Communication > Everything — Even More than Generative AI — For Now

Build up your soft skills to impact your (prompting) hard skills.

Feb 15, 2024

Morning y’all!

I hope you had a fun Valentines Day and spent it with your loved ones and/or significant others! I ate chocolate and had donuts and so I believe that counts.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yesterday I shared a post containing a number of tools that you might want to look into and today I’m sharing a bit more thoughts on how our “soft skills” are just as important — if not more important — than the tools that we use.

In fact, communication is still the most in-demand skill for a second year in a row, even if more folks are putting AI-related skills on their resumes. This shouldn’t be a surprise as the increase in remote and hybrid work requires folks to be able to communicate effectively across the board, in all types of media (e.g. audio, video, text, and now generative AI prompting).

A recent LinkedIn survey found that 9 out of 10 global executives agree that soft skills (aka “human” or “durable” skills) are more important than ever. So, it’s not surprising that communication ranks No. 1 on the 2024 list of overall most in-demand skills.
Since AI has changed work so profoundly over the last year, we’re also highlighting the top “skill of the moment” with the most notable surge in year-over-year demand: adaptability. It’s an indispensable skill that allows teams and organizations to keep steady and drive maximum impact. And this skill will become even more important as the pace of change only increases.

GenAI showcases the obvious need for adaptability within the workforce and it stands to reason that one’s future progress and professional success is predicated on one’s ability to not only adapt to new technologies — like artificial intelligence — but also become proficient and fluent, if possible.

Here are some other in-demand skills for 2024 that you might seriously consider improving or upskilling into:

Some final words via LinkedIn:

In a world continuously transformed by artificial intelligence, the enduring value of uniquely human skills should be a guiding light for both employees and learning and development departments. As organizations navigate the vast universe of AI capabilities, they will continue to recognize the importance of fostering and prioritizing human-centric skills within their teams.

As a communicator myself and one who’s spent years writing code and content I know that a direct result of this time working directly on these skills have helped me tremendously in my work.

One of the more less obvious but important things for me personally is my own clarity of thought, whether thinking through a difficult task or problem or communicating and sharing my ideas with others.

To be honest, my continual work here of writing content to y’all every business day of the week continues to keep my skills and mind sharp and I highly recommend everyone spending time writing in public and private ways — not just emails (I don’t think those count)!

And, if I were to make any recommendation it might be this: Spend time writing about generative AI! This will not only keep you on the cusp of where this industry is headed but it’ll also allow you to form independent perspectives and opinions about the technology which will help you progress faster in your own personal development.

Who knows where that might take you? Perhaps a new job? Perhaps a new career? Perhaps it’ll connect you with new folks that could start a spark of something exciting like a new startup or project? Who knows? You won’t if you don’t try.

And the soft-skill of communication can directly impact your ability to effectively prompt in many tools so the added benefit of being better at communicating your thoughts, intents, and desires will impact and build a real hard skill too.

Who would have thought!

Communication is a skill that will never get old and even as generative AI changes you’ll have the benefit of years of (technical practice). Keep going!

✌(-‿-)✌

— Summer