As AI automates and enhances many organisational processes, it is expected to redefine both the nature of work and the skills required for success. To keep pace, leaders must prioritise upskilling employees in areas that technology cannot replicate – particularly social, creative, and interpersonal skills.

Hemsley Fraser highlights that these "human skills" are becoming increasingly critical, not only for tackling complex, tech-driven challenges but also for fostering stronger connections in hybrid work settings. In this shifting landscape, employees must be able to connect meaningfully with colleagues, align with broader organisational goals, and stay grounded in their own sense of purpose to navigate the uncertainties of modern work.

Leaders who adopt smarter, more strategic learning and development approaches will be better positioned to ensure their organisations thrive amid these seismic changes.

Research has shown the global scale of AI’s likely impacts: World Economic Forum 2023 data suggests that six in 10 employees will require training before 2027, in a 2023 Microsoft survey, 82% of global leaders said that GenAI means employees will need new skills, analyst Gartner’s research has estimated that more than 30% of skills needed three years ago will soon be irrelevant, and in LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, 91% of L&D professionals agreed that human skills/soft skills are increasingly important.

Hemsley also says that in today’s uncertain world of work, leaders must nurture connecting values like authenticity, purpose, and compassion, if they are to maintain effective employee engagement, wellbeing, innovation, agility of response and long-term organisational success.

Successive research supports this: employees with strong human skills form deeper connections with colleagues and customers while 2024 workplace research published in the Harvard Business Review has shown that workers successfully using AI nevertheless feel more isolated because their organisation’s processes and thinking on employee wellbeing haven’t been adapted to acknowledge the impact AI tools can have.

After reviewing the latest evidence from research, L&D best practice and client feedback, Hemsley has identified 12 key higher-order human capabilities needed ─ which include emotional intelligence; health and resilience; lifelong learning; and complex problem solving ─ along with 3-4 key ‘building block’ skills that combine to underpin each one.

For example, a crucial complex problem-solving capability is based on four skills including making sense of complex systems, multi-modal evidence, experimentation and making dynamic decisions, which intelligent L&D strategies turn into an effective and inclusive workplace capability through regular use, practice, and refinement.

When it comes to the strategic upskilling strategies that company will require, Hemsley Fraser says that AI is already impacting how organisations’ L&D teams work in many ways – although often not strategically – and that company leaders can intelligently use new learning technologies with a clear human-centric approach to drive ‘human skills’ and capabilities to the next level. 

Deloitte’s 2024 trends research indicates that organisations that can balance this type of technological efficiency with human-centric strategies are 1.75 times more likely to hit their target business outcomes and 1.9 times more likely to achieve positive outcomes for their people.

Lynsey Whitmarsh, CEO at Hemsley Fraser, comments: “With the rise of technologies like AI, boosting ‘human skills and capabilities’ is becoming more important in our workplaces, rather than less. Upskilling to higher order ‘human skills’ will make us more connected to each other, a wider mission, and ourselves, better enabling us to navigate and thrive in an inherently uncertain world of work, and ultimately help the organisation to be more successful.

“L&D teams may feel pressured to respond to these workplace changes simply by driving more content and making learning processes more ‘efficient,’ but these tactics will be counter-productive when organisations actually need to strategically change their people’s and workforces’ behaviour and capabilities.

“To help leaders achieve this step change to greater ‘human’ capabilities and organisational success whilst harnessing the benefits of using AI, organisations need to start intelligently and strategically boosting ‘human skills’ now. We have been developing our approaches, content, and programmes to ensure we are ready to support clients with this exciting challenge.”

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