{"id":89931,"date":"2026-06-29T21:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/89931\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:45:18","slug":"with-ai-soft-skills-matter-more-than-people-realize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/89931\/","title":{"rendered":"With AI, \u2018Soft Skills\u2019 Matter More Than People Realize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Business<\/p>\n

In demand: leadership skills<\/p>\n

getty<\/p>\n

In recent months, we\u2019ve been hearing industry leaders talk about how AI will wipe out jobs across the business landscape. <\/p>\n

But a funny thing happened on the way to the autonomous enterprise. Business leaders saw that full-on AI, at least from a purely technical perspective, doesn\u2019t move things forward. AI adds amazing intelligence to systems and processes, but human guidance is essential. Witness Ford Motor Company\u2019s recent reversal on AI when it rehired 300 engineers<\/a> to keep quality in line. <\/p>\n

In a related trend, there\u2019s been a surge in adding philosophers and humanities graduates<\/a> to AI teams, also to keep the technology within the bounds of human needs.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s data that shows that employers are seeking the so-called \u201csoft skills\u201d \u2013 leadership, people management, process management, and data-driven decision making \u2013 as their main criteria in new hires. <\/p>\n

As a result, those at the entry level are expected to have a more mature grasp of these skills, according to PwC\u2019s latest AI jobs report<\/a>, which looked at more than a billion job ads across the globe. These leadership-focused jobs have seen 42% faster wage growth since 2021, the study finds. <\/p>\n

Yes, there\u2019s concern and data that shows fewer opportunities for entry-level jobs as AI usurps the basic tasks they handled \u2013 assembling information, reporting. coding, and so forth. The need to come in with relatively mature people skills adds another challenge. , <\/p>\n

This means more entry-level jobs \u201chighly exposed to AI\u201d require the leadership skills usually assigned to more senior-level employees and managers. These types of skills \u2013 the PwC authors refer to these as \u201csenior skills\u201d \u2013 now account for 52% of new skills required for these jobs. \u201cIt will be important to hone leadership, judgement, creative and teamwork skills so individuals can do what AI cannot,\u201d the PwC authors state. \u201cThe more AI is deployed, the more distinctly human expertise is valued.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, contrary to predictions of an AI job apocalypse, AI is boosting employment levels, the PwC study finds. The more AI, the more workforce growth. <\/p>\n

\u201cHeadcount growth at the most AI-exposed companies is outpacing that at the least exposed companies,\u201d the study\u2019s authors point out. \u201cFar from being a job killer, AI may actually be a job expander when used to unlock growth and enter new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI appears to be helping to boost wages as well, the PwC study demonstrates. \u201cWages too are growing faster at the most AI-exposed companies, suggesting gains are shared with workers,\u201d the researchers found. <\/p>\n

The PwC study authors provides the following advice for managing in this two-track environment:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just automate, redesign. Focus on redesigning work, \u201cnot just automating tasks,\u201d they urge. Use AI to pursue growth over efficiency. “Companies gaining the
greatest value from AI are using it to unlock new revenue, enter new markets, and
create new forms of value.”Build a cohesive AI strategy. \u201cSimply pointing AI at opportunities isn\u2019t going to capture them,” the PwC authors point out. Instead, concentrate on building a targeted strategy with a modernized data and technology platform.Emphasize the soft skills in workforce planning and training. Focus on advanced AI fluency, human-intensive skills, specialist talent, and retention strategies, they urge. Reinvent early career pathways. “Redesign onboarding, mentorship, and training programs to accelerate development of advanced skills such as leadership, stakeholder management, and strategic decision-making.”Invest in agentic AI. AI agents serve as \u201cthe ultimate complement to human expertise,\u201d the PwC authors note. “With a team of AI agents at their command, workers can use their uniquely human expertise to deliver value at much greater scale \u2013 enabling their organizations to think, adapt, and execute faster than competitors.”<\/p>\n

When it comes to leveraging AI, reinvention is the watchword. \u201cAs work changes rapidly, skill needs change rapidly too – with employers increasingly focused on attributes that are distinctively human,” according to the PwC team. “Skills required for the most AI exposed jobs are changing twice as fast as in the least exposed roles, while new tasks that rely on skills like empathy, judgement, and creativity are added 2.5x faster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In demand: leadership skills getty In recent months, we\u2019ve been hearing industry leaders talk about how AI will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,685,47563,3600],"class_list":["post-89931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-leadership","tag-people-skills","tag-pwc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}