How to Beat Competition from AI and Flourish
Humans can acquire and use core life skills to match AI’s cognitive prowess
“If we are to retain our humanity in the age of machines, we need to bring to the fore what it is to be human.” (Lynda Gratton, management professor and author)
AI is both a collaborator and a rival.
It’s a friend when it partners with us and a foe when it competes with us and takes away our jobs.
AI is poised to match our cognitive skills. There’s little we can do to stop AI’s acquisition of cognitive flexibility and depth.
AI, however, has no feelings. It is impossible for AI to imagine how a human feels.It has no emotional intelligence or interpersonal skills.
AI has no soft skills. 'Soft skills,’ is a misnomer, a pejorative euphemism that underrates and downplays vital skills that help people collaborate with each other, avoid and resolve conflicts, and cooperate to further humanity’s common good.
‘Soft’ implies certain skills are unimportant, unlike the so-called hard skills, which are job-specific abilities.
Wikipedia says,
Soft skills, also known as power skills, common skills, essential skills, or core skills, are psychosocial skills generally applicable to all professions. These include critical thinking, problem solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic, career management and intercultural fluency.
In this Medium article, Seth Godin calls soft skills as real skills. He has identified five broad soft skills that matter:
- Self-control
- Productivity
- Wisdom
- Perception
- Influence
Corporate and political leaders need to acquire intangible interpersonal skills to face the challenges of a technology-driven society. Leaders need to possess essential skills like negotiation, teamwork, networking, and critical and creative thinking to address issues that arise due to technological advancements.
AI can hardly match the human capacity for empathetic communication.
AI may flex its intellectual muscle by outperforming humans in executing cognitive tasks, but humans have the edge in the domain of interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
It’s up to us to assign greater importance to the acquisition and practice of these essential life skills to create a level playing field between AI and humans in the future. Our academic curriculum needs to include and nurture essential intangible skills.
AI may take away some jobs that demand cognitive prowess, but we can flourish in jobs that demand competencies like empathy, collaboration, teamwork, inter-cultural synergy, communication and problem solving skills.
Progress will happen at the intersection where AI’s cognitive power meets human excellence in core life skills.
Thanks for reading!
