When I look around my lecture hall at uni, I can see at least three people secretly asking ChatGPT to do their assignment. Someone else is using an AI tool to summarise notes. I’m not judging cause I’ve done it too.
But every time I hit “generate”, there’s this tiny thought in the back of my mind: if AI can do my homework this fast, what will it do to my future job?
Malta looks fine… on paper
If you just look at the numbers, everything seems chill. Malta has one of the highest employment rates in the EU.
So if most people are working, what’s the problem?
The issue isn’t just about having a job anymore. It’s about whether our skills actually match the jobs that are coming, especially with AI taking over a lot of boring, repetitive stuff. The OECD has already pointed out that Malta still has serious skills shortages and mismatches, and a big chunk of adults with low skills.
AI isn’t just sci-fi here… it’s already reshaping our jobs
This isn’t some “in 2050 robots will…” conversation. It’s already happening.
An IMF study earlier this year found that around 60% of Malta’s labour market is highly exposed to AI. Out of that, about one-third of workers are actually at risk of job displacement, especially people in admin, clerical and sales roles. Another Central Bank speech put it this way: roughly 30% of jobs in Malta could be affected by automation, with young people, women and those with lower education levels more vulnerable.
That’s literally us, students about to enter the job market, probably starting in exactly those kinds of roles: admin, retail, customer care, office work.
No wonder surveys show that over half of Maltese think robots and AI will steal people’s jobs.
But here’s the part that annoys me the most.
We keep hearing that Malta wants to become a digital hub and an AI island. There’s an official AI Strategy 2030, and the government has launched AI pilot projects in areas like transport, education, health and tourism.
But when you look at who actually gets the best tech and digital jobs, it’s often not Maltese youth.
Research on Malta’s digital skills gap found that there’s a shortage of IT professionals, and that in sectors like iGaming, Maltese nationals are mostly stuck in entry-level roles, while a lot of the high-skill, high-pay positions are taken by foreigners.
It’s not that foreigners shouldn’t work here, obviously they should. But it says something when local students are not being prepared enough to compete for the top roles in their own country. That’s the talent gap.
And it’s not just about coding as a Times of Malta piece last year talked about skills mismatches across the whole workforce, and called for education, government and businesses to fix it together.
So where does that leave us?
AI is definitely going to change work in Malta. Some jobs will disappear, many will change, and new ones will appear that don’t even exist yet.
But whether this becomes a story about lost opportunities or new chances depends a lot on what we do now what we study, how our schools adapt, and whether Malta takes the skills gap seriously instead of hiding behind nice statistics.
We don’t get to decide if AI is coming. It’s already here.
What we can decide is whether we’re just passive users… or the generation that actually shapes how AI fits into Malta’s future.