Skills and Competencies Needed to Use the Smart Technologies for Industry 4.0

ABSTRACT The European Parliament has declared 2023 as the European Year of Skills, which will give new impetus to lifelong learning. In this way, both citizens and economic entities will contribute to the green and digital transition, supporting innovation, creativity and competitiveness, in a world governed by the impulse of artificial intelligence. The objectives of the article consist in redefining the skills required on the labour market, in the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the consequences of the implementation of the AI system in economic and business education. In order to achieve these objectives, the authors used mixed research. Data were collected for 27 countries and 13 indicators, in the period of 2015–2021, from the database of the CEDEFOP and were processed with PASW (quantitative research). Qualitative research in the design science of the automation of repetitive processes within economic processes, specifically the economic process of managing special orders, used the experiment as a working tool. The research results indicate certain correlations between various indicators, which will impose a series of changes in the academic environment in terms of adapting disciplines to new requirements, in order to insert new knowledge related to the understanding and use of intelligent technologies.