The Great News About AI…. Can we evolve?

In a conversation the other day, someone said that I was too focused on the numbers, missing the bigger point.  They were right, I do love numbers because they can explain a lot. In my last post, I focused on the tremendous scale of AI investment and potential displacement of early-stage tasks and jobs.

If you read the entire article “Hey ChatGPT, what’s this AI I keep hearing about? The $7 trillion disruption,” you may have immediately started searching ChatGPT for “what jobs will AI replace by 2030?”

Today, I want to shift from focusing on numbers to focusing on us. What we as working humans can prioritize to evolve so we can thrive in this new world, rather than fear being replaced by AI.

While I don’t have all the answers (and I am trying to keep this short), I ended my last post optimistically, saying in part:

Our humanness is our edge, and our opportunity.

AI will accelerate the “what”.

But the “why”—human judgment, trust, and understanding—still belongs to us.

I want to elaborate on why I remain optimistic about the future and how we can leverage our human qualities to succeed in the years ahead.

AI investment is exploding, but can create opportunity for people…

Everywhere we look, leaders are trying to figure out how to integrate it, compete with it, or simply keep up with the pace of change.

But here’s what I keep coming back to:

AI is a tool — a very powerful one — but it doesn’t replace the qualities that truly build careers, relationships, teams, or companies.

McKinsey Global Institute agrees. A recent Forbes article summarizes their new report; the authors’ research found that while AI will replace many current tasks, it will not displace nearly as many people. Instead, the future of work will be defined by partnerships among people and AI, and the key to fully capturing the massive economic potential of AI depends entirely on organizational design and human guidance.

Because of the enduring relevance of human skills and traits.   

AI can analyze data, write code, summarize documents, and automate processes in seconds. What it can’t do:

• Build trust
• Inspire people
• Navigate conflict
• Create genuine relationships
• Understand nuance, motivation, or emotion
• Coach, mentor, or lead someone through change
• See potential in a person before they do
• Influence without authority
• Listen deeply and ask better questions
• Build customer loyalty through empathy
• Collaborate with other messy humans

And if your job involves physical skills, AI will never paint, repair plumbing, install HVAC, set up the electrical system, or build the warehouse. Most importantly, I don’t trust it to cut my hair. Clearly, some things are just too important.

The above skills and traits are a small part of our “human advantages”. And they become even more valuable in an AI-driven world.

As AI handles more tasks, your differentiators become your behaviors, your character, and your ability to connect—not just your output (which will increase).

So, as we adopt the newest tools (and we should), don’t forget to sharpen the ones that have always mattered:

Curiosity	Resilience
Self-awareness	Communication
Judgment	Emotional reasoning
Humor	Empathy
The ability to collaborate and create teamwork/community	Understanding motives/motivation
Making people feel seen, heard, and valued	Seeing potential in someone before they see it in themselves
Listening beneath the surface	Managing your own emotions

AI scales information. AI researches quickly. People interpret, and

People create impact.

These abilities cannot be replicated or automated. They are becoming more, not less, important.

The Bottom Line:

The future belongs to those who can use AI tools to improve their productivity, help their clients better or more efficiently, and pay attention to the uniquely human aspects of their role and success… by remembering and building on the traits that make them irreplaceable.

What human traits do you find irreplaceable in your job?