Workers in the AI era need these skills, according to 4 executive leaders

When it comes to the most valuable skills in the AI era, it’s not out with the old and in with the new. It’s actually in with the old.

That’s what talent executives and business leaders told CNBC Make It at Forbes’ Future of Work Summit in New York City on Oct. 6.

“Because the technologies are changing so fast, it’s less to do with specific technologies, and more than ever to do with durable characteristics or capabilities,” said Daniel Chait, CEO of hiring platform Greenhouse. “The things that used to be demeaned as like, ‘Oh, they’re soft skills; they’re not as important,’ are now much more primary.”

Here are some of the skills workers should focus on developing today:

Being a lifelong learner opens you up to more opportunities, said Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, Walmart’s chief talent officer.

Likewise, Ginnie Carlier, the Americas chief talent and culture officer at EY, believes “learning is becoming a meta skill.”

“It’s really the skill that underlies your ability to build all the other skills,” Carlier said.

Being adaptable and resilient are also key today, Chait said, since new tools are cropping up seemingly every day, and employees are expected to quickly familiarize themselves with them.

“In the world that we’re in now, hard skills are much more ephemeral,” Chait said. “You learn a tool, it gets popular, and then it goes away, and there’s new tools to learn tomorrow.”

“If you can demonstrate your ability to learn, you can demonstrate your ability to adapt and grow, and deliver value in all kinds of different ways,” Chait added, “that’s something companies are eager to see.”

When it comes to entry-level hiring, employers are “elevating the requirements and the expectations,” said Stomski. Many traditional entry-level responsibilities simply “are no longer” as employers expect AI can assist with or complete those tasks.

Instead, employers expect that “you’re coming in at a higher level and you’re practicing critical thinking and judgment,” Stomski added.

You should be meaningfully evaluating what you’re feeding into, and getting out of, AI tools, said Carlier, who calls this a kind of “AI responsibility.” She said workers should be discerning about quality so that they feel confident “standing behind the outcomes.”

“It’s not just about your ability to put hands on keyboards,” Carlier said.

For example, many employers say AI fluency is important in their organization. But that alone doesn’t mean much, said Hannah Calhoon, Indeed’s VP of AI and Head of AI Innovation.

“It’s become the new ‘digital literacy,'” she said, in that “it’s a really great catchphrase.” But many organizations aren’t clear about exactly what AI skills they expect workers to develop and use at work. That means employees are left “shooting for a target that is not clear,” Calhoon said.

She would describe a “general AI fluency” as a basic understanding of how AI tools work, what they can and can’t do well, where there are risks, and how to review and “interrogate” the answers you receive.

But that varies widely by department. “The AI fluency definition is pretty different for different folks,” she said, noting that employers should be explicit about what they expect of their workforces when it comes to AI.

A low-hire, low-fire environment means some workers might feel stagnant in their roles but have few options to grow within or outside of their organizations. Employers, meanwhile, are grappling with issues like geopolitical and economic uncertainty, as well as pressure to transform how they work due to AI. Altogether, these factors could mean more challenges for employees. But keeping your existing skills sharp and readily pursuing new ones can help.

“To demonstrate your unique human skills and your continuous investment in them is to differentiate yourself,” Carlier said. “There’s just certain things that AI can’t do that a human can.”