The rapid growth of AI and automation is changing not only the types of jobs available, but also the skills that are most valuable in the workforce. While technical and digital capabilities are becoming increasingly important, employers are also placing growing emphasis on distinctly human skills that are difficult to automate.
According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025, employers expect nearly 40% of core workplace skills to change by 2030. Alongside AI and technological literacy, some of the fastest-growing and most prioritised skills include:
- Resilience, flexibility, and agility
- Creative and analytical thinking
- Leadership and social influence
- Curiosity and lifelong learning
The report highlights that future career success will increasingly come from combining technical capability with human capability.
Human skills are often developed across life experiences, not just formal work. Skills such as:
- Coachability
- Patience
- Emotional regulation
- Creating psychological safety
- Communication and empathy
- Adaptability and resilience
- Collaboration and relationship-building
…are becoming increasingly valuable in environments shaped by rapid change and uncertainty. These skills help us adapt, navigate complexity, and not only respond effectively to changing work environments, but harness the possibilities that they offer. As champion chess player and martial artist Josh Waitzkin explains:
“Once we build tolerance for turbulence and are no longer upended by the swells of our emotional life, we can ride them and even pick up speed with their slopes.”
Identify your human skills
Human skills are often developed gradually through work, life roles, relationships, challenges, and personal experiences. This exercise will help you identify which human skills are already strengths for you, and which may be important to further develop for your future career direction.
1.Review the list below and identify:
- Skills you already demonstrate strongly
- Skills you enjoy using
- Skills others frequently recognise in you
- Skills that may be important in your target career pathway
Examples include: Resilience and adaptability, Patience, Coachability, Communication, Empathy, Leadership, Collaboration, Emotional regulation, Creating psychological safety, Curiosity and lifelong learning, Flexibility, Problem-solving
2. For your target career pathway or “3 versions of you,” reflect on:
- Which human skills are most important in these environments?
- Which skills are likely to become more valuable as AI changes work?
- Which skills give humans an advantage over automation?
3.Identify 1–2 human skills you would like to further develop, and reflect on:
- Where could you practise these skills in daily life, work, volunteering, or relationships?
- What experiences could help strengthen them further?