the workforce is also significant, but real. So it's a, it's a, it's a real transformation that needs to happen. If we jump and look at AEV engineers and developers, this, this is really about, about growth. , and it's also really set up to leverage.

Advances in, in automation and I, so it's, it's a, it's a new part of this industry and it's already set up with a framework and a mindset to leverage those opportunities as they become real. So what we see here is relevant to the work in, in a, in the automotive industry, but it's also relevant to how these engineering is deploying across most manufacturing, most turning concepts into hardware. So this is what we see consistently. Cyber security, something that Sorry, if we go back in the, in the more traditional,, automotive industry, we have already seen a lot of,, computerization of onboard systems. So a lot of control and the mechanic isn't the guy who hit it with a wrench anymore. They need to log into your India Ford or India, India,, Toyota and see how it's going rather than just,, crack the bonnet and have a look.

So there's already been that transition and digital literacy in the. In the whole of the workforce. That's also made space for these,, AV and AI,, developers and engineers to think about, have to think about issues cyber security. So I think the ability to continue to deploy this is potentially almost considered feature development now in cars as a software platform that we are delivering to a user. So I think there's a lot of opportunity here just to continue to leverage those benefits that we're already seeing., the last one I was going to touch on here, just to really stress the, the opportunity is around, I think, and you called it out earlier in the, in the discussion around customer service and aftermarket service. , to some extent, this is similar to what we've seen in the general enterprise case for customer service, where it is about handling the customer's experience, leveraging more,, ability to access deeper data about their circumstances, the products that they're buying, the likely issues, what's going to change their experience.

So it's the leveraging both of AI in terms of managing that relationship, but also understanding the data more deeply, the experience the customer's having., and we can throw to that additionally, we've got. Cars driving around roads. So there's that remote telemetry, which is now possible with these Vehicles to allow them to unpick in real time what the users are experiencing and give them maybe direct feedback in the moment The potential impact on work size here. I think it brings together a whole lot of different elements from the mechanics to the customer service To their after sales service to the upselling. So I think it brings together a whole lot of those elements, which are all shifting at the same time, but we're all benefiting from the same,,, the same trajectory of,, AI and automation, likely reduction,, in workforce size and a lot of these.

More customer integral platforms are maturing quickly and are valuable in a lot of industries, so it's not as though they need to necessarily be automotive specific. So the ability to pick up the customers or the customer service, all of those elements that are. Being successfully deployed across other industries is already an area that,, the automotive, automotive industry is leveraging, but will continue to leverage and there continues to be real opportunity. It's hard to pick a winner., but I think the,, the, the assessment here, when we're looking at the data out where we would recommend focus needs to be,, recognizes that back of house, that administrative, that customer service is, is actively being moved across.

Almost all industries., the ones that are unique and critical to the success of automotive is around the infrastructure, the development of the automotive testing platforms. How do we make sure that's being done as regulation continues to grow in this area in a way that leverages technology supporting that? I mean, it does have a Marginally quicker return or transition to benefit realisation, benefit attainment and the whole scale physical refit, refurb, redevelopment, rebuild or build from you all those parts of the supply chain or have a transition to an EV facility. So I think we see the AI, the automotive driving development testing as being an area more ripe for development, but we also see that has been implemented in this landscape.

AI, AI driving vision systems, AI driving detection systems and navigation systems. So it's already, it's already built in a framework that leverages these advances. Whereas the EV battery facility is that, that connection with the real world. So leveraging a new system with high capital expectation or requirements. Is there anything about that, that resonated with you, Nuno, or that you felt was of interest?

Nuno Goncalves: Yeah, I love this. And I think I think you as you'll see, there's, I love the consistency of what we've been saying so far. There's there's significant transformation doesn't matter where you are. I think what you're trying to do here, what we're trying to do, Mike, here is to actually identify the places where you could eventually start in your in your organization, right? So that what do we see at an industry specific? Now, the question is, then how do you how do you how do you then map this to your organizations? It depends on who you are, it depends on your needs. But I think what I love about this and the way that you, that you say is that you already say, listen, there's at least three places where you need to, to, to tackle or even more.

And let's talk about it. And you, you start giving the action there. So I, I love this. Thank you.

Mike Reed: No, no worries., the other half of the equation is being responsible. So recognizing that industries going forward will require,, their people to deliver in a different way., but there's, there has been in this moment of time, a huge investment. In the experience and expertise of individuals across the workforce who will be, will be impacted. So how do we look at those and how do we think about dealing with those? And I think the automotive industry, as I said, it's if you're in the industry, you're already. You are in the business of transformation. It's not unique to the automotive industry, but if you are in the industry of the automotive industry, you are in the business of transformation.

It's been a seismic shift in both the nature of the vehicles you're delivering, but also what the function, the function that they will deliver. So this is already transformational, and that's the way that we need to think about it, leveraging the people who already understand what the services that's hitting the user's hands, but also the user's expectations. What we're taking in order to think about what's possible, we also want to make sure that we're thinking about how do we be responsible with the workforce and make sure that it's sustainable. To sustain the industry as much as it is,, zero waste potential for the individuals. The focus we'll take here is to look at,, the traditional internal combustion engine mechanics. , we'll look at assembly line workers.

And we'll look again at administrative roles. So where we recognize that these roles are either being impacted by the transition of the business or the introduction of technology, how can we leverage the expertise that sits in the hands and the minds of those people to make sure that they're successful and the industry is successful around them? And key to that is becoming a skill power skill building powerhouse. So recognizing the skills that your people have, recognizing the gap to what the workforce that you require will need, and identifying those opportunities of, of adjacency and transferability. How can I move who I've got quickly to who I need to be? Because it's, if you've got a choice between spending 40, 000 on a new worker, Or spending upskilling somebody who already has understanding of your culture and your product set and your customers and the industry, then it seems to be a clear proposition that you take the expertise you've already got and add and build and sustain rather than spending the premium to acquire somebody new that has to acquire a lot of that expertise as well.

So I think if you've got to, the industry has to make that choice. Do I spend 40, on a new person or do I spend the 10, 000 that gets them to where they need to be? The best. And Mike, if I.

Nuno Goncalves: If I can jump in here, I think I think and here we're only talking about one person to receive one person. But the reality is that all the all the areas that you're identifying, we're talking about hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, right? So we, we, you, we will always have to multiply the 40, 000 that he's talking about for 100 or 1000 people, but actually the cost to reskill. As the bigger the scale, the smaller is the cost per person as well. So the, the, it's, it, the proportion is, is, is huge, right? You may be talking about,,, if you need to go and hire people, you might be talking about millions of dollars. , one you're talking about is re skilling the workforce you're talking about that you have that ultimately it's a much lower percentage of that as well.

So the gain is there,, to have a build strategy and not only to have a buy strategy on the market as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's, this is the transition in thinking. It's about, it needs to be about how do we, how's the industry is not just the output. It's the people involved in it as well. And how do we, how does that scale? So absolutely., but jumping, let's, let's start with this. So what we try and capture here is, is who we have and who we need. So we can chart a path to get, we have to, we need where it makes sense. , and how might we do it? So what, what obvious courses are existing in the marketplace that can support that? And again, they'll differ, differ across,, organizations inside an industry, but at least it gives you a sense of how to start thinking about this.

And then some headline metrics about what's the use case for investing in the individual. So thinking about,, your traditional mechanics,, they do have an understanding of how, The mechanical vehicle hangs together and while it moves to, moves to electronic, there's still a lot of fundamental mechanics that happen inside a vehicle to, to propel you down the road., and the expectation that in, in this, in this role, there is the ability to take some. Take an outcome,, something that's not functioning and problem solve it while there's significant diagnostics now to support that's that even currently it's just raising the level of problem solving. So the diagnostics may allow us to more rapidly address most of the more common issues, but it still exists in that individual, the ability to take that and look at a high level.

What? But why is this not working? If it's not one of those straightforward, I've got a flat tire. How does that transition to who we need when we're talking about a significant move to the EV markets and AV markets as well with different onboard systems?, we're now talking about having to introduce awareness of how you're handling those high voltage, those electrical systems that are on board to deliver power rather than,, combustion and fuel systems. So that is an awareness and that is, that is a set of technical skills. That now need to be acquired as part of this mechanic framework. So that's definitely something that we need to,,, bring on board. There will be some awareness of electronics.

There are electronics on board, but that's different from electronics as a fuel system. And then just an increase in the existing skills of software diagnosis., so cars, fuel cars at the moment are heavily,, managed and monitored by onboard systems. So the introduction of extended diagnostics into the software platforms., and,, the EV systems is a build on an existing skill. That's it. So again, high voltage systems is a different set of fueling. So that feels to us it's an additional skill that needs to be acquired, whereas the software diagnostics is a build on skills that already exist and the perfect opportunity that to upskill,, the ROI and he made the case feels significant,, for the individual, the ability then to operate On a platform, AV platform, AV platform, which is a merged with the support of AI allows them to deliver more value.

So potentially it's servicing more vehicles because the toolkit that they're familiar with is able to help them move quicker or that they're operating at a higher level of dealing with more valuable assets or dealing with them in a different way. We've seen these roles in the short term anyway, being a much more valuable role. So from the individual's perspective. This is a valuable transition for them. These roles are more valuable., so there's both the benefit for the organization in retaining the existing experience, but there's also the benefit for the individual that for the short term, right now and right near. These are much more valuable roles in the order of 30 percent more valuable roles in the pocket of the individual.

We're jumping down to look at assembly line workers. Then what we've seen, and similar to what we saw in the manufacturing space, is that there's a real opportunity to be transitioning them from working on the line to working with the line. So it's the, the maintenance around the production line now, and they have an understanding of what the production line's intent is. The nature of quality,, what the process, what the issues around process are,, what proves challenging transitioning that experience into managing the production line and the automation of a production line, managing the robotics rather than managing the production systems., allows them to leverage on those things, which remain critical.

Understanding of quality and consistency remains critical in a robotic infrastructure., understanding how those tools are doing their work remains critical. So there is specifics around moving from the traditional production line to understanding the mechatronics,, and the management maintenance of robotic systems. But the process is still a key to a successful,, somebody being successful in that role., this is. Potentially a slightly more significant investment because we're talking now about moving into a level of expertise. So certifications around mechatronics,, to deliver a higher level of capability. But,, and again, that again makes the individual more valuable, more valuable., so significantly more valuable.

When the historic assembly line was on the lower end of compensation. So we see this becoming a significant opportunity for increased value for the individual., but it is also a big step up in the capabilities. It leverages a lot of what they have, but it is a decent step up in the capability. And the last one, I think that we're gonna have a quick look at was it was much more enterprise standard. So if you are making cars, there's a very good chance you are very large organization because it's it requires a lot of capital. , which means you have robust enterprise systems, whether it's accounts or sales, marketing, in house technology, operations, finance. These are, these are not uncommon across enterprise.

And typically there's a lot of transition between industries in these spaces because the toolkits are the same., so what we have here is what we see in other areas that. The ability to manage the ability to coordinate the ability to focus in detail is what makes for success in the administration., workforce ability to layer onto that the ability to understand and interpret data and work managed automated workflows of knowledge based work. So now we're talking about the movement of data rather than manually processing or manually dealing with data individually. So we see here again, moving more from. An admin to a process admin potentially. So responsibility for process, which would have been your job in the past, but helping making sure that's delivering the outcomes.

Is the acquisition of those skills around automation, those skills around understanding data at a slightly higher level. So again, similar to the assembly workers, there is a real proposition for the individual, a significant increase in their value and in the now to,, often because they're not starting at a particularly high level., but it also reflects that this, this function needs to continue and it's not just something that will happen in isolation. There is the ability to,, to bracket around it the expertise of the individuals having how this administration gets applied to your organization. So what's unique about how that's delivered in your space? And again, there's a, there's a range of tools and,, certifications and training opportunities to transition from current landscape of administration to that process automation, to that data understanding, that data analysis space.

I said again, the key and you made the point is understanding what the value proposition is for,, upscaling. So it's not it is. And it seems clear. Yeah. And Mike, I think as you were going through the last slides, I kept on seeing the timeline for development as well. The 4 to 6 months, 12 to 18 months, right? And the interesting thing is then we what we were saying is that ultimately the organizations will have to invest to actually reinvent themselves. Right, because they will need to new machinery, new agents, new, new technology. They will need to invest also to make sure that they upskill and we're still there. They're there. Their employees., the question is, how can how? How proactive can they be right?, how can how can they bring both this reinvention of work and the preparation of workforce in parallel in not in sequence, right?

Because if you ultimately if you if you Change the way that you operate, and only then you try to reskill your people, then, then there will be, you will have no other choice, but eventually to abandon a build strategy, actually going by. your, the skills that you need there as well So I think this responsibility, piece was something that was going through my head on actually being able to do the work that you were talking about that transition because again it takes time the investment of technology investment automation And the investment upskilling and re skilling it needs to be done in parallel so that you're able to be Whether it's in nine months or in 12 months or 18 months, you're able to be at the future that you wanted to be as well.

So this is, it's phenomenal. It's very clear. The one, the opportunity that this industry has, the size of the industry and the opportunity ahead, but also a lot of work, a lot of work and trying to understand what the future will look to rejig in one way or the other re engineer. Your workforce, your, the way that you do work, your tasks,, the sequence of your tasks, your workforce, the composition with humans and AI agents as well, but then being able, as you train and create. AI agents, you need to upskill and reskill also,, your, your human,, workers as well. So this is, this has been phenomenal,, Mike and, and thank you as well., as, as we wrap up with, with some of these key takeaways that you have here,, remember this,, reinvent your workforce, right?

That's the first piece that you see there. Reinvent your workforce., that means,, be bold on the way that you will do work moving forward. Make sure that you have, you do identify the skills and the people that you'll need,,, in the future, mobilize,, take action to, to build not only the, your AI agents, but also to build the skills and your human agents and your human people, right. And then, and then start re skilling and upskilling your workforce. as well, so three,, big takeaways take action reinvents mobilize and reskill, we look at roadmap to adopt ai we look at increasing productivity and velocity Look at your culture of opportunity how mature you are also to eventually automate and evolve in some parts of your businesses while you might not be as, as mature in other parts of your business.

So prioritize this and, and be strategic and, and be a leader there. And, and last,, re-skill your people,,, and, and, and leave no one,, behind as, as well. So that's, that's brilliant. Thank you so much, Mike, for,, for all these data and, and, and giving the, the size of, and the magnitude of change and opportunity that we have in, in the industry as, as well.

Mike Reed: No, I think it's the automotive industry knows that it's already in the middle of this. It's already in the middle of EVs. It's already in the middle of,, AVs. It's already in the middle of reshoring, bringing together the whole,, the whole of the supply chain. And it's in the middle of, as we all are, the landing of AI and agents in a real way. So they're already in the middle of this. And I think it's not just a. What do we do now for next? This is the transformation of this industry that's relevant to the workforce for the next 50 years. It's not just, it's not just let's get this done before Friday. This is going to change the nature of how transportation is done for the next 50 years, not the next five years.

And this is the huge opportunity that this industry is already aware of because they've been dealing with EVs and AVs. And now they're dealing with everything else that's around it. I think it's

Nuno Goncalves: both exciting. It's both scary and exciting. I think as many things in life, right? It's very scary., oh, my God, it's coming, but it's exciting because ultimately for those of us that see what needs to be done. And here you're you're giving the action plan one way or the other, then just let's let's go build a better a better world as well. So I love I love that. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're getting to the end. So,, is if you if you found today's session valuable, we have much more coming up., imagine what, you could we could also personalize and deep dive into your organization. So we do this at an industry level, but if you want to ask to actually come in and actually have a deeper look at your organization and be able to give you some more insights on how to do this specifically within this industry, other industries, but specifically for your work.

For your company, use the QR code on the screen to book a personalized skills masterclass and myself or any another other of our workforce strategies will be very thrilled to be with you and and find the time to meet and provide insights,, that are specific to your to your business as well. So,, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us today., as I said,, hope we you found this skills master class insightful and that you're walking away with actions. We not only and Mike does that brilliantly. We not only tell you listen, here's here's what we see at a high level, but we actually say, Okay, here's what you can do, whether you're ready to do it or not. But this is this is what you can do.

We show the pathways, which I think is phenomenal. So, As I said,, walking away with actionable strategies to transform your workforce. So we're excited to invite you also to our next,, skills masterclass., we'll be unbundling work in, in,, in another exciting industry, aerospace and defense industry. , and exploring as any other,, it's unique challenges and opportunities. So mark your calendars. It's Wednesdays. We always do this on Wednesdays. We try to do this in times that are in a time that is that is amicable for many different time zones. It's 11 a. m. Eastern and the next one will be in February 19th. So, so mark on your calendar. So as always, a big thank you to anyone that has attended live., or anyone that is watching this recording as well and Mike, it's, it's always a treat., I, I learned tremendously from what you say and your perspectives and you always make me think of something new in these, in these sessions.

So thank you so much for, for sharing this expertise. It's, it's,, it's a true pleasure.

Mike Reed: Yep. That's been great. Thanks again, Luna. I've got my,, security clearance ready for aerospace and defense. So hopefully you're already sorted or maybe you don't need to tell me., it's probably, probably secure. I'm looking forward

Nuno Goncalves: More to come soon, everybody. Thanks so much, Mike. Take care. Thanks all.