There is a lot of fearmongering on the interwebs about AI taking over job functions. Yes, AI can do a lot of things, and it can do many things better and faster than humans, but, at least for now, there are some humans skills that are superior.

In the video “The 6 Skills AI Will Never Replace,” New York Times bestselling author Daniel Pink walks us through six human skills – ways of thinking, behaving, and being – that will keep us valuable and relevant. 

The first skill focuses on the human ability to ask questions. Pink says: 

When answers are everywhere, questions become the scarce resource. When answers get cheap, curiosity becomes priceless. In a world of answer engines, curiosity is your killer app. Because every breakthrough starts with a question.

The second skill is developing good taste, discernment, and judgement. There is a lot of junk in the world and AI can create good stuff or slop. It takes a human to figure out what’s great and what is right for the situation. Pink says:

Taste. Discernment, judgment, the ability to tap your experience, your intuition, and your values and look at a pile of options and say with confidence, that one, that’s it. Remember, AI is really good at generating stuff. But as it pumps out endless drafts, scripts, images, and ideas, taste becomes the filter that separates the marvelously meaningful from the merely meh.

He also thinks that humans can excel at iteration, which is his third skill. Pink says:

If questioning frames the problem and taste sets the standard, iteration is how you close the gap. Think of James Dyson building more than 5,000 prototypes. […] Here’s the part we don’t like admitting: Most good things start out bad. The magic isn’t in the first spark. The magic is in the relentless revision. AI can help you generate variations at astonishing speed, and that’s great, but it still takes a human to refine, redirect, discard, and polish.

This point really landed for me. 

The fourth skill is composition. Human experience, knowledge, and emotions can help us create something that has impact. Humans have the ability to synthesize, connect the dots, and uncover relationships between things that might not be immediately obvious. Pink says:

Composition is the art of assembling pieces, ideas, scenes, arguments, visuals into something coherent, meaningful, and emotionally resonant.

The fifth skill is being able to appropriately allocate resources. The future is not human or machine, it’s human and machine, each doing what they are best at. Pink says:

The new superstars will be the people who can orchestrate and allocate tools, teams, AI systems, timelines, constraints, and bring them together toward a clear outcome.

The sixth skill is acting with integrity. I think you will agree that we need this more than ever. Pink says:

Every technological revolution forces a moral reckoning. We are in one now. And that makes integrity the most important skill of all. You’ve seen the news. You’ve seen the social media posts. AI can hallucinate, fabricate, and confidently spin out of control. It has no conscience, no responsibility, no moral compass. That’s where you come in.

I could write several posts on this point alone. 

This video was hopeful and helpful, whether you run a business or just work for one. I hope you’ll take the time to watch it. 

If you want to remain valuable and relevant, be more human. 

Photo by Christina Rumpf on Unsplash