Qiu Mengying, 25, is confident that her aircraft engineer job is indispensable and has no fear she will be replaced by intelligent machines.
Despite heated debate over the threat to the workforce posed by artificial intelligence, Qiu, a member of an aircraft maintenance training team that participated in the recent 48th WorldSkills Competition, said: "In our profession, AI is just a helper. It is not here to replace us."
The seven skills added to this year's event, which concluded in Shanghai on Sept 27, are unique and hard to automate, she added. "These new skills reflect the latest trends in occupational development and industrial upgrading," said Qiu, while demonstrating her aircraft maintenance skills at the China Eastern Airlines exhibition booth.
"They send a signal to more students and young people about where career opportunities are headed, while helping them gain a clearer understanding of their own career plans."
Future requirements
Unlike many standardized and repetitive jobs, the new skills included in the competition offered a glimpse of the expertise workers will need as industries transform and develop.
Known as a bellwether of industrial upgrades and employment trends, WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 helped shed light on "irreplaceable occupations" despite AI's spread, said officials and participants.
The skills look to tap into the core employment requirements of digitalization, multidisciplinary and specialized skills. They send clear signals that despite the overwhelming application of AI across various cutting-edge sectors — including digital economy, smart infrastructure and modern commerce — humans cannot be replaced by intelligent machines, the officials and participants said.
"There are a total of 64 skills at this year's competition, including seven new skills appearing at the event for the first time," Wu Liduo, director general of occupational capacity building at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said during a State Council Information Office news conference in Beijing in June.
The addition of the seven new skills: unmanned aerial systems, digital interactive media design, rail vehicle technology, intelligent security technology, software testing, dental prosthetics and retail sales, was the consensus of all members participating in the event — dubbed the "Skills Olympics" — said Wu, who is also secretary-general of the competition's organizing committee secretariat.
Li Junyu, a backup Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Polytechnic team member in the software testing competition, is also confident AI will not replace programmers.
"As AI becomes more involved in software development, testing will also need to determine whether the answers generated by AI are correct," said Li.
"AI will be more of a tool for improving efficiency. Humans will still need to make the final judgment on the accuracy and authenticity of the answers it generates."
Cai Lizhi, director of the Shanghai Development Center of Computer Software Technology, said software engineering, development and testing all play different roles.
"Software testing helps developers correct their own mistakes, making it easier to identify more bugs," Cai told the Shanghai Observer.
AI has developed from a simple tool for software testing into a partner, Cai said. Working with AI as a team can significantly raise efficiency. For example, the China training base system for the 48th World-Skills Competition featured AI testing tools to assist competitors.
"Against this backdrop of technological development, software testing engineers can acquire knowledge of relevant industries and apply the new skills across fields. If you can make AI handle repetitive tasks, engineers can deal with other software problems," Cai said.
Workplace improvements
Wu believes adding new skills is not simply about expanding the competition, but about aligning skills with the latest technological trends.
"The level of the competition reflects the level of the industry, so competition standards can finally be translated to workplace standards," said Wu.
Wu cited digital interactive media design as an example, which focuses on advanced skills such as immersive interaction, intelligent digital innovation and virtual-scene design. "In practice, it integrates digital technology with manufacturing and other industries, matching the development trends and technological requirements of emerging industries such as AI and digital cultural creation," Wu said.
Zhou Jiaxiang, a national training team member and instructor at Shanghai Nanhu Vocational and Technical College, said: "Digital interactive media technology is everywhere in our daily lives, such as every page we open on our phones, every app icon and even the WeChat interface and chat window, which are all part of digital interaction."
Dong Jiawen, head of the integrated media technology and operations program at Shanghai Nanhu said competition in digital interactive media technology is like building a "digital theme park", and competitors need to balance creativity and logic.
Miao Yihua, an associate professor of the school of digital creativity at Shanghai Nanhu said although the college's team did not make the final and represent China in the event, training for the competition greatly improved the team members' skills.
"The abilities required for digital interactive media design are similar to those needed to operate a one-person company, or OPC, in the media sector. Competitors are expected to be capable of handling everything from starting a business, editing images and videos and managing operations to organizing and analyzing data, marketing and entrepreneurship," said Miao.
"This experience not only offers us tips for future competitions, but also gives us the direction for professional training and education."
More opportunities
The global industrial transformation and upgrade has driven the ongoing emergence of new industries and occupations, which resulted in the seven new skills being added to the biennial event, Wu explained.
In recent years, for example, high-speed rail and urban rail transit have developed rapidly, but the sector faces a shortage of skilled workers for the operation, maintenance and repair of rail vehicles. As a result, rail vehicle technology skill was added to reflect this need, Wu said.
"China is already taking a leading position in rail vehicle technology worldwide," said Yang Danhao, a coach of Shanghai Communications Polytechnic's team in the rail vehicle technology sector of the competition. "Adding this new skill to the competition allowed participants from across the world to learn from our experience in this sector."
Yang added the competition raised awareness about China's high-speed railway and rail transportation brands, promoting their global reputation.
As the second-largest employment sector in the world, retail is a fundamental industry supporting national economies and people's livelihoods. Retail sales was one of the seven new skills at this year's competition. Digital transformation in new retail has underscored a soaring demand for multiskilled talent in the sector.
Shanghai is building itself into an international consumption hub and China is experiencing a consumption upgrade and high-quality development. China's consumer goods retail sales reached 50.1 trillion yuan ($7.48 trillion) in 2025, up 3.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Final consumption expenditure contributed 52 percent to economic growth, continuing as the main driver of the economy.
In 2017, Chen Yifan, a China Eastern flight attendant, won the excellence award in restaurant service at the 44th WorldSkills Competition in Abu Dhabi.
Chen said training for the competition allows participants to hone a specific skill or profession, which can lead to significant improvements in their work performance.
"Competing at the WorldSkills Competition let me become a master of my work skills. More importantly it allowed me to bring the ability to pay attention to details, as well as excellence and international-standard professionalism, to our daily service, so that we can better serve our customers," said Chen. She was the first Chinese entrant to win a medal in the restaurant service skill competition.
Wu said a WorldSkills medal and other work awards can help inspire more young people to enter a particular industry and develop their skills.
Editor：Zhou Jinmiao
