Future-Ready Knowledge Management: Skills, Roles, and Career Paths in Transition
KM is evolving. No longer a behind-the-scenes support function, KM today plays a central role in enabling innovation, improving operational efficiency, and preserving critical knowledge. This evolution is shaped by factors such as the rise of AI, the widespread adoption of remote work, and the growing need to preserve knowledge amid workforce churn.
Against this backdrop of change, APQC set out to learn more about the people driving KM forward. The data we gathered from 420 KM practitioners reveals a diverse professional community that is adapting to new demands and asking hard questions about the future. Drawing from our key findings, this article explores the skills that today's KM professionals bring to the table, the challenges they face, and the opportunities ahead.
The People Behind KM: Diverse, Experienced, and Mission-Driven
There is no single route to becoming a KM practitioner or leader, and KM professionals today generally did not come right out of college into a KM role. Only 5% of our respondents obtained a higher-level degree in KM. The most common degrees include business administration or related fields (30%), information or library science (11%), engineering (11%), and computer science or IT (10%).
Many KM professionals start in roles centered on information or content management, project management, HR, communications, learning and development, or IT. The skills and capabilities that they develop in these roles (for example, stakeholder management and critical thinking) are also foundational for effective KM. For that reason, it makes sense that over half our respondents said that their background made them a natural fit for a career in KM (see Figure 1). Another 52% said that they came to a career in KM out of a desire to help improve efficiency and effectiveness for their organization.
Once people start doing KM work, many stick with it (see Figure 2). More than two-thirds of our respondents (67%) have been working in KM for at least 6 years, and more than half have been immersed in KM for over a decade.
Fewer than 1 in 5 respondents (18%) have less than 3 years’ experience. Lower numbers of junior-level KM staff mean that many KM leaders have an opportunity to partner with HR to grow and sustain their talent pipeline for the future. Without action, staffing will become increasingly difficult as larger numbers of KM professionals begin to retire.
Core Competencies for KM Success
As KM continues to evolve, the skills required to succeed are changing as well. Below, we highlight the skills that KM professionals told us are important in their work today and the capabilities they’ll need to thrive in the future. These skills span strategic, technical, and human-centered domains, reflecting KM's unique positioning at the intersections of people, process, and technology.
♦ Strategic Alignment and Business Integration
KM professionals are increasingly expected to connect their work directly to business goals. This makes sense given the fact that almost half our respondents (44%) operate under an enterprise-wide model, with 25% reporting directly to the C-suite or VP-level sponsors.
Emergent technologies such as AI are a good example of why strategic alignment between KM and the business is so important. KM's drive to solve real-world business problems and add tangible ROI for stakeholders helps the business stay focused on using technology in ways that add value, rather than simply chasing after shiny objects.