Dave Coplin believes that the key to success for all of our futures is how we rise to the challenge and unleash the potential that AI and machine learning will bring us. We all need to evolve and fast. He looks at the 10 skills we can nurture to future-proof our careers
I have been working with global technology companies for more than 30 years, helping people to truly understand the amazing potential on offer when humans work in harmony with machines.
I have written two books, I’ve worked with businesses and governments all over the world and recently I’ve been inspiring and engaging kids and adults alike, all with one single goal in mind, which is simply to help everyone get the absolute best from technology.
The key to success for all of our futures is how we rise to the challenge and unleash the potential that AI and machine learning will bring us. We all need to evolve and fast.
In an age of algorithms and robots, we need to find a way to combine the best of technological capability with the best of human ability and find that sweet spot where humans and machines complement each other perfectly.  With this in mind, here are my top ten skills that will enable humans to rise, to achieve more than ever before not just at work but across all aspects of our lives:
Creativity
When it comes to creativity, I absolutely believe that technology is one of the most creative forces that we will ever get to enjoy. But creativity needs to be discovered and it needs to be nurtured. Our future will be filled with complex, challenging problems, the like of which we will never have encountered before. We’re going to need a society of creative thinkers to help navigate it.
Empathy
While the machines are busy crunching numbers, it will be the humans left to navigate the complicated world of emotions, motivation, and reason. In a world of the dark, cold logic of algorithms, the ability for individuals to understand and share the feelings of others is going to become a crucial skill. Along with creativity, empathy will be one of the most critical attributes that define the border between human and machine.
Accountability
As well as teaching ourselves and our families to be confident with technology we also need to be accountable for how we use it.
Just because the computer gives you an answer, it doesn’t make it right. We all need to learn to take the computer’s valuable input but crucially combine that with our own human intuition in order to discover the best course of action. Our future is all about being greater than the sum of our parts…
Curiosity
One of creativity’s most important companions is curiosity – it is the gateway to the best way to be creative with technology. We now have at our fingertips access to every fact and opinion that has ever been expressed, but we take this for granted. And what do we choose to do with all that knowledge? Two words, “cat videosâ€. I’m being playful of course, but part of the solution is to help all of us, especially kids, be curious about the world around us and to use technology to explore it.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking will be the 21st-century human’s superpower. If we can help individuals both understand and apply it, we can, over time, unleash the full potential of our connected world. We should constantly question content we see, hear and read – and not just assume it’s true.
Communication
One of digital technology’s key purposes is to connect humans with each other. Communicating with others is as essential to our future survival as breathing and yet we’re often just not that good at it, especially when we’re communicating with others who aren’t in the same physical space.
Learning to communicate well (and that includes really effective listening) regardless of whether that is on-line or off-line is one of the basic literacies of our digital world.Â
Collaboration
Building on our communication skills, collaboration is the purpose for much of the reason behind why we need to communicate well. Technology enables large numbers of people to come together, aligned around a common cause but we can only harness the collective power of people if we can find the best way to work together to unleash our collective potential.
Lifelong learning
The future doesn’t stand still and now more than ever, that means neither can we. While we used to think about education as a single phase, early on in most people’s lives, the reality is that learning needs to be an everyday occurrence, regardless of our age or stage of life. Thanks to new technologies like artificial intelligence, skills that are new today will be automated tomorrow and this means we can never afford to stand still.Â
Resilience
The by-product of a rapidly changing world is that we need to help people learn to embrace the ambiguity such a world presents. More traditional mindsets of single domains of skills and single careers will have to give way to the much more nebulous world of multiple skillsets for multiple careers. In order to make the transition, people are going to need to find a way to preserve and develop enough energy to be able to embrace every new change and challenge so that they can both offer value and be valued by the ever-changing society they are a part of.
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Digital confidence
As a technologist, and an optimist, we need to remember that the machines and algorithms are here to help. The success of our future will depend entirely on our ability to grasp the potential they offer us. Regardless of the career we choose, our and our children’s lives will be better, more successful, happier and more rewarding if we are confident in how we can use technology to help us achieve more at work, in our relationships and in how we enjoy ourselves.Â
None of these skills were picked by chance. They were specifically picked because they are the very qualities that will complement the immensely powerful gift that technology brings us. Better still, these are the skills that will remain fundamentally human for decades to come.
Now is the time to think differently about our relationship with technology and it’s potential. We owe it to ourselves and our children to help ensure we don’t just learn to survive in the 21st century but instead we learn how to thrive. If we can get this right for ourselves and our kids, we are going to get some amazing rewards as a result.Â
The rise of the humans starts with us, and it starts now…
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