In the era of technological disruption, workers have often found themselves trapped in a cycle of robotic responses to endless emails, messages, and notifications. With the rise of AI, which takes over mundane tasks, what remains for humans to do?

Crucially, a set of uniquely human skills is gaining prominence. Organisations striving for innovation and competitiveness now prioritise diversity of thought, ethical judgment, and complex problem-solving. While AI assists with tasks, it's these distinctly human abilities that drive productivity and performance in times of complexity.

The Productivity Paradox and Digital Debt

The rapid increase in the use of IT in the early 1970s coincided with an unexplained drop in productivity, especially among white-collar workers. This phenomenon baffled experts from CEOs to academics. It became known as the ‘productivity paradox’. Now, with workforce data at our fingertips, the productivity paradox has had a makeover, and the experts have their answer: ‘digital debt’.

The productivity paradox and digital debt describe a workday we’re all familiar with: wake up, drink coffee, spend an hour combing through emails and then switch straight into four back-to-back meetings (during which we field at least ten pings on our instant message app of choice). Knowledge workers drown in a constant bombardment of new information and communication, which they can never truly get on top of (has anyone hit zero on their inbox?), leaving them in digital debt.

By analysing trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, Microsoft reports that 57% of the workday is spent on digital communication. 64% of respondents in a supporting survey said they do not have enough time and energy to do their job. In response, 60% of leaders say a lack of innovation or breakthrough ideas in their team is a growing concern. As well as making workers sluggish, digital debt has significant impacts on an organisation’s productivity, as well as its ability to remain innovative and competitive.

How AI Makes Us More Human

There are three ways that AI makes us more human at work. Firstly, AI promises to take on repetitive tasks and free up workers’ time to deploy uniquely ‘human skills,’ such as creativity. Workers are already excited. According to one survey of 30,000 workers, 62% believe the impact of AI on their job will be positive. Specifically, 60% expect AI to save them time and 59% expect AI to reduce repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on more strategic work.

Furthermore, AI won’t just free up time for workers to be more creative on their own. It will help workers to be more creative and innovative through collaboration in daily tasks. A controlled trial conducted by BCG and academic institutions such as Harvard Business School tested the effect of using Generative AI on 750 consultants’ productivity. It found that 90% of participants’ performance improved when using GenAI for creative product innovation.

Finally, as AI-driven automation becomes more prevalent, non-automatable human skills will increase in value. In other words, it pays to be human.

Dusting Off Human Skills

Upskilling in the age of AI tends to focus on the need for workers to be digitally savvy. While important, workers cannot overlook the need to train uniquely human skills too. These skills, such as creative and innovative thinking, emotional intelligence and ethical judgment, have been underused while workers managed their digital debt.

Critical human skills every worker should upskill:

• Creative and innovative thinking

• Emotional intelligence

• Active listening

• Empathy

• Ethical judgement

• Moral reasoning

• Complex problem solving

• Adaptability

• Trust building

• Coaching

Coaching is a great way to upskill workers in human skills, especially emotional intelligence. A key reason coaching is a successful tool is the use of real-life scenarios. For the AI revolution, workers will need to practice developing their human skills in scenarios alongside machines, as well as other people. For example, scenarios that encourage workers to critically examine the output of AI for accuracy, integrity and ethics will be vital for honing ‘ethical judgement’ skills.

Workers should be encouraged to offer their unique perspectives, thoughts and interpretations because creative abrasion – the process of creation through debate – is at risk in the age of AI. The previously mentioned BCG experiment found that technology’s relatively uniform output can reduce a group’s diversity of thought by 41%.

Stories of workers feeling ‘like robots’ at work are all too common. It’s high time for workers to dust off their human skills and bring their unique perspectives back to the table. For their own sake, and the sake of the organisation.

How Organisations Should Harness Human Skills

The advent of AI poses a very real threat to jobs, despite workers’ optimism. Online job postings for ‘automatable’ work, such as data entry have declined since the advent of ChatGPT. It’s not just repetitive jobs being taken over. Text-to-image generation through AI has resulted in a drop of 13% in demand for graphic designers, according to research by Imperial.

By adopting a skills-based approach to workforce management, organisations can move away from a jobs-based economy towards an operating model that balances human skills with AI capability for maximum, ethically sound impact. A skills-based organisation is 57% more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively and 52% more likely to innovate. Companies understand the opportunity. Our own research at Insight222 found that nearly all companies (90%) expressed a desire to build a skills-based approach to workforce planning but that only a quarter are currently doing so. 

A skills-based organisation is better equipped to keep up with the rapid pace of change caused by AI disruption today. At the same time, the approach helps redeploy workers to use their human skills where they’re needed most.

Embracing AI for a More Productive Workforce

At Insight222, we believe there are many positive benefits to operating as a skills-based organisation. Alongside our own research, we’ve rounded up opinions from leading consulting experts like Deloitte, to genre-defining HR tech start-ups like Techwolf, to help organisations make sense of this shift. 

In conclusion, embracing AI has the power to enhance humanity in the workplace. By prioritising human skills alongside technological advancements, organisations can remain competitive and innovative in the face of disruption. It's time to embrace the symbiotic relationship between AI and human capabilities for a more productive and fulfilling work environment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasdeep Kareer

Jasdeep joined Insight222 in 2023 as a member of the products and services team. She brings a wealth of experience in data science, analytics, and client delivery having worked across a wide variety of industry sectors. After working for three years in Dubai, Jasdeep returned to the UK in 2019 where she established and led the People Science team at GE. She went on to develop an analytics client facing function within the analytics business at Workday. Jasdeep holds a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics from the University of Cambridge, and a Master’s in Mathematics & Statistics from The University of Sheffield. In her free time, Jasdeep enjoys travelling, dancing, trying different cuisines from around the world and following Formula 1.

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