Digital Skill Standards v2.0: Updated Data and AI Roles

Digital Skill Standards (DSS) consists of the DX Literacy Standard for all business professionals and the DX Promotion Skill Standard, which defines the roles and required skills of personnel promoting DX.

As digital technologies such as AI rapidly evolved and AI utilization in DX expanded, the importance of roles responsible for preparing and utilizing data increased. DX also expanded beyond individual businesses and projects to include business and organizational transformation.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and IPA had also revised DSS in August 2023 and July 2024 in response to the spread of generative AI. This revision reorganized the frameworks related to data management and business transformation.

For companies and organizations, the standards can organize the roles and skills needed to promote DX from the perspectives of data preparation and utilization, AI utilization, business transformation, and design, and can serve as guidance when considering workforce recruitment and development.

For individuals, the standards clarify the criteria for identifying the skills to learn according to their desired roles and advancing upskilling and career development.

IPA expects this revision to clarify the roles and skills needed for business transformation and data and AI utilization, accelerating corporate DX and individual growth.

Going forward, IPA will promote dissemination and utilization with the involvement of relevant organizations and private-sector players, while continuously reviewing Digital Skill Standards based on user feedback.

A data management category was newly established, defining the Data Steward, Data Engineer, and Data Architect roles responsible for building systems for ensuring data security and reliability and enabling data distribution, as well as promoting data utilization. The Data Engineer role, formerly included in the data scientist category, was removed from that category and integrated into the new category.

The Data Utilization category was renamed Data Preparation and Utilization, and six skills were newly established under the Data Management subcategory.

In the business architect category, the three former roles related to new business development, advancement of existing businesses, and advancement and efficiency improvement of internal operations were updated and redefined as Business Architect, Business Analyst, and Product Manager. The skills in the Business Transformation category were also comprehensively reviewed.

In the designer category, Graphic Designer was removed, and Communication Designer was newly established as the role responsible for conveying the significance and usage of products and services. In addition, skills, descriptions in the DX Literacy Standard, and supplementary materials concerning Design Management Practice, which promotes collaboration and co-creation among stakeholders, were added or revised.

Skills related to AI implementation and operations and AI governance were also added in categories such as the data scientist category. In addition, the importance of skills for each role, including existing roles, was comprehensively reviewed based on the items added or changed in this revision.

As part of efforts to promote dissemination and utilization, the Manabi DX portal site of the Digital Human Resources Development Platform links and visualizes learning content from training providers and the DX Promotion Skill Standard. Work is also underway to build the Digital Human Resources Skills Platform, which stores and visualizes individuals' skill information by linking it to DSS.