Engineering work is changing faster than many training programs can follow. The AI boom has introduced new tools to learn, raised expectations for what teams can achieve in a workday, and made it harder for engineers to get hired in the first place.
That pressure points to one skill above the rest: adaptability. Engineers must respond to new tools, shifting expectations, and uncertainty, yet universities and workplace training often do not explain how to build that ability.
Adaptability Has Become an Engineering Requirement
Every employer has its own idea of what it means to be adaptable. One company may connect the skill to learning new tools, while another may expect engineers to respond when priorities or working conditions change. Without a shared definition, engineers can hear that adaptability matters without learning how to show it.
Samantha Brunhaver, an associate professor of engineering at Arizona State University, has studied this problem since receiving a National Science Foundation award in 2020 to research workplace adaptability. Her work focuses on a gap between what employers ask for and what education or training helps people develop.
“We tell engineers that they need to be adaptable when they graduate, but we don’t actually explain what that means, demonstrate what that looks like, [or] help make sure that they’re developing it,” Brunhaver said.
That gap matters as AI changes the daily work of engineering. New systems create new tools to learn, but they also raise expectations for what teams can accomplish during a workday. At the same time, the hiring process has become harder, adding pressure before an engineer even enters a team.
Adaptability, then, is not just a personal advantage. It has become part of the challenge facing engineers, universities, workplace training programs, and employers.
What Adaptability Really Means
Brunhaver defines adaptability as “the ability to recognize that a change or uncertainty is occurring, and then respond effectively to that change.” The definition has two connected parts: noticing what has changed and taking an effective response.
That distinction gives the word more meaning than simply learning a new tool. An engineer may face a new technology, a different expectation for team output, or uncertainty about how work will change. Adaptability requires recognizing that shift and responding to it.
The challenge is that education and training often do not make this process clear. University curricula and workplace programs may tell engineers to become adaptable, but they do not always explain what the skill looks like or help engineers develop it.
This leaves employers with different expectations and engineers with different signals to interpret. If every employer has its own idea of adaptability, engineers must navigate changing definitions at the same time they navigate changing technology.
AI Is Speeding Up the Skills Shift
The pace of change is visible in labor-market research. Jobs in the technology, media, and telecom sectors are experiencing the fastest pace of skill turnover, according to a June 2026 report on the effects of AI from PwC.
That finding places engineering inside a wider transformation. AI is not only adding tools to technical work; it is changing the skills teams expect and the speed at which those skills must change.
The World Economic Forum’s most recent Future of Jobs Report, published in 2025, found that employers across all sectors expect 39 percent of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. The number shows why adaptability has moved from a useful quality to a central workforce concern.
For engineers, the message is direct. The tools and expectations that shape work today may not define work by 2030, and employers already expect a large share of core skills to change.
Gwendolyn Rak serves as an assistant editor at IEEE Spectrum, and Dan Page is the author of the article examining this challenge. Their focus brings the issue into view at a moment when AI is reshaping engineering work and hiring.
The question is no longer whether engineers will encounter change. The question is whether they will recognize it and respond effectively, as Brunhaver’s definition demands.
The Next Step for Engineers and Educators
Adaptability cannot remain a word employers place in job expectations without explanation. Engineers need clear examples of what the skill means, while universities and workplace training programs need to help them develop it.
The AI boom has made that work urgent. New tools will continue to shape engineering tasks, team expectations, and hiring conditions, while the pace of skill turnover puts pressure on workers to respond.
The strongest response begins with clarity: identify the change, understand what it demands, and respond effectively. As employers expect 39 percent of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, adaptability may become the skill that helps engineers keep moving when everything else shifts.
