At the end of 2022, I decided to pivot from the tech industry to education. I wanted to teach communication and marketing skills to the young and the not-so-young. At that point, I was already using Gen AI on a daily basis and I saw how my communication skill – honed by journalism, marketing and business leadership – helped me craft effective prompts to solve different problems.
It was clear to me back then that while AI Literacy is the most important skill of this age, it needs to be paired with expertise in Communication.
Three years later (Jan 2025), LinkedIn published its Work Change Report where I took this screenshot that confirms my belief – “Communication was the number one most-in-demand skill in 2024”.
Then this month, I came across this quote from the page “LinkedIn’s Economic Graph”:
“What we once called ‘soft skills’ are now actually the ‘hard skills’ of the 21st century. What you refer to as the ‘relationship economy’ has become very real. The quality of human relationships is essential in everything.”— Andreas SCHLEICHER, Director of OECD Education and Skills, discusses the key human skills that will set workers apart in this age of AI, including:
🎨 Creativity
🧠 Critical thinking
🛠️ Problem solving
💬 Communication
🤝 Relationship building
🤔 Decision making
So, if you’ve taken my Nanyang Technological University Singapore classes, or have attended my Generative AI workshops, you will now better understand why I teach what I teach.
The more augmented we become by AI, the more we need to get good at good old human communication.