Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications streamline workflows, automate tasks, and require adaptive strategies for effective integration into business processes. This research explores the transformative influence of AI on various industries, such as software engineering, automation, education, accounting, mining, legal services, and media. We investigate the relationship between technological advancements and the job market to identify relevant skills for individuals and organizations for implementing and managing AI systems and human–machine interactions necessary for actual and future jobs. We focus on the essential adaptations for individuals and organizations to flourish in this era. To bridge the gap between AI-driven demands and the existing capabilities of the workforce, we employ the Rapid Review methodology to explore the integration of AI in businesses, identify crucial skill sets, analyze challenges, and propose solutions in this dynamic age. We searched the Scopus database, screening a total of 39 articles, of which we selected 20 articles for this systematic review. The inclusion criteria focused on conference papers and journal articles from 2020 or later and written in English. The selected articles offer valuable insights into the impact of AI on education, business, healthcare, robotics, manufacturing, and automation across diverse sectors, as well as providing perspectives on the evolving landscape of expertise. The findings underscore the importance of crucial skill sets, such as technical proficiency and adaptability, to successfully adopt AI. Businesses respond strategically by implementing continuous skill adaptation and ethical technology to address challenges. The paper concludes by emphasizing the imperative of balanced skill development, proactive education, and strategic integration to navigate the profound impact of AI on the workforce effectively.

The fast growth of the urban population increases the demand for energy, water, and transportation, amongst other needs. This study explores the current state and future scenarios of Smart Cities and the environmental, economic, and social challenges that must be overcome. We used the Rapid Review method to understand the challenges of implementing Smart Cities in different urban contexts and the potential impact of research on Smart City planning in future Smart Cities. The study offers insights into the potential for Smart City growth while identifying obstacles that must be addressed to ensure sustainability. Results serve as a foundation for planning and decision-making, highlighting aspects such as the adoption of alternative energies, reduction in car use, preservation of ecosystems, waste reduction, citizen participation, infrastructure, and citizen data privacy, among others. These aspects are essential to overcome obstacles and promoting Smart Cities’ development.

Work has been continuously changing throughout history. The most severe changes to work occurred because of the industrial revolutions, and we are living in one of these moments. To allow us to address these changes as early as possible, mitigating important problems before they occur, we need to explore the future of work. As such, our purpose in this paper is to discuss the main global trends and provide a likely scenario for work in 2050 that takes into consideration the recent changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was performed by thirteen researchers with different backgrounds divided into five topics that were analyzed individually using four future studies methods: Bibliometrics, Brainstorming, Futures Wheel, and Scenarios. As the study was done before COVID-19, seven researchers of the original group later updated the most likely scenario with new Bibliometrics and Brainstorming. Our findings include that computerization advances will further reduce the demand for low-skill and low-wage jobs; non-standard employment tends to be better regulated; new technologies will allow a transition to a personalized education process; workers will receive knowledge-intensive training, making them more adaptable to new types of jobs; self-employment and entrepreneurship will grow in the global labor market; and universal basic income would not reach its full potential, but income transfer programs will be implemented for the most vulnerable population. Finally, we highlight that this study explores the future of work in 2050 while considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic, a transformative event in modern society, has disrupted routine, work, behavior, and human relationships. Organizations, amidst the chaos, have innovatively adapted to the evolving situation. However, many countries were unprepared for the magnitude of the challenge, revealing the fragility of health responses due to inadequate leadership, insufficient resources, and poor information system integration. Structural changes in health systems are imperative, particularly in leadership, governance, human resources, financing, information systems, technology, and health service provision. This research utilizes the Technological Roadmapping method to analyze the health sector, focusing on public health, drawing on articles from SCOPUS and PubMed databases, and creating a roadmap extending to 2050. The research presents three long-term scenarios based on the literature-derived roadmap and explores various alternatives, including integrated care, telemedicine, Big Data utilization, nanotechnology, and Big Tech’s AI services. The results underscore the anticipation of post-pandemic public health with high expectations, emphasizing the importance of integrating health history access, encouraging self-care, and leveraging technology for streamlined treatment. Practical implications include insights for decision makers and stakeholders to inform strategic planning and adapt to evolving industry demands, recognizing the significance of preventive services and the humanizing potential of technology.

The 4th Industrial Revolution is causing profound and accelerated changes to work, bringing new opportunities and challenges as practically all occupations are impacted by new technologies. The transformations in the labor market were accelerated even more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the scenario in which old occupations cease to exist and new occupations are being created, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to be prepared to educate professionals capable of getting and keeping qualified jobs. To do so, HEIs need tools to evaluate their undergraduate courses in the face of the changing demands of the labor market. In this study, we propose a novel approach to employability from the perspective of HEIs, creating a framework – called Higher Education Courses Employability (HECE) – to help HEI decision-makers to make decisions based on employability data to mitigate the reported gap between the theory taught in HEIs and the labor market demands. The HECE framework was evaluated as useful and relevant by HEI decision-makers and Employability experts from Brazil, a continental country with deep social differences between and within its regions, and where the unemployment and underemployment rates demonstrate the mismatch between the labor market demands and the undergraduate course’s curricula. The applicability of HECE in different Brazillian regions provides evidence that the framework can be applied in most contexts. This study provides a set of tools to facilitate the implementation of the framework by HEIs. The innovative nature of the approach of this research was reported by the evaluators.

The world is changing increasingly faster, bringing uncertainty and complexity to many processes, and this acceleration leads to the rise of demand for studies regarding the future. Futures Studies have been widely used to support decision-making, emphasizing forecasting technologies’ timing, diffusion, and life cycle. Therefore, evaluating previous forecasts to understand their proposed scenarios better is often necessary. This work analyzes all articles published until the end of 2023 in one of the most relevant journals of this field of study, the European Journal of Futures Research (EJFR). The EJFR is among the main contributors to fostering dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in anticipating and shaping the future. We streamlined the uncovering of future events written on EJFR articles using NERMAP, a software we designed to semi-automate the roadmapping process. We built five simple scenarios and associated each of the 214 future events found into a scenario. Then, we analyzed the 52 events that were supposed to happen until 2023 to discover how the expected possible events did occur in real life. Therefore, we expect to provide insights, better understand how expected possible events occur in real life, and write a novel way to understand the journal’s history. The methodology used in this study is novel and applicable to other studies to reduce the time and risk of errors when developing large-scale roadmaps. This work provides valuable information for decision-makers in organizations and governments. The Futures Research scientific community can use the results to improve their research frameworks.