Contrary to popular belief, you won’t need a machine learning degree or other highly technical skills to succeed in the near future, according to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.
As more artificial intelligence-powered tools get integrated into the workplace, employers will prioritize hiring workers with “soft skills” like creativity and adaptability, Garman told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Friday. His advice to his own child, a rising high school senior, he said: Develop your critical thinking skills in college, no matter what subject you study.
“I think part of going to college is building [your] critical thinking,” Garman said. “It’s less about the development of skills and it really is [about] how do you become a critical thinker? In some ways, I think that’s actually going to be the most important skill going forward.”
Critical thinking skills will be most people’s No. 1 biggest key to success in the age of AI, he added.
“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible,” said Garman. “I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn.”
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The list of skills and administrative tasks that AI tools can replicate continues to grow, seemingly each day. Amazon, Garman’s employer, is among the multiple companies that have announced plans to reduce their corporate workforces while adopting more AI tools and agents in the coming years.
But AI is no match for human intellect when it comes to using critical thinking and creativity to generate new ideas and make nuanced judgments, research shows. It could be “the most valuable skill of the future” for human workers, particularly those tasked with curating and refining the output of AI tools, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during an event hosted by Howard University in January 2024.
“AI can generate lots of great ideas, but you still need a human there to say, ‘This is the thing other people want,'” said Altman.
Students can hone and apply their critical thinking skills across pretty much any area of study. Current workers can improve them through daily habits ranging from playing strategic board games to asking more questions, research shows. Multiple online courses say they’ll help you improve your critical thinking and communication skills, including one offered for free through Harvard University and edX.
Once you’ve developed those skills, you can showcase them to your current or prospective employers by highlighting examples of difficult problems you’ve solved at work — or asking thoughtful, purposeful questions that reflect your curiosity and communication skills, LinkedIn career expert Andrew McCaskill told Make It in January 2022.
Other important soft skills: Adaptability and communication
Garman highlighted two other important soft skills for both today and the future: the ability to smoothly adapt to new technologies, including AI-based tools and agents, and communicate effectively with colleagues and customers.
Communication is another skill where humans have a leg up over AI — particularly in terms of our ability to pick up on social cues, exhibiting empathy and emotional intelligence, actively listen, and provide insightful feedback, research shows.
“[Those skills] are important today. I think they’ll be just as important, if not more important [in the future],” Garman said.
As employers make plans to integrate more and more AI tools in the workplace, recruiters are specifically targeting prospective employees with the “adaptability” to keep up with technological changes, according to a LinkedIn blog post published in February 2024.
AI tools can handle various administrative tasks, but most customers “still want to talk to a person” and get personal insights and attention from a human being, added Garman.
“Those people skills are going to continue to be super important for a long time,” he said.
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