E-learning and LMS blog articles

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt the norm for businesses across all sectors, we’re seeing a drastic shift in the role requirements for many employees working in those businesses.

AI is being used to take on some of the ‘heavy lifting’, such as speeding up and automating tasks or processing huge amounts of data in a mere instant, leaving employees with more time to focus on other, often high-value tasks and activities. As a result, job roles and, consequently, skill requirements are rapidly evolving.

So, which skills should employers look for in the age of AI? Of course, ‘hard’ skills such as AI literacy and technical competency will be vital, but now, more than ever, employers need to focus on soft skills.

While AI excels in automating tasks and processing data, it simply can’t replicate or replace ‘human’ soft skills and emotional intelligence. To leverage AI tools to their fullest potential, we need to work in synergy with AI, using soft (human) skills to enhance the machine-driven output and, ultimately, creating a complete package.

Soft skills have often been overshadowed by ‘hard’ skills, qualifications, and technical competencies. As AI grows in popularity, these priorities will shift, meaning effective soft skills training needs to be a core component of your future L&D strategy.

Can soft skills be taught?

While many soft skills are intrinsically linked to personality traits and human experience, they can absolutely be taught through soft skills training programmes.

‘How?’ we hear you ask! We’ve written all about that in an earlier blog. Click here to read our blog and discover everything you need to know about teaching soft skills using an e-learning solution.

For now, let’s explore the soft skills you should focus on when utilising AI technology.

Which soft skills are most valuable in the age of AI?

Problem-solving skills

When we look at the value of employees working in synergy with AI, it’s important to address the limitations of AI tech. While AI can process mass amounts of data in the blink of an eye, we need human input to understand the broader context and nuanced details alongside the data.

An example of this would be the rise of AI customer service chatbots. These chatbots are brilliant at answering common questions and processing data such as order numbers and purchase history. However, there are limitations around understanding the emotional context of customer issues and frustrations.

Soft skills such as problem-solving skills are vital here, particularly when dealing with a frustrated customer. In this scenario, customer service employees can take control, use these skills to de-escalate the situation, and offer a solution in an empathetic and reassuring manner.

Critical thinking skills

Another significant limitation of AI tools, particularly Gen AI, is information bias and inaccuracy. Since AI systems rely on data that could be biased, inaccurate and corrupted by previous mistakes and prejudice, we must critically assess their output.

To critically assess AI output, employees need to utilise their (you guessed it) critical thinking skills. By applying critical thinking to AI data analysis, employees can spot errors and assumptions while applying knowledge based on external factors and context, such as company ethics and best practices, to ensure that it best serves the interests of the organisation.

Interpersonal skills

As we navigate the shift towards automation and AI prevalence, it’s more important than ever that those in leadership roles create a supportive environment. Evolving job roles and role displacement caused by AI and new technology will undoubtedly be a cause for concern and anxiety for many employees. Now, more than ever, leaders need strong interpersonal skills to guide employees through this transitional period.

What’s more, leaders need to use their interpersonal skills to create an environment in which employees feel comfortable experimenting with AI tools. Interpersonal skills have always been a core component of strong leadership, but particularly now, leaders need to inspire confidence and provide feedback when employees embark on the steep learning curve of embracing new AI technologies.

Creative skills

Many employees are already using AI tools to enhance creative and ideation processes, but creative skills are still incredibly valuable.

While AI tools can act as a jumping-off point for generating ideas, suggesting topic areas or reworking previous ideas, it can’t replace human innovation and creative skills when producing original ideas.

As we’ve already discussed, we as humans provide a wider context to AI output, which is crucial to the creative process, particularly when aligning ideas to company culture and objectives. AI is great to kick-start the creative process, but human creativity is vital for adding emotional depth, long-term strategy and, most importantly, original concepts.

Is your workforce soft skills competent?

Having touched on just a few of the top soft skills we think you should focus on as we transition into the age of AI, perhaps you’re ready to deliver effective and vital soft skills training to your employees.

Make sure you read our soft skills training blog for expert insights, and if you’re in need of a powerful e-learning solution that will help you level up your soft skills training, look no further than our award-winning LMSs. Get in touch with us for more information or visit our product pages.