Forbes’ recent piece on reskilling for the AI-driven revolution makes a simple but urgent point: AI is accelerating mundane and routine tasks… which means human judgment, empathy, and communication are now the big differentiators. In the past, teams leaned into an assumption that technical fluency alone could carry them forward. The truth is, it won’t. In fact, the skills that can’t be automated are what defines success.

Reskilling often focuses on tools and processes. That’s a start, but it misses the bigger multiplier: human skills. Building trust, spotting gaps, interpreting ambiguous outputs, translating insights for others—that’s what actually moves the needle. In our work, we see teams with strong “soft” skills outperform more technically savvy peers because they know when to push back against a recommendation or how to translate it for stakeholders.

What that Forbes article does well to point out is that, contrary to popular belief, human skills aren’t just soft—they’re scalable. And teaching someone to recognize when a recommendation is flawed or needs context multiplies impact far beyond technical proficiency. These abilities shape trust, decision speed, and overall effectiveness.

Stop thinking of reskilling as a line-item in HR. Think of it as fortifying judgment. Companies that double down on human skills now won’t just survive automation—they’ll amplify it.