Technological Shifts Higlight the Importance of Human Skills
Although technology reshapes the content of work, one factor remains constant in every transformation: people. History shows that what truly matters is how people adopt new practices and operate in a changed environment.
Most change projects fail—and typically for human reasons. The problem is not technology malfunction but people’s resistance, lack of commitment, or cultural barriers. In other words, technology alone does not make an organization successful; people do. A new tool or system produces results only if employees are engaged in the change and use it purposefully.
Leadership scholar Mary Uhl-Bien describes this as “adaptive space.” She argues that successful change requires an organizational space that allows flexible movement between renewal and continuity.
An Adaptive Space Requires Psychological Safety
Such adaptive space only emerges in a psychologically safe environment, where people feel trust and respect, and dare to share new ideas as well as concerns. Without this climate of trust and support, members won’t engage in constructive dialogue or take risks, and renewal will stall.
Research confirms this: psychological safety—the feeling that one can fail or express unfinished ideas without fear of embarrassment—is the single most important factor in effective, adaptive teamwork. Human trust and openness enable learning and adaptation. Only in a safe atmosphere can an organization absorb change and turn it into productive action.
Amid technological upheaval, human skills create resilience. When change is constant, both organizations and individuals must learn to live with uncertainty. The ability to tolerate ambiguity, learn from mistakes, and move forward is more valuable than mastering a tool that may be obsolete within a year. In turbulent environments, winners are those organizations that nurture curiosity and support continuous development. This means investing not only in professional growth but also in mental well-being.
When people feel safe and motivated, they dare to innovate and bring creativity to the table—and that is the true competitive edge.
Technological Disruption and the Half-Life of Skills
A common human consequence of all technological shifts is the intensification of knowledge work: tasks are carried out amid information overload, in global teams, often remotely. At the same time, most professionals must constantly learn new tools and processes. The pace of change is so fast that the “half-life” of skills is shrinking rapidly. The half-life of skills refers to the time after which the value of a learned skill is reduced by half. For example, the World Economic Forum estimated in 2017 that the average half-life of skills had already shrunk to about five years. In other words, within five years, the value of what you learn today may drop by half. In some fields, the half-life may be even shorter.
A practical example: many have experienced how certain knowledge or practices become outdated in just a few years, or how software updates so much that earlier training is no longer sufficient. This illustrates the phenomenon of skills decay. Technical tools, programming languages, and methods evolve especially quickly, requiring continuous upskilling—or else one’s expertise risks losing value. The half-life effect thus encourages lifelong learning: without regular skill development, competence quickly lags behind workplace demands.
Which skills become outdated fastest? Typically, technical skills and routine tasks—exactly the areas AI can replace. AI and automation can perform many repetitive, predefined processes faster and more accurately than humans. Tasks such as large-scale data analysis, information organization, and other routine functions are efficiently handled by AI. As AI takes over, demand for these skills declines. Entry-level knowledge work is most affected first. Traditional “entry-level” tasks are expected to shrink significantly in the near future. This challenges newcomers to the labor market: routine work no longer provides the same springboard for learning, so skills must be renewed faster and more proactively from the very beginning of one’s career.
Human Skills Are Taking On a Greater Role
Human skills are rising in importance. As technical expertise becomes outdated more quickly, interpersonal and cognitive abilities gain value.
Human skills—often called soft skills or “durable skills” because of their longevity—include interaction and thinking skills AI cannot easily replicate, such as: communication, collaboration, leadership, presence, empathy, emotional intelligence, creative problem-solving, and adaptability.
These are uniquely human strengths beyond AI’s reach. Many organizations have noticed that while new hires often have technical expertise, they may lack precisely these human capabilities. Soon, finding emotionally intelligent, socially skilled professionals may be even harder than finding AI specialists—because AI cannot replace understanding, empathy, or leadership.
The value of human skills also lies in their longer “half-life”: social and cognitive core skills remain relevant much longer than technical ones. Labor market trends support this direction—employers increasingly value communication and teamwork. According to LinkedIn’s recent report, communication is the most in-demand skill of 2024, and seven of the top ten skills are human interaction and thinking abilities. In other words, while technology advances, demand for human skills does not disappear—on the contrary, it grows.
Strategy Execution Is a Human-Skill Discipline
Implementing strategy always involves change—whether a new direction, way of working, or market repositioning. Successful execution is not just a technical task or project plan but fundamentally a process grounded in human skills. To turn strategy into reality, the whole organization must move into the adaptive space mentioned earlier. This requires soft skills such as presence, communication, listening, meaning-making, trust-building, and the ability to manage emotions during transitions.
In practice, human skills in strategy execution mean, for example, that employees can be present and listen, show empathy, and openly discuss their experiences to form a shared understanding of why change is happening.
If these skills are lacking, strategy implementation easily encounters human barriers—fear, suspicion, and tension. As has been aptly said, one cannot expect broad commitment to change without genuine understanding and empathy toward people. By contrast, when human skills are applied, organizations create a psychologically safe environment and a shared sense of purpose. Then strategic goals do not remain on paper but are carried into practice by people working together.
Research evidence supports the importance of human skills in strategy execution. Leaders with strong social skills have also been found to significantly raise their teams’ performance levels. Better communication, trust, and empathy directly boost employees’ motivation to push strategy forward. When people “pull together,” goals are achieved faster and more sustainably.
Subject matter by Ville Ojanen
(Leading Psychologist at Academy of Brain)
Ville Ojanen is a psychologist with a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience. His passion is understanding and influencing the human behavior. Ville combines an exceptionally broad and in-depth understanding of behavioral and neurosciences with practical experience in developing individuals, teams and communities.
He has worked as a clinical neuropsychologist, as an HR professional in Nokia and for fifteen years as an organizational psychologist, coach and keynote speaker. Ville is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Academy of Brain Ltd. He has served in the behavioral science advisor team of the Finnish Prime minister´s office since 2020, currently as a steering group member.
“Change the mind, change the world”
