A robot dog leaps into the air, controlled by its operator in Ukraine – Copyright AFP GENYA SAVILOV

With up to 30 percent of U.S. work hours projected to be automated by 2030 (McKinsey, 2023), CEOs are already adjusting their hiring strategies. The next wave of recruitment will not only be about technical knowledge—it will prioritise the human skills that AI simply cannot replicate (at least currently).

By 20203, what will the top skills required by workers be? The CEO of  TRG Datacenters (Jon Hinkle) has told Digital Journal about the four capabilities employers will prize most in the coming years.

1. Conflict Resolution: AI Can’t Build Trust

“Disagreements happen everywhere—between teams, departments, even with clients,” says Hinkle.

“We look for people who know how to de-escalate situations, stay calm under pressure, and find common ground. That soft skill prevents small issues from turning into costly ones. One of our operations leads resolved a miscommunication between engineering and sales during a major deployment. Instead of letting the tension escalate, they got both sides in a room, clarified timelines, and kept the project on track. That saved us both client trust and money. No AI could’ve done that.”

2. Adaptability: Learning Is the New Experience

“We’ve had people come in with zero background in our systems, and within three weeks, they’re outperforming hires with years of experience,” observes Hinkle.  

“The difference is how quickly they learn and adapt when something changes—which is almost weekly now. One of our recent hires came from a completely different industry, but she taught herself our marketing automation platform in under 10 days. A month later, she was running multichannel campaigns better than her predecessor. That’s the kind of adaptability we need—and it’s impossible to screen for just by resume.”

3. Leadership: AI Can’t Inspire People

“Even with the best tools, people still want to feel connected to a mission,” explains Hinkle.

“A good leader can explain the why, give clear direction, and motivate others when things are uncertain or chaotic. That kind of leadership builds loyalty and performance.We had a critical system outage during a peak client period. Instead of panicking, our operations lead quickly rallied the support, tech, and comms teams, delegated responsibilities clearly, and kept everyone aligned hour by hour. Clients praised our transparency. That kind of calm, people-first leadership is irreplaceable—and exactly what AI can’t offer.”

4. Systems Thinking: Connecting the Dots Is a Human Skill

“Plenty of tools can run an analysis, but very few people can look at the output and say, ‘Here’s how this impacts our marketing, support, and ops all at once,’” notes Hinkle.

“That big-picture view is what helps us make decisions that actually work. During a product integration project, one of our analysts pointed out how a backend architecture change could slow down front-end loading time, affecting both customer experience and support ticket volume. By flagging that early, we adjusted our rollout and avoided two weeks of potential user complaints. No AI would’ve predicted that chain reaction.”

Source link