Apr 16, 2026
AI has become the daunting elephant in the room for not only hopefuls entering the workforce, but workers at all stages of their careers. Reports now estimate that 93% of jobs have the potential to be disrupted (1) by artificial intelligence in some way — and not at some future date, but right now (2).
Of course, certain sectors and roles are naturally more immune (3) to this type of automation — if you're in dredging, bridgetending or hazardous materials removal, you're in luck (4) — but with the technology evolving so rapidly (5) and with so many companies getting in on the action (6), one may wonder if any position or industry is truly future-proof.
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The landscape can, understandably, appear quite bleak, especially for those whose lines of work have proven to be particularly exposed (7). But, two leaders with extensive expertise on the subject are offering up words of encouragement to anyone fretting about being replaced by an algorithm: There are still some "innately human" skills that AI will never be able to replicate.
These skills won’t only retain value, they’ll be increasingly valuable
If anyone should know what employers are looking for, both in and out of the tech world, it's Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn.
In a recent conversation about his forthcoming book (8), which is fittingly about how to thrive professionally in the AI age, Roslansky highlighted traits like curiosity, courage and others that he expects will not only retain value in the workplace in the face of AI proliferation, but become increasingly valuable.
"I think we're starting to realize that the set of what we historically maybe called 'soft skills,' which didn't seem as important: curiosity, courage, communication, compassion — these turn out to be some really, really important skills to do your job well," Roslansky told Microsoft President Brad Smith in a recent episode (9) of the company's Tools and Weapons podcast.
"Those things that are innately human and messy at times… [like] the ability to really communicate and galvanize a group of people around going a certain direction… we don't believe that AI is going to be able to do those," the executive-turned-author explained.
And, he's not the only one emphasizing the continued need for these competencies.
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Why being well rounded is an asset
Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, seems to have a similar view on the persistent value of exclusively "human" functions. During a panel (10) at Semafor's World Economic Summit on Monday, he hailed talents like analytical thinking as some of the most essential to have.
Speaking about his own path to success in helping create one of the world's leading AI companies, Clark gave some surprising credit to his literature degree (11), which he said taught him "a lot about history and the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future" in a way that something like a programming education wouldn't have.
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He added that he sees intuition, the ability to synthesize information and present insights across subject areas, knowing the right questions to ask, and even (half-jokingly) "idling so you can come up with original ideas" — as well as the college degrees that teach these skills, such as philosophy — as vital.
With all of this in mind, figures like Roslansky urge people to start seriously thinking about the tasks that comprise their role and which of those can (and can't) be performed by agentic AI as the tech — and its adoption — expands.
"If my job is only a set of those tasks, I need to start thinking about what that means for me," the LinkedIn executive said, encouraging people to expand their skillsets and leverage their unique and human qualities.
It's also useful to think about the work duties you perform daily that could benefit from the use of AI, but can't be fully performed by it; operations where "AI maybe can't go all the way there, but can really give you a superpower as you realize how to use [it]."
Learning to work with technology and understand how it can augment your capabilities in this way will likely end up being crucial moving forward, as AI-averse or -fearful as some may be, because, as Roslansky says, "even if you're not changing your job, your job is changing on you."
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Fortune (1),(7),(11); Cognizant (2); Investopedia (3); arXiv (4); MIT Sloan (5); McKinsey (6); HarperCollins (8); YouTube (9),(10)
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter with Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with years in the journalism industry at outlets such as blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's participated in writing residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and Writing Workshops Paris. With 33 countries visited and counting, she finds travel to be one of her greatest inspirations.
