Amid all the doom and gloom about AI taking jobs, there is some good news: Soft skills matter.
That’s what JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes, anyway.
While acknowledging that AI “will eliminate jobs,” Dimon, head of the country’s largest bank, told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that “this doesn’t mean that people won’t have other jobs. My advice to people would be critical thinking … learn your EQ [emotional quotient, also referred to as emotional intelligence], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write. You’ll have plenty of jobs.”
What makes an effective leader
Dimon has previously stressed the importance of having leaders with soft skills. People who ask good questions, learn from competitors, clients, and their own mistakes, are effective leaders, he told LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series in 2024.
“If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what’s changing, what the ideas are, you will eventually fail,” Dimon said.
What other CEOs think
Other CEOs echo the desirability of strong soft skills. In late November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that as AI handles more technical work, emotional intelligence will be more important.
Adaptability is another skill to have. Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty told Fortune in 2023 that as generative AI is integrated into the workforce, soft skills such as collaboration, judgment, and critical thinking will make people more in demand.
“This kind of adaptability is what humans do best,” Rometty said, adding that these skills cannot be taught just by having a degree.
Critical thinking, or the ability to analyze information and form takeaways, is important for leaders in the AI age, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” in August. While AI can perform different administrative and skill-based tasks, research from MIT indicates that it can’t make nuanced judgments right now.
Last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a video published by Amazon that the difference between people with successful careers and those who stay “stagnant” is a hunger for learning. “You have to be ravenous and hungry to find ways to learn,” Jassy said.
To learn more about how AI is showing up on the job across industries, see eWeek’s coverage of AI use at work.