Somewhere in a boardroom last quarter, a CFO asked the classic question: “Are we investing enough in AI skills”
The sharper question now is different:
“Are we investing enough in the skills AI cannot copy”
Because the data is increasingly clear. As AI races ahead, the economic value of deeply human skills is not just holding up, it is accelerating.
Welcome to the human-centric skills revolution.
THE 180-DEGREE VALUE FLIP
For most of the industrial era, we rewarded people for being predictable, repeatable, optimisable. The closer you behaved to a machine, the more you were paid.
In an AI-rich world, that logic flips. Machines now handle what is:
What rises in value is everything that is:
Automation risk maps cleanly to this split:
If your work relies on being human with other humans, you are far safer than the spreadsheet warriors.
THE NEW GROWTH ENGINES OF THE ECONOMY
Follow the money. Human-centric sectors are outpacing traditional ones(traditional manufacturing -1.2%, and overall UK economy - 4.5%):
These are not “nice” side stories. They are growth engines.
Unpaid care work alone is worth hundreds of billions per year once you actually price it. Zoom out to the global care economy & you are looking at trillions in value.
AI should be forcing us to count it. We have to build an economic architecture on top of work we historically refused to count.
THE HALF-LIFE PROBLEM: WHY TECH SKILLS AGE FASTER THAN HUMANS DO
Technical skills still matter, a lot. You would not want a surgeon who has not updated their methods since 2003 or a CTO who thinks “cloud” is a passing fad.
But the half-life of technical skills has collapsed:
A “hard” skill you proudly add to your CV this year can be half obsolete before your next performance review cycle.
What does not depreciate at the same speed:
These human capabilities are what let leaders & teams ride the wave, rather than chase it.
PUBLIC POLICY: PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT JOBS
There is a principle that I believe should anchor any serious policy conversation about AI: protect people, not jobs. Jobs will evolve, tasks will shift, whole categories will be reconfigured. That is not the problem. The problem is failing to give people the stability, time & confidence to adapt as work changes around them.
This is where we need to be far bolder. Policy makers should treat income security as an enabler of growth, not a concession. A modern safety net, potentially including forms of universal basic income, would give people the foundation to retrain, move sectors, build new skills, or start new ventures without the fear of falling through the cracks.
The priority should be human mobility, not job preservation. That means:
If we cling to protecting the jobs of yesterday, we slow the economy of tomorrow. But if we protect people directly, we create the conditions for a labour market that evolves without leaving anyone behind. AI should widen human possibility, & that only happens when the foundations underneath people are stable enough to let them move.
EMPLOYERS HAVE MOVED. EDUCATION HAS NOT CAUGHT UP.
There is a growing gap between what employers value & what traditional education consistently delivers.
Well over 90% of employers now rank "soft" skills (though I have to admit I hate the term and believe they are better described as essential skills) above technical expertise
The market is screaming for collaboration, empathy, critical thinking, real-world communication. Yet most talent pipelines are still calibrated for exams, not complex interpersonal problem-solving in AI-augmented environments.
For executive teams, this is not just a “social good” issue. It is a strategic risk:
THE HIDDEN PREMIUM ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Individuals with high emotional intelligence now earn a clear wage premium, often tens of thousands more per year.
That is not sentimentality. It is economics:
In an AI era, the cost of poor judgment or poor empathy multiplies. The premium for those who get it right multiplies too.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE
If you are leading a business into an AI-heavy future, this value shift has direct implications for your agenda.
1. REFRAME “AI STRATEGY” AS “HUMAN-PLUS-AI STRATEGY”
The question is not: “What can we automate” It becomes: “What do we want humans uniquely focused on, & how do we surround them with AI tools that augment human capability & amplify that value”.
The recent wave of organisational announcements that declare “we are pivoting to an AI first organisation” misses the point. It misunderstands what AI is good at, & it misunderstands the changing nature of the workforce. Your organisation is not forward thinking or edgy simply because you bolt AI onto everything. The real signal of progress is whether you create a culture that protects human judgement, invests in human creativity, & builds AI around people to enable them to achieve new heights.
2. PUT HUMAN-CENTRIC SKILLS INTO YOUR P&L ASSUMPTIONS
These are not fluffy concepts. They are economic levers.
If you are modelling AI ROI without explicit behavioural & cultural assumptions, you are flying partially blind.
3. TREAT RESKILLING AS A PERMANENT RHYTHM, NOT A ONE-OFF PROJECT
With a large share of current worker skills set to be obsolete by 2030, one-and-done training days will not cut it. You need:
Human-centric leadership development pays off most when it is embedded in how you work, not just how you attend workshops.
HOW WE HELP LEADERS NAVIGATE THIS SHIFT
At EAII, the mission is simple to state & hard to fake:
Help senior leaders lead their organisations into the AI era, without losing the humans in the process.
The “secret sauce”:
In practice, that translates into:
All anchored in four pillars: ethics, trust, cultural inclusion & measurable impact.
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR NEXT EXEC DISCUSSION
If you want to turn this from “interesting” into “operational”, take these straight into your next leadership meeting:
The human-centric skills revolution is not on the horizon, it is here. The organisations that thrive will not be the most automated.
They will be the ones most intentional about what only humans can do, then design everything else around that.