In a previous post, we discussed the fear of many workers of losing their jobs to automation, and we suggested that rather than focusing on specific jobs, we should look at underlying skills that are relatively immune to automation.
In an article for Harvard Business Review, Adam J. Gustein and John Sviokla discussed seven skills that are not easy to automate. In our first post, we looked at emotional competence; in a follow-up, we discussed 3 Cs: communication, content, and context.
In our final post on this topic, we look at the last three skills discussed by Gustein and Sviokla: teaching, connections, and an ethical compass.
Teaching
The authors note that machines have shown they lend themselves well to education; however, the role of technology in education is as a facilitator rather than a driver of learning.
Technology may make Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) possible, but technology isn’t creating the content for the lessons or determining how lessons will be structured and delivered. It’s not just the delivery of information but the information itself that drives learning.
In addition, in professional settings, individual personal and professional development will play a role in determining what types of teaching will be needed, when, and where. Teaching, even today, still requires a human touch.
Connections
Social media has made it far easier to connect to, and stay connected with, people from around the world and in a variety of industries. But it is the human element that shapes the nature of those connections.
Consider the role of salespeople. Their ability to be successful requires having a product or service to sell that appeals to some audiences’ needs. It also requires, though, the ability to connect with and influence others. Humans can do that; machines, even if they approximate that process, are foundationally programmed by people.
Those who are skilled networkers will always be an asset to any organization.
Ethical Compass
Simply put, machines aren’t ethical beings. They make decisions based on algorithms and formulas that have been created by humans. For the time being, at least, we need humans around to ethically guide the actions of the machines doing increasing amounts of our work.
Fear of automation understandable among workers in today’s increasingly technologically advanced economy. But AI and automation are not anywhere near the point where they can completely supplant humans.
As we’ve seen, there are some specific skills that humans are uniquely poised to perform, at least for now.