Will soft skills become the most wanted worldwide?
𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐄𝐐 (𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭) 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐐 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞?
Today is Sunday, a day when my mind gets wired even more weird than it does on weekdays.
So, here’s something that happened from a conversation with one of our MBA summer interns who was just finishing his internship. As he dropped me on his bike late evening at the bus stop from where I take my bus home, he asked me, “𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘔𝘉𝘈 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘨𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳?”
He had interned with us for Product Management and provided valuable support for some of the initial experiments we are carrying out for CliDemy – the Climate Academy.
Back to the intern’s question, after a few moments’ thought I realized this guy’s real strength was in his enthusiasm/energy and his ability to move well with people. 𝘔𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘣𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴: 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴!
That brief discussion stayed in mind and after I finished organizing our first Clidemy classroom session pilot on Digital for Decarbonization at IIT Madras (thank you THE ENERGY CONSORTIUM – IIT MADRAS for supporting that!), where AI was one of the dominant themes, and the following question popped up in my mind earlier today:
𝐈𝐟 𝐀𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 (𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬) 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐈?
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨: 𝑱𝒐𝒃𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒒𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕.
𝐇𝐑. 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐥. 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.
You know, the types of jobs that require a good amount of what are called soft skills and people skills.
These are the job types that usually are not in the limelight (except for sales).
Most of these jobs are unlikely to be badly affected by AI – at least for a couple of generations, God knows what tech can do beyond that, one day you might even be able to cry on AI’s “shoulders”!
As we have more machines and invisible lines of code controlling our lives and work, and as people at work struggle to find shoulders to cry on or people to laugh with, 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦?
I have a feeling they could. What about you?
See my LinkedIn post on this topic
