Understanding how to stay relevant in the age of AI has become one of the most important challenges top of mind among an increasingly large percentage of the workforce. Professionals need to understand how to use new tools without allowing those tools to do their thinking for them. AI can help people move faster, analyze more information, and take on work that once required specialized technical knowledge. It also raises the value of knowing which problems to solve, how to question an answer, where human insight matters, and what each person can contribute that technology cannot.
The pace of skill change is accelerating rapidly. Understanding how to stay relevant in the age of AI has therefore become an immediate career priority. PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer found that the skills employers seek are changing 66% faster in jobs most exposed to AI than in jobs least exposed to it. The people best positioned to grow will continue learning, strengthen their professional expertise, and learn how to combine AI with judgment, creativity, communication, and initiative.
To better understand how to stay relevant in the age of AI, I asked leaders to share the one skill they believe will matter most for the future of work and why.
Leaders on How to Stay Relevant in the Age of AI
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.
Punsri Abeywickrema, founder and CEO of Cloud of Good: The most important skill for the future of work will be the ability to use artificial intelligence effectively. AI transformation is no longer theoretical. It is already changing how industries operate, how decisions are made, and how work gets done. Soon, nearly every process, tool, and software platform will include an AI-powered component. However, the real advantage will not come from merely having access to AI. It will come from knowing how to apply it thoughtfully to solve problems, improve productivity, and create value. People who develop AI fluency while continuing to strengthen their judgment, creativity, and communication skills will have a significant advantage in the workplace of the future.
Sam Kidd, founder and CEO of LawVu: If I had to pick one skill, it would be judgment. AI is getting incredibly good at producing information, analysing data, spotting patterns, and generating a first draft. But information isn’t the same as judgment. The real value still comes from knowing what matters, making trade-offs, and deciding what to do next. Legal is a great example. The best in-house lawyers have never just interpreted the law. They understand the business, balance risk against commercial objectives, and help the organization make better decisions. AI will make them faster and more informed, but I don’t think it replaces that judgment any time soon. More broadly, I think we’ll see people become much more multidisciplinary. Deep expertise will always matter, but so will understanding technology, how businesses operate, and how to bring different perspectives together. The people who can combine those skills with good judgment will be the ones who create the most value.
Channing Ferrer, Chief Revenue Officer and CEO of Americas of Brevo: Creativity, specifically the ability to bring forward new ideas. Technical skills will keep getting compressed or automated (AI is already doing this to entire job categories), so bring new ideas, experiment, and try new workflows. Creative solutions and new ideas are what will set us apart in the future. Execution can be automated, but creative solutions are where you can show how you shine. The people who struggle most in transitions are the most attached to their old skill set.
Michael Zimmerman, President of Campus: The most important skill won’t be learning AI itself. It will be learning how to use AI well within a profession. Almost anyone can learn to use a chatbot. What employers need are graduates who understand their field deeply enough to know when AI improves the work, when it falls short, and when human judgment still matters. That kind of judgment isn’t built through a single course or certificate. It develops through repeated practice in authentic settings. That’s why colleges shouldn’t treat AI as a separate subject. It should be woven into the curriculum, giving students opportunities to apply these tools to the real work of their discipline. The graduates who stand out won’t simply be the ones who used AI. They’ll be the ones who can explain how they used it, why they used it, and what better outcome it produced.
Sara Altuna, CEO at Base: Curiosity. Curiosity pushes us forward and out of autopilot. The people who keep asking questions are the ones who have always moved companies forward. They want to learn more, and they push back when something feels off. And in the evolving workplace where more and more can be automated, those same people become something else too: a layer of protection and humanity. AI now gives an answer for anything. But curiosity keeps a team from treating the first or second answer as final. It pushes us to ask for a third, a fourth. That pushing forces us to iterate and revise, both our ideas and our outputs. It reminds us that no single answer is the only right answer. Especially the first answer that a machine hands us. As everything can become automated, human curiosity becomes a vital skill. The strongest employees will be the ones who feel comfortable speaking up and asking, “But should we?” before anything gets built. Curiosity keeps us informed enough to understand the stakes of what we say yes to. As “how do we build this?” gets automated, “should we build this?” becomes the most important question.
Jarred McNeely, VP of Academics at Sonoran Desert Institute: The continued use of technology across a wide range of industries will require people to continue to grow and learn as new technologies become available. What I am seeing is also the need for my students and employees to be able to apply technologies to the tasks at hand. Our uncrewed systems program highlights this by applying new technologies on common tasks like a roof inspection. This is happening across the spectrum of trades. I am seeing helpful technology collide with the hands-on repair, diagnostic, and operator skills that many industries rely upon. The combination of technology and the hands-on skills of tradespeople will make them more effective at the crafts they are employed in.
Karin Zimet, Chief People Officer of Torq: The most critical skill for the future of work is adaptive judgment – the ability to discern when to trust your instincts, when to rely on data, and when to delegate a task to AI. We’ve entered an era where information access is no longer a differentiator, because everyone has it. What will distinguish exceptional leaders is their capacity to ask the right questions, synthesize signals across different contexts, and make confident decisions amid ambiguity. At Torq, I see this in action daily as we scale a hyper-growth company across diverse cultures and time zones. AI has already transformed our workflows; we move faster and are more data-informed, but this only works because we treat AI as a thinking partner rather than a psychological safety net. The professionals who thrive will be those who stay curious, remain critical, and never stop asking “why.” Ultimately, that is the one thing AI cannot answer for you.
Jeremy Barnett, CEO of RAD Intel: AI has made information abundant. Technology that helps people interpret that information and make better strategic decisions will create the greatest value in the future of work. Information overload is real, and it will remain a problem until intelligence automation helps turn volume into clarity.
Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research: The most valuable skill will be anticipatory thinking: the ability to separate the Hard Trends based on future facts that will happen from the Soft Trends based on assumptions that might happen, so they can act with confidence. For example, AI will increasingly automate tasks but not roles that involve managing and leading humans. Roles, however, will be redefined by AI capabilities. Hard Trends, such as the exponential advances of AI, will continue. However, the use of AI is a Soft Trend. That is not a future fact; that is up to us. By recognizing which changes are already set in motion, which ones are still uncertain, and where new opportunities are likely to emerge, people can more clearly see a positive path forward. People who learn to spot what’s shaping the future, then ask better questions, and use AI to augment rather than replace their work will stay relevant as routine work becomes more automated. The real advantage will come from knowing what to do with the output AI provides and making better decisions before change becomes obvious to everyone else.
Matt McCollum, CEO of BODYBAR Pilates: In the future, people need to know how to responsibly leverage AI and the growing technologies that support scale and profit optimization without being a slave to their fallible production. New technologies are driving meaningful changes across industry, government, and humanity. Leveraging these technologies in a responsible manner, while not allowing them to roam free, diminishing the creative output that has evolved with our humanity, is a tightrope to walk.
Danny Fisher, Dean of Manufacturing, Technology, and Trades at GateWay Community College: If I had to pick one, I’d say critical thinking. The technical skills we need are going to continue changing, but the ability to analyze information, ask good questions, and make sound decisions will always be valuable. I also think it’s an area where schools need to invest more intentionally. It’s not an easy skill to teach, but as AI and automation take over more routine tasks, our ability to think critically becomes even more important. Alongside that, interpersonal skills like communication, collaboration, and empathy are only becoming more valuable because the work of the future is still going to be centered on people working with people. I also think everyone needs a basic understanding of computational thinking and how large language models actually work. These tools are incredibly capable, but they’re fundamentally prediction engines; they generate the most likely response based on patterns, not true understanding or discernment. At least for the time being. The people who will thrive won’t just know how to use AI; they’ll understand its strengths, recognize its limitations, and know when human judgment needs to take over.
Sangeeta Prasad, Chief Marketing Officer of Slalom: As our tools become more sophisticated, problem-solving and judgment will become even more valuable. We will hire less for depth in a single technical skill and more for the ability to navigate ambiguity, connect dots, and make sound decisions. Human skills like emotional intelligence, relationship building, communication, and leadership will be what elevates the technology, not the other way around. AI can accelerate execution, analyze data, and automate repetitive work. What it cannot do is build trust, inspire people, align teams around a shared vision, or make thoughtful decisions in moments of uncertainty. Those are increasingly the skills that will differentiate individuals and organizations. The future belongs to people who are curious, adaptable, and comfortable working across disciplines. We are already seeing this shift in marketing, where the role is becoming less about executing individual tasks and more about orchestrating people, technology, and ideas to create meaningful business outcomes. I believe the same will increasingly be true across many professions.
Marc Bivona, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Landuyt Center for Entrepreneurship: The most valuable skill won’t be coding or prompt engineering. It will be learning agility: the ability to quickly acquire new skills, question assumptions, and adapt as technology evolves. AI is reducing the value of routine expertise while increasing the value of human judgment, curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. The people who thrive won’t necessarily know the most today. They’ll be the ones who can continuously learn, work effectively alongside AI, and apply technology to solve real business problems. In a world where tools change every few months, the ability to learn faster than the pace of change becomes a lasting competitive advantage.
Shenal Vanderwall, CEO of Meeedly: Currently, we are still in the semi-automation stage, where humans and AI work together. However, the fully autonomous stage is approaching, where AI will be able to manage and execute tasks with minimal human involvement. This transformation is already visible in industries such as delivery and transportation, where autonomous systems can operate with fewer decision-makers, such as a single driver. However, enterprise environments are more complex, involving multiple stakeholders, processes, and decisions, which means full AI autonomy will take more time to achieve. As AI continues to evolve, future workforces will be shaped by skills that machines cannot easily replicate, including complex communication, creativity, problem-solving, analytical thinking, and critical judgment. The ability to define problems accurately and make strategic decisions will become increasingly valuable. History has shown that technological change drives progress. When Microsoft introduced spreadsheets, it transformed the way businesses managed data and calculations. AI represents a similar shift, one that will redefine how organizations operate in the future.
Dr. Anthony Lee, President and CEO of Westcliff University: The most important skill for the future of work will be adaptability. Technical skills will remain essential, but many of them will have a shorter shelf life as artificial intelligence continues to change how work is performed. The professionals who thrive will be those who can learn, unlearn, and relearn throughout their careers. In the age of AI, the greatest risk is not that technology will replace everyone. It is that people who know how to use AI effectively will outpace those who do not. Adaptability also requires judgment. Employees must know how to question AI-generated information, recognize its limitations, and apply human creativity, ethics, and experience to the results.
Sarah Morgenthau, CEO of the “I Have A Dream” Foundation: When people talk about preparing our future workforce, the focus usually falls on academics, technical skills, and career readiness. Less attention is paid to the relationship skills that turn those abilities into opportunity. Technology makes it easier than ever to connect beyond our immediate circles. Young people can follow executives, attend online events, and reach people they might never meet in person. A first interaction only goes so far. Its value comes from what follows: a useful introduction, honest advice, a second conversation, or someone willing to help steer. A trusted mentor, educator, or business partner can make an online introduction feel less remote, help a young person know what to ask, and keep the door open after that first exchange. As leaders, we can move beyond a panel, workplace visit, or LinkedIn connection. We can follow up, make the next introduction, and give people the confidence and context to keep the relationship going.
Frequently Asked Questions About Staying Relevant in the Age of AI
What skills do you need to stay relevant in the age of AI?
Understanding how to stay relevant in the age of AI starts with building AI fluency, critical thinking, judgment, creativity, communication, adaptability, learning agility, relationship-building, and professional expertise. The right combination will vary by role, but professionals need to know how to use AI while remaining responsible for the quality and consequences of their work.
How can I stay relevant in the age of AI?
Start by using AI in the work you already do. Learn where it saves time, where it improves the outcome, and where its answers need to be questioned. Continue building expertise in your field, ask for feedback, take on unfamiliar challenges, and pay attention to how your role is changing. The habits that drive long-term professional growth become even more valuable when tools and expectations are evolving quickly.
Do I need technical skills to succeed in the age of AI?
Practical AI literacy is part of how to stay relevant in the age of AI, but most professionals won’t necessarily need to know how to build an AI model or write advanced code. They should understand how relevant tools work, what those tools can and cannot do, how to evaluate their output, and how to incorporate them into their profession responsibly.
What human skills will become more valuable because of AI?
Human capabilities are central to how to stay relevant in the age of AI. Judgment, creativity, communication, empathy, leadership, relationship-building, ethical reasoning, and the ability to understand context will become increasingly valuable. AI can provide information and generate possible answers, but people still have to decide what matters, understand how a decision will affect others, and take responsibility for what happens next.
Why is judgment important in the age of AI?
Sound judgment is essential to both understanding how to stay relevant in the age of AI and ultimately staying relevant in the age of AI because a fast or polished answer is not necessarily a good one. Professionals need to weigh trade-offs, challenge weak assumptions, account for context, and recognize when an AI-generated answer does not hold up. The more work AI can produce, the more important it becomes to know what deserves to be used.
How can leaders help employees stay relevant as AI changes work?
Helping employees understand how to stay relevant in the age of AI requires more than giving them access to useful tools. Leaders should provide practical training and create opportunities for employees to apply AI to real work. They should also clarify which decisions require human review, who remains responsible for the outcome, and how roles are likely to change. Managing AI and the workforce effectively requires investment in both technological capability and human development.
How often should professionals update their AI skills?
Professionals should update their AI skills continuously because tools, capabilities, and workplace applications are changing quickly. A sustainable approach is to build AI learning into regular work rather than relying on an occasional course. Experiment with new tools, compare the results with existing methods, and keep evaluating which applications genuinely improve the work. Because how to stay relevant in the age of AI will keep evolving, professionals should treat learning as part of their regular work rather than an occasional reset.
