Soft-skills in the era of Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT

Carolina is Corporate Talent Manager at Affinity, responsible for recruiting…

In the current business scenario, around the world, we are witnessing a significant transformation driven by technology and digitalization that is progressively reflected in the way we view the job market and our roles. In this context, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of soft skills, due to the unique contribution they bring, and which can hardly be replicated or replaced by machines.

At the same time, the emergence of Chat GPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence is redefining the nature of work, requiring a deeper analysis of the relationship between humans and machines. Of course, the advantages are countless, and our work gains a lot through the creation of synergies between the Human-Machine duality, which is getting closer and closer every day.

It is worth noting that a company, today, does not work exclusively with machines (yet), therefore, teams and their interrelationships have a unique influence on the objectives we want to achieve as a company. Without diminishing the importance of technical knowledge, at Affinity we define a set of soft skills as differentiating factors that allow us to create agile and effective teams, oriented towards the company’s objectives and aligned with our culture and DNA:

1. Effective Communication

Communication is one of the most important skills we use in our daily lives. In a constantly changing environment, knowing how to interpret and adapt our communication to our different interlocutors such as colleagues, clients, candidates, is essential. At Affinity we use DiSC as an auxiliary tool, which allows greater self-knowledge, as well as interpretation of the behavioral style of others, making our teams increasingly adaptable. Allied to this, we promote empathetic communication, which represents one of our core values: Affinity.

2. Emotional Intelligence and Resilience

In an increasingly competitive and constantly changing environment, emotional intelligence translates into the ability to deal with unforeseen events, solve complex problems and manage emotions effectively, allowing teams to achieve positive and productive levels of collaboration. This is an essential tool in building healthy professional relationships, especially in positions that involve leadership and team management, but also applying to other positions in the organization.

3. Critical Thinking

The ability to analyze situations, identify challenges and devise creative solutions is a fundamental soft skill in a world in which routine tasks are increasingly automated. Critical thinking allows our employees to approach complex problems in a unique way and find innovative approaches, which will allow us to be one step ahead.

4. Teamwork

Many projects and tasks require the collaboration of multiple people with different sets of skills and knowledge. The ability to work as a team allows for a diversity of perspectives and ideas that can lead to creative solutions to challenges. Working as a team also increases effectiveness, as tasks are distributed and permits team members to develop unique skills by actively watching and listening to different ways of doing things. Artificial intelligence can bring many advantages to our daily lives, but it will hardly replace this unique ability that we have to relate to others.

5. Adaptability and Flexibility

We are going through one of the most challenging phases in our job market, whether due to the crisis or the fear that one day our work will be replaced by machines. To respond to this in a practical way, it is increasingly important to have the ability to adapt to changes, new circumstances, and ongoing challenges effectively. As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that best adapts to changes” and this is a maxim that we cannot deny and should definitely keep in mind in our personal and professional lives.

As Portugal and other countries adapt to the era of automation and the presence of GPT Chat and other AI platforms, companies increasingly value soft skills as a differentiating factor. Effective communication, emotional intelligence/resilience, critical thinking, teamwork, and adaptability/flexibility are skills that define successful professionals in an ever-changing world. At the same time, automation should not be seen as a threat, but rather an opportunity for professionals to develop their unique capabilities and collaborate with other people and machines to reach a new level of productivity and innovation.