Skills for the New World: Thriving Alongside AI

Probably one of the most thought about topics: jobs. I think all my readers know (and believe) by now that the world is going to change dramatically in the next five years or so. A speed of change we have never witnessed before and one that has so many unknowns. Last week we dove into a future scenario, as written by leading AI experts, which showed enormous impacts beyond 2027. In that we also saw how even the top, leading, AI researchers would eventually become more like managers than actively researching themselves.

So the big question remains, what will happen to all other jobs? What will matter in such a scenario in which AI is more capable than any human on the planet? Let’s discuss today what type of skills will remain and or become relevant in such a world. I briefly alluded to them in edition 11, in which we discussed the article written by Sam Altman. He also mentioned some. Let’s start with those and I will discuss them each and why I think they will matter.

His picks: agency, willfulness, determination, resilience, adaptability. I want to add: curiosity, humbleness, emotional intelligence, communication. I will discuss each one, starting with GPT’s definition of it, followed by my thoughts.

Agency
GPT: Agency is the capacity to act independently, proactively taking initiative and responsibility rather than waiting for external guidance or instructions. It involves recognizing opportunities, making decisions, and actively shaping outcomes.

I think there is multiple reasons why this skill is becoming more and more important. In general, I think it is a great skill to have in general, even before there was AI. Especially in corporate environments, there aren’t many people who run their job with a lot of agency. The ones that do, immediately get recognized. Why this is becoming more important? I think mainly because of a harsh truth; nobody is coming to save you. Accepting this hars truth is a very healthy thing to do right now. You might be in a current job that, if you think about it for a few minutes more than normally, might become obsolete in the next five years. You can do two things: 1) sit and wait, see what happens to the company you work for or 2) take matters into your own hands by either pro-actively changing your own role or starting to ask what other things you could do in the (near) future.

Second, the days of large corporations might be over. We will see an enormous rise in freelancers, gig workers and solo entrepreneurs. To succeed in these forms of work you must posses agency because nobody will tell you what to do, when to do it etc. An interesting future is pictured in some sci-fi movie(s) in which you see that people don’t work for a company, but instead just “clock in” to whatever job they are qualified to do (via some sort of central system), whenever it is needed and whenever they want to. Again, your own decisions, your own responsibility. Agency matters.

Willfulness
GPT: The determined drive and persistent intention to achieve specific goals, even in the face of resistance or setbacks. It reflects strong personal commitment and clarity of purpose.

Change is never easy, especially not when life changes drastically every few months (or weeks?) or so. In order to deal with these ever changing dynamics is by having the willfulness to keep going, to keep looking for ways. It all must come from your own personal intention, again; nobody will be here to save you. Have the guts to choose your own path. But not only that. Having a strong purpose is always important, but even more so when external matters can disappear in a heartbeat. Ask yourself the deeper questions? What do you love to do? Why do you do what you do? If your job gets taken away today, can you fulfill your purpose in a different way? Or is this your opportunity to finally find your purpose when all of the materialistic (the title, the salary, the bonuses) disappear?

Determination
GPT: The firmness of purpose and unwavering resolve to pursue objectives despite obstacles or difficulties. It’s the persistence to continue forward even when things get challenging.

I have mentioned it a few times before. I strongly believe we are heading towards a world of utopia, but in order to get there we will have to go through the mud. It is during exactly that time that your personal determination will make it possible for you to push forward and come out to other end. Don’t give up when things change AGAIN, keep pushing, we all have down days but in the end it is all about getting up. Determination in jobs also matters more and more. You will get in situations more often where nobody will have the answer and the only thing that will help is the determination to find a solution instead of giving up.

Resilience
GPT: The ability to recover quickly from setbacks, challenges, or failures without losing momentum. It’s about staying flexible, learning from adversity, and coming back even stronger.

I kinda dedicated a whole edition to the power of resilience, with my personal story of being knocked down both in life and in the ring. Resilience is a no-brainer, especially when we accept the fact that it is not a matter of IF but just a matter of WHEN you get knocked down. It is your resilience that will make you get up and try again. I never forget when, at a time in which my career was going very well and everything went my way it seemed, one of my good friends at the time warned me that we will all fail at some point. I was the classic, young, ignorant, kiddo who thought “yeah sure, not me though”. Oh boy was I wrong haha!

Resilience will matter a lot when people will start to loose their jobs, not because of underperformance but purely because their jobs are disappearing. It will be a massive setback, but not the end. You will be able to get up and get going again.

Adaptability
GPT: The ability to adjust quickly and effectively to new conditions, challenges, or environments. It means staying flexible, open to change, and capable of shifting strategies without losing momentum.

This one is already showing now, why it is important. With new tools coming out every week, new capabilities launching every month, you need to constantly adapt. It is a combination of your personal agency together with your adaptability that makes it possible for you to flow along with the changes. Everyone should always think, when something new releases, how can I utilize this in my day-to-day job? Or how can I use this to start something on the side, or help my own business?

But next to that, it will be even more important in the future. It makes total sense right so I won’t spent too long on it. The only thing that is certain, is that things will change drastically and rapidly. So having the ability to adapt quickly is a strong skill to have for everyone in any field.

Curiosity
GPT: The drive to explore, ask questions, and seek new knowledge without needing external prompts. It fuels continuous learning, creativity, and innovation in a rapidly changing world.

Now we get to the ones that I wanted to add to Sam Altman’s list and let’s start with “my favorite” of them all. Curiosity truly is a super power in my humble opinion. Personally, I never was a great student. I always did justttt enough in order to pass and move on with stuff that I found more fun to do (sorry Dad, who is a reader of this newsletter 🤣). Now, 15-years later or so, I LOVE learning. The difference? Back then there was a system that told me what I should learn, now I just let my natural curiosity lead me to the things I want to dive into. If you are naturally curious, you will adapt faster, you will have more agency (aka you need nobody to tell you what to learn/dive into) and you will have way more fun!

I often get the question which sources I follow, or what the exact things are that I do, in order to keep myself updated with everything that is going on. I find this a very hard question to answer. Yes, I definitely have some particular podcasts that I follow to, but deep down it is just a natural thing. I just do this, love this, live this every day. That natural curiosity in these things are hard to pass over. It is not a certain structure, or course, or process I follow.

I think this will become even more important in the (near) future. I would love to invite you all to try to become more curious, more open. Ask “why” more often or “what does that mean”. A lot of times your favorite LLM can be of great help. It will help you stay ahead of the curve, curious don’t wait, they just do and get ahead!

Humbleness
GPT: Recognizing that no matter how much you know or achieve, there is always more to learn. It keeps you open to feedback, growth, and new perspectives in an ever-evolving world.

Ahhh another one of my favorites! Truly intelligent people never have to say out loud that they are 😉. But besides that it is a beautiful quality to have, for many many reasons, why does it matter in the fast changing world we are living in today? If you think you know it all, you will never learn anything new. Accepting that you know nothing is probably the best position to put yourself in. It also takes a humble person to say out loud that “even their” position is at risk. Because EVERYTHING is. Don’t fool yourself. It does not matter how up the ladder you are, or how successful you currently are with your brand or company, it can all change tomorrow if you don’t stay aware of what is happening. And that is the goal of me adding humbleness to this list. Because if you don’t, you will miss the thing that will destroy you eventually.

I remember Victor (Knaap, Co-Founder Monks) telling me about the times of creatives having to switch from physical advertising to digital and that there were people who truly ignored digital. He mentioned reasons like “it’s just not me”, “physical is still more important than digital ever will be” and “this is just a hype”. You can probably go on and on. Exactly these people didn’t have the humbleness, but instead had the arrogance, to think that what they did was soooo supreme that it will not change. It is also exactly those people who had to face a very, very hard reality eventually and probably lost their jobs or had to change (with a lot of pain) eventually. So yes, humbleness is a very healthy quality to have. Practice it, it will help you in many ways 🙂 . (coming from a non-expert!!!)

Emotional Intelligence
GPT: The ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions while also empathizing with and influencing the emotions of others. It’s about navigating relationships and challenges with self-awareness, empathy, and emotional control.

In very simple words: be more human. As discussed in newsletter edition 13, human connection will thrive in a world full of AI. This might sound counter intuitive but I truly think this will be the case. In that newsletter I used the example of a robot run coffee shop (probably a Starbucks?) that will serve you the perfect coffee, the fastest and cheapest way possible. Ideal if you are on the go or want to save some money? I also think, as a counter to that, that special coffee cafes (like we have them now) will remain and that I (and I think with me many others) will happily pay a bit more for a coffee made with human love and care. More expensive, maybe not as perfect, not as fast, but the vibe of human interaction, the vibe of a cosy cafe, is something I am probably willing to pay for.

Emotional Intelligence, in the above scenario, will be important because that is differentiator between the robot cafe and the human cafe. The barista who will put on a smile, who will make a nice comment, a joke, recognized me because I come there every day etc, is what will be valuable and something the robot cafe will never be able to offer.

So let’s take this opportunity, as people, to become more kind to each other. There is a new species out there soon, this thing called AI, these things called robots. So let’s take better care of each other. I truly hope this will be the result of all this technological evolution. But not only kinder to other people, also to ourselves. As mentioned multiple times, every one should start thinking about the bigger questions. Who are you when you take away all the materialistic things, your job, your title, your lease car. What do you care about, what do you want to do with your life.

Let’s take care of each other. Let’s make sure human connection thrives in the (near) future. ❤️ 

Communication
GPT: The ability to clearly express ideas, feelings, and information in a way that others can understand and connect with. It’s about listening just as much as speaking, ensuring true understanding flows both ways.

AI is forcing us to become better communicators, who would have thought! I don’t know if you are feeling this already but it is almost an art form to be able to clearly explain what you want from your fav LLM. When you can’t get a correct response out of the LLM, there is only one person to “blame” and that is yourself and your style of communication probably being not exactly clear enough 🤣.

I do think that in the (near) future the skills of communication will become more important. The ability to express your ideas, your feelings, your senses, in order to successfully (and maybe even better than others) collaborate with AI. I have said it before, it looks like everyone’s job in the near future will become managerial. You will manage a team of AI agents and in order to do that you need to be able to keep a strong and clear communication with all of them.

That was all of them! I do think it comes down to what we mentioned in the emotional intelligence part. Become a better human, be the better human. Nobody will know how the future will exactly look, all we can do is roll with it, stay open, stay curious, stay humble and adapt.

Here are some of the latest announcements and other things that I found interesting this week:

• OpenAI has made some big updates to their search functionality, especially the ones focused on shopping intrigue me. Especially because there are rumors that they are teaming up with Shopify in order to complete the full purchase of a product directly in GPT. Game changer.

• AI influencing real people on Reddit, sounds innocent but it might be the canary in the coal mine for a lot of different challenges.. A lot of people are arguing that it should be, somehow, build in models that they need to identify as AI when engaging humans. That sounds ideal, just not sure if that is actually possible. Is it the end of democracy?:

• Stablecoins are probably the best crypto use case so far, in terms of real world impact and adoption. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to stable assets like the USD, ensuring price stability. Aka 1 dollar is 1 dollar. They enable people to make fast, low-cost global transactions without bank accounts, while merchants benefit from lower fees, instant settlements, and reduced fraud. Mastercard announced a “360-degree approach” to stablecoin adoption, aimed at enabling consumers to spend stablecoins and merchants to accept them at over 150 million locations worldwide. The initiative includes partnerships with major crypto players like OKX, Nuvei, Circle, and Paxos to facilitate wallet integration, card issuance, and merchant settlements.

• Meta has launched a standalone AI app! The Meta AI app includes a Discover feed, a place to share and explore how others are using AI. You can see the best prompts people are sharing, or remix them to make them your own.

  Users have full privacy controls, nothing is shared to your feed unless you choose to post it. Interesting to see, it feels very much like an “AI-first social app”. I wonder how adoption will be, I don’t feel very motivated to download it myself. Are you?

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^{Who am I and why you should be here:}

^{Over the years, I’ve navigated industries like advertising, music, sports, and gaming, always chasing what’s next and figuring out how to make it work for brands, businesses, and myself. From strategizing for global companies to experimenting with the latest tech, I’ve been on a constant journey of learning and sharing.}

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