All Hail the Rise of Human Skills: People Power in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating through nearly every facet of work, requiring the development of new skills. But don’t count out the professional value of knowing how to adapt, use judgment and emotionally connect with others just yet.

In this age of AI, “human skills” are becoming all the more relevant and sought-after by organizations that understand the necessity of prioritizing and nurturing those skills.

Do you understand or do you underestimate?

“The challenge is that we have to invest as much in our people as we do in our platforms,” said Anne Grady, a resilience and adaptability expert and the author of the book EvolvAbility: Growing Forward When Life Goes Sideways. “Without human skills, we’ll have faster burnout, disengagement, poor decisions and no trust. We’re underestimating the impact of humans using AI and how we relate to each other in that process.”

Access a bonus Workspan Daily Plus+ article on this subject:

• How Human Workers and AI Can Become Valuable Colleagues

More Than a Rebrand

Grady and the other experts interviewed for this article shared various examples of human skills, particularly those with growing relevance to AI. These include:

• Critical thinking, intuition and cognitive flexibility
• Judgment and ethics
• Adaptability, resilience and agility
• Self-awareness
• The ability to build rapport and develop relationships
• Communication and conflict management
• Emotional aptitude, social intelligence and empathy
• Creativity and innovation
• The capacity to make a decision with incomplete information
• The ability to ask the right questions
• The aptitude to navigate variable environments and volatile people dynamics
• The propensity to apply complex context to a task or request

But are there differences between human skills and other skills? The experts say yes.

According to Grady, soft skills are painted with a broad brush, whereas human skills are learnable, measurable and trainable, she said — not secondary at all, but core capacities. For example, the ability to read, recognize and regulate emotions is a key component for human skills, Grady said, such as being a “human thermostat” that can take the temperature of a room, and understanding that you are a “mood sparkler” that can either cascade a positive state of mind outward, or permeate exhaustion or negativity to others.

Allison Vaillancourt, a vice president and senior consultant at HR and benefits consulting firm Segal, noted the fluctuating terms surrounding different skill sets:

• Soft skills distinguishes measurable skills;
• Power skills signify their importance;
• Human skills differentiate from tasks that can be automated with AI; and,
• Strategic skills connect to the focus on the why of work — not just the what and how.

WorldatWork content director Sue Holloway also pointed to the terminological shifts between soft skills, social skills, people skills and, now, human skills, which often specifically reference unique qualities that are difficult for AI to replicate — ones that continue to be necessary to interact, collaborate and communicate within a workplace.

“People have deep biological and psychological needs for real connection, and the more digital life becomes, the more people value in-person interactions,” she said. “This is a very important consideration for leaders and people managers.”

“The organizations that are going to thrive going forward are investing in deliberately growing their people, not just their technology.” 
— Anne Grady, resilience and adaptability expert

‘A Great Sparring Partner’

AI may be able to replicate or assist with many work-related tasks, but it can’t fully replace the unique aspects of being human. That need permeates in many areas of the workplace. Take the human skill of being able to reflect on how you landed on an idea or answer. While AI can be a great tool when it comes to finding an answer, it struggles to explain how it got there, said Erik Stettler, the chief economist at Toptal, a global talent marketplace platform.

“There’s transformational creativity — a new product, a new style of art, a new way of conveying a message that’s never been done before — and then there’s more incremental creativity,” he explained. “AI has improved at incremental creativity; it can be a great sparring partner with creative exercises, but transformational creativity is not something I expect it to reach for quite a while.”

While AI can quickly conduct research and analyze data, Vaillancourt said it falls short at parsing nuance, applying judgment or zeroing in on what matters most.

“Employees who rely on AI to do their thinking and analysis tend to produce unimpressive results,” she said. “For example, AI often adds facts that might seem to make sense or claims that a minor issue is a major concern. Good context and judgment are critical to make the most of AI.”

At the end of the day, it’s usually not software struggles that stymie workplaces and teams, and that means human skills won’t be losing their importance anytime soon, Grady said.

“Attracting, developing and retaining talent is a huge challenge right now, but organizations don’t lose people because of tech,” she said. “They lose people because of culture, leadership, poor communication, chronic stress or values that are not aligned. The organizations that are going to thrive going forward are investing in deliberately growing their people, not just their technology.”

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Career Growth
• Employee Recognition
• Total Rewards
• Workforce Engagement