Skills for the future of work are becoming more important as careers, industries, and organizations continue to change. New technology is changing how work gets done. Expectations are shifting. Career paths are becoming less predictable. The skills that helped people succeed in the past may still matter, but they may not be enough to help them keep growing in the years ahead.
Some people will adapt, learn, and continue expanding their opportunities, while others will hold onto what has always worked and slowly become less prepared for what their work requires next. To better understand the skills people need for the future of work, I asked leaders to share the one skill they believe will matter most and why.
Leaders on Skills for the Future of Work
Craig Walker, co-founder of Dialpad: The skill people will need most for the future of work is AI fluency – not simply knowing how to use AI, but knowing how to work with it effectively. As AI takes on more time-consuming, repetitive tasks, the advantage will go to people who can identify where AI can accelerate their work and then use the time it creates to focus on higher-value thinking. That requires learning how to prompt, evaluate, and refine AI outputs, but also knowing when not to use it. The goal isn’t to outsource thinking; it’s to use AI to create more capacity for it. Someone who can turn a three-hour research task into 30 minutes has gained more than efficiency. They’ve created space to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, and approach problems creatively. The most valuable AI skill, then, is knowing how to translate technology into better work. People who develop that mindset will be able to move faster, experiment more, and spend less time on the mechanics of work and more time on the judgment, creativity, and ideas that drive meaningful outcomes.
Dr. Stanton F. McNeely III: President of the University of Holy Cross: Sound judgment under pressure has become more important than ever. Technology keeps advancing, but the hardest calls still come down to a person reading a room and making the right decision for someone else. A nurse can master every piece of new clinical equipment, but keeping a patient safe means knowing when to trust the data and when to trust their instincts. Technology is a tool, not a substitute for judgment and connection. The best professionals and leaders use new systems to gather the information they need, and then ask the harder question: What does the person relying on me need from me right now? Regardless of what technology comes next, the answer that matters most will always be grounded in personal connection and experience.
Sunny Beutler, CEO of Sunrider International: Strong communication skills will continue to be one of the most valuable skills in future work. That means communicating effectively in person, collaborating across different departments and teams, and expressing ideas clearly through writing. Miscommunication is often what leads to missed deadlines, inefficiencies, and failed projects. So, the ability to communicate well and having those skills to work collaboratively as a team will always be essential. Another increasingly important skill, I’d say, is the ability to analyze data and key performance indicators (KPIs). Understanding the data behind a project helps identify what project or goal actually worked, what didn’t, and why. That insight also can make room for solving problems effectively and what can be improved upon.
Chris Visslailli, President of Academy of Art University in San Francisco: On the skill that people will most need for the future of work: creative drive and self-advocacy. As AI is more incorporated into workflows, the people who thrive won’t be the ones waiting to be told what to build. They’ll be the ones with the most original ideas and the drive to push them forward, to advocate for their own work, start the company, make the thing exist. Technical skills will keep changing; the ability to generate a point of view and champion it will be invaluable.
Loren Castle, founder and CEO of Sweet Loren’s: I think one of the most important skills for the future of work is focus. As technology changes how we work and industries continue to evolve, we have more information, ideas, and opportunities at our fingertips than ever before. The challenge isn’t always figuring out what you can do, but being disciplined about what you should do. You have to know what you stand for, where you can make the greatest impact, and have the confidence to say no to opportunities that pull you away from your core. As work continues to move faster and we’re presented with more possibilities, the ability to cut through the noise, prioritize what matters, and stay true to what you do best will only become more valuable.
Glenn Bostock, CEO of SnapCab: The most important leadership skill for the future is the ability to discover what people naturally love to do and align those strengths with meaningful work. To do that, leaders need great listening skills, strong feedback systems, humility, and a commitment to helping people become useful. Technology will increasingly do the routine work. The human advantage will be helping people grow, collaborate, and contribute their unique gifts. People do their best work when they are using their gifts in service of others. Leaders need to become talent developers, not task managers. Their job is to understand what energizes people and help them grow in that direction. Leaders need the ability to hear concerns, ideas, problems, and opportunities from every level of the organization without becoming defensive. The quality of leadership will increasingly depend on the quality of feedback systems. Most organizations still rely on annual reviews and top-down communication. The future belongs to organizations with continuous feedback loops. As technology becomes more powerful, purpose becomes more important. People want more than a paycheck. They want meaning. Organizations that help people connect their work to something useful for customers, coworkers, and society will attract and keep the best people.
Dr. Amanda Main, Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Central Florida’s Barry S. Miller College of Business: I think the skill people will need most is knowing when to disobey. We talk a lot about teaching people to get better answers from AI. I’m more concerned about whether they will notice when the question is bad. A system can build an impressive amount of work on top of a shaky assumption, and the finished product can look settled long before anyone has settled the issue underneath it. Someone has to be willing to slow things down after a project has momentum and a senior person has grown attached to it. That person may look obstructive in the moment. To be fair, sometimes they are. But sometimes they are the only one still thinking about the premise while everyone else is admiring the output. Most workplaces know exactly how to reward someone for completing an assignment. They are much less sure what to do with the person who says it is the wrong assignment. We are going to need that second person badly.
Cristle Collins Judd, President of Sarah Lawrence College: Research shows that in the age of AI, employers are increasingly looking to hire people with skills like adaptability, communication, critical thinking, and teamwork. All of these are pillars of a liberal arts education. In today’s world, you almost don’t have the luxury of not having a liberal arts education and the habits of mind that it helps you develop. With a liberal arts education, students learn the critical skill of asking the right questions, identifying the problem to solve, communicating effectively, and telling stories persuasively. These skills will serve them whether they end up becoming a physician, entrepreneur, artist, scientist, software engineer, teacher, policy maker, or working in a career that doesn’t even exist yet.
Jean Leslie, Senior Fellow & Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership: Systems thinking is the ability to see how challenges connect instead of tackling them one at a time. My colleagues and I interviewed executives across nine functions within one company. When we asked each leader to identify the organization’s biggest challenge, we received nine different answers. These were smart, capable people sitting at the same table, yet each saw only the piece their function touched. More importantly, most didn’t recognize how those challenges were connected. No single person sees the whole picture. Today’s challenges don’t arrive one at a time. Supply chain, workforce, and technology pressures emerge together and often amplify one another. The people who will thrive are those who can understand how decisions in one area ripple across others and coordinate across boundaries they don’t control. I’ve watched organizations create task forces and new processes, only to wonder why collaboration still falls short. Structure alone can’t solve a gap in how people understand the problem. Systems thinking is what turns a collection of capable specialists into a team that can solve complex challenges together.
David Jenks, Provost of Middle Georgia State University: The future of work is very much reliant on the skills higher education is designed to instill in the future workforce. The skills people need the most in the workplace are those that encompass the nature of human relationships, including effective communication, compassion, and a desire to continuously improve. This is why partnerships between institutions of higher education and the communities they serve to offer experiential learning opportunities are ideal to link great students to great organizations, expanding opportunities to explore career opportunities in the region while completing a credential is increasingly becoming a best practice for regional public universities. Our economic impact is significant, and the more people in the community see it firsthand, the more it grows and influences people to live, work, and learn in the region.
Roei Samuel, CEO of Connectd: Know exactly where you create real value. We’re shifting from an economy that rewarded hours in the seat to one built on delivering outcomes and results, on demand. For a lot of people, that value sits in reading a room, building trust, knowing when to push and when to hold back, the parts of a job no tool can do for you. The people who’ll do well aren’t the ones who can look busiest longest; they’re the ones who know precisely where they’re great, lean everything into that, and stop spending energy on the bureaucracy and time-filling that used to pass for a full day’s work.
Jahan Ali, founder and CEO of ML Arteka and HachiAI: The skill people will need most for the future of work is judgment. AI will make information, analysis, and execution increasingly accessible. The differentiator will be knowing what deserves attention, which recommendations can be trusted, and when human experience should override an automated answer. Good judgment requires more than technical literacy. It combines critical thinking, context, ethics, and an understanding of consequences. As AI agents take on more routine and increasingly complex work, people will need to define the right problems, question outputs, and make decisions that balance speed with responsibility. Organizations should therefore prepare employees not simply to use AI tools but to work alongside them with confidence and accountability. The most valuable people will not be those who can produce the greatest volume of work. They will be those who can determine what is meaningful, what is responsible, and what should happen next.
Frequently Asked Questions About Skills for the Future of Work
What are skills for the future of work?
Skills for the future of work are the abilities people need to stay effective as jobs, industries, technology, and workplace expectations change. They include technical skills, but also human skills like communication, adaptability, judgment, curiosity, collaboration, and the ability to keep learning.
Why are skills for the future of work important?
Skills for the future of work are important because the workplace is changing faster than many careers were built for. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. People who continue developing new skills are better prepared to adapt, take on new opportunities, and stay valuable as their roles evolve.
What skills will matter most in the future of work?
The skills for the future of work that will matter most include adaptability, communication, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, creativity, resilience, judgment, and the ability to learn quickly. Technical skills will continue to matter, but they will be most valuable when paired with strong human skills. Many of these abilities are also essential for continued professional growth.
What human skills will matter in the future of work?
The human skills for the future of work include empathy, relationship-building, communication, leadership, collaboration, curiosity, and good judgment. As technology changes how work gets done, the ability to understand people, solve problems, and make thoughtful decisions will remain essential.
How can people prepare for the future of work?
People can prepare by staying curious, learning new tools, seeking feedback, building relationships, and becoming more adaptable. Developing the skills for the future of work isn’t about predicting every change. It’s about building the ability to keep growing as work changes.
How is technology changing the skills people need?
Technology is changing the skills people need by automating some tasks, creating new tools, and changing how work gets done. Organizations also need to understand how to lead digital transformation as roles, workflows, and expectations evolve. People need to understand how to use technology, but they also need the judgment to know when technology helps, when it falls short, and how to apply it responsibly.
How can leaders help people build skills for the future of work?
Leaders can help people build skills for the future of work by creating a culture of learning. That means encouraging curiosity, supporting development, offering stretch opportunities, and making it safe for people to ask questions, try new things, and keep improving.
