Synopsis
Almost everyone today claims to know artificial intelligence. Fresh graduates list ChatGPT and Gemini on their résumés, employees attend AI workshops, and companies proudly announce that their workforce is becoming AI-ready. Yet behind this growing enthusiasm, I see a serious talent gap emerging. Through organising the Penang Digitalisation Expo and AI Future Makers Bootcamp, I have come to realise that what businesses desperately need is not simply people who know how to use AI applications. They need individuals capable of applying AI to research, development, automation, workflows, programming and real business problems. The distinction may sound small, but its implications for recruitment, employability and business competitiveness are enormous. Perhaps it is time for employers to stop asking candidates whether they know AI and start asking what they have actually built with it.
The Talent Shortage We Discovered Through PDX
When we organised the Penang Digitalisation Expo (PDX), one of my objectives was to bring businesses, technology providers, universities and industry leaders together to accelerate digital transformation. We wanted to understand what companies needed, what technologies were available and how different industries could move forward in an increasingly digital economy.
Throughout the event, I had opportunities to exchange perspectives with business owners, technology professionals, educators and corporate leaders. Although the conversations covered many different subjects, one particular concern continued to stand out to me. The market does not necessarily lack technology. There are already countless software platforms, AI applications and digital solutions available. What remains difficult is finding the right people who can take these technologies and transform them into something genuinely useful for an organisation.
Initially, we might describe this as a shortage of digital talent. But after looking more closely, I believe the problem is more specific. We are short of people who can genuinely work with artificial intelligence beyond the level of ordinary application usage. In particular, individuals capable of combining AI with research and development, programming, process redesign, prototyping and business innovation remain relatively uncommon.
I sometimes jokingly describe these people as a rare species. Everyone is looking for them, many employers claim to need them, but finding someone who can actually demonstrate these capabilities is not as easy as it sounds.
And that raises an uncomfortable question. If everyone is learning AI, why are businesses still struggling to find AI-ready talent?
When Everyone Says They Know AI, What Does That Really Mean?
Over the years, hiring has been an important part of building our company. Like many employers, we evaluate candidates based on their qualifications, experience, attitude and ability to contribute to the organisation. More recently, another question has naturally entered our recruitment conversations: Do you know how to use AI?
Today, the answer is almost always yes.
When we ask candidates which AI tools they are familiar with, the responses are often predictable. ChatGPT. Gemini. Sometimes another popular application. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these answers. Both ChatGPT and Gemini are powerful technologies, and I use AI tools extensively in my own work. They can accelerate research, improve communication, assist with analysis and make everyday tasks considerably more efficient.
But knowing how to interact with an AI chatbot is not the same as knowing how to use artificial intelligence to solve a business problem.
Consider the difference between someone who uses ChatGPT to write a job advertisement and someone who can design an AI-assisted recruitment workflow. The first person may produce a better advertisement in minutes. The second person might examine how applications arrive, how candidate information is organised, how recruiters identify relevant qualifications, and where automation can reduce repetitive administrative work while preserving human judgement and fairness.
Both are using AI, but the depth of their contribution is completely different.
The same distinction applies to marketing, finance, operations, customer service and software development. One person asks AI for suggestions. Another person uses AI to develop a functioning prototype, connect different systems, automate repetitive processes and validate whether the solution delivers measurable value.
For a fresh graduate entering the workforce, simply stating that you know ChatGPT and Gemini is becoming an increasingly weak differentiator. These tools are accessible to almost everyone. What matters is your ability to move beyond using them and demonstrate something meaningful.
Your value does not come from the number of AI applications you recognise. It comes from what you are capable of accomplishing with them.
What Our AI Future Makers Participants Revealed
This talent challenge became even more interesting when we started organising AI Future Makers Bootcamp 2026, an initiative that will culminate in its final competition on 7 November 2026. Through this programme, we want to encourage students to move beyond classroom knowledge and demonstrate how artificial intelligence can be used to address actual industry challenges.
One of the areas we introduced involves human resource management. Recruitment, talent attraction, candidate screening and employee retention are familiar challenges for many organisations. HR departments often receive applications from multiple platforms, spend significant time reviewing résumés and face the difficult responsibility of identifying suitable candidates while maintaining consistent and fair evaluation practices.
We wanted participants to think about these challenges from a problem-solving perspective. Instead of simply asking AI to recommend hiring strategies, could they explore how AI might support a practical workflow? Could they research the problem, understand the people affected, develop a prototype and demonstrate an approach that might be useful to an actual HR department?
The response to our programme has been encouraging. Yet one observation from our participant survey caught my attention. Many students were familiar with ChatGPT and Gemini, while their exposure to other AI development tools and approaches appeared much more limited.
This is not a criticism of the students. In fact, I see it as a reflection of a much larger issue in how we understand AI education.
We have become very good at introducing people to AI applications. Workshops teach participants how to create prompts, generate presentations, produce images and improve productivity. These are useful skills, but they should represent the beginning of the learning journey, not the destination.
What I would like to see is a generation of young people who can use AI to conduct research, design workflows, develop basic software, build prototypes and experiment with ideas that previously seemed beyond their technical capabilities.
Not everyone needs to become a software engineer. A business student may understand an operational problem better than a programmer. An HR student may identify weaknesses in recruitment processes that a technology developer would overlook. What matters is their willingness to learn, experiment and connect their domain knowledge with the right AI capabilities.
That, to me, is where the next generation of valuable talent will emerge.
Perhaps Employers Are Asking the Wrong Interview Questions
If the definition of AI talent is changing, our recruitment methods must evolve with it.
Imagine interviewing two fresh graduates. Both hold similar qualifications, and both claim proficiency in AI. The first candidate explains that they regularly use ChatGPT for assignments, research and presentation preparation. The second candidate brings a working prototype that they developed to solve a problem they observed during an internship.
The prototype may not be perfect. It may contain limitations, require additional testing or need considerable improvement before being suitable for real-world deployment. Nevertheless, the second candidate has already demonstrated something valuable: the ability to identify a problem, research possible solutions, experiment with technology and turn an idea into something tangible.
As an employer, I would be very interested in understanding how that person thinks.
This is why I believe HR professionals should consider introducing practical demonstrations into their recruitment process, especially when hiring for roles involving digital transformation, innovation, operations improvement and AI adoption.
Instead of merely asking candidates which tools they know, ask them to explain a workflow they have designed. Ask them to demonstrate a prototype, describe a problem they solved or explain how they evaluated the reliability of an AI-generated result. Ask what went wrong during development and how they corrected it.
These conversations can reveal problem-solving ability, curiosity, adaptability and practical judgement that conventional résumé screening may not capture.
Of course, AI capability should not replace other essential hiring considerations. Communication, ethics, teamwork, business understanding and the ability to make responsible decisions remain important. A candidate who can generate impressive software but cannot explain its risks or understand its users is not automatically a strong hire.
The goal is not to recruit people who know the most AI tools. It is to identify people who can combine technology, critical thinking and execution to deliver meaningful outcomes.
The Next Talent Advantage Will Belong to Those Who Can Build
As I reflect on these experiences, I believe we are approaching an important turning point in the employment market.
For many years, academic qualifications and professional experience served as the primary signals of employability. They will continue to matter, but AI is creating additional ways for individuals to demonstrate their potential. A student no longer needs to wait until joining a large organisation to experiment with automation, develop a software concept or explore an innovative business solution.
With accessible AI tools, the distance between an idea and an early working prototype has become considerably shorter.
But accessibility also changes the expectations of employers. When almost everyone can generate content, prepare a report or ask AI for advice, those abilities alone become less distinctive. The competitive advantage increasingly belongs to individuals who understand what should be built, why it matters, how it works and whether it genuinely solves the intended problem.
That is the mindset we hope to encourage through AI Future Makers Bootcamp.
I do not expect every participant to develop a commercially viable product. I do not expect every student to become an AI engineer. What I hope to see is a change in how they approach challenges. Instead of waiting for someone to provide the answer, I want them to investigate, question, experiment and demonstrate what they can create.
For employers, this presents an opportunity to discover talent through evidence of capability rather than qualifications alone.
For young people, it is an invitation to become more than users of technology.
And for universities, industry leaders and HR professionals, it is an opportunity to reconsider how we prepare, identify and develop the workforce of tomorrow.
The next valuable employee may not be the candidate who claims to know every AI platform. It may be the one who arrives with a simple prototype, a clear understanding of a business problem and the determination to improve it.
A Message to HR Leaders, Talent Acquisition Managers and Employers
If your company is currently recruiting fresh graduates, developing an AI-ready workforce or struggling to identify people who can translate artificial intelligence into practical business outcomes, I would like to connect with you.
Through AI Future Makers Bootcamp 2026, we are creating an environment where emerging talents can explore real industry challenges and demonstrate their thinking, creativity and execution capabilities. Our final competition takes place on 7 November 2026, and I believe this is an opportunity for HR leaders and business owners to pay attention to a different kind of talent development.
I would particularly welcome conversations with HR Directors, Talent Acquisition Managers, Learning and Development leaders, and CEOs who are reconsidering how their organisations assess and recruit AI-capable people.
Perhaps the question we should ask in our next interview is no longer, "Do you know ChatGPT?"
Perhaps it should be, "Show me what you have built, explain the problem you solved, and tell me what you learned."
That is a conversation I would be excited to have with the next generation of talent.
Explore the initiative at https://aifm.asia and connect with me through https://lukastan.com.
The future of employment will not be defined simply by who knows AI. It will increasingly be shaped by those who know how to turn AI into real value.
Dream It. Execute It. Ground It.