The Most Important Skill Is… Conflict Management?

Even in the age of artificial intelligence, when it comes to finding a job, many of the most sought-after skills appear to have little to do with the technology.

As companies transition to skills-based hiring and employees lean into training and development, the latest data suggests that firms are seeking skills that are decidedly human. Indeed, a new survey by LinkedIn of the 15 hottest skills on its platform shows a growing demand for people-driven skills. Sure, the list includes the skills you’d expect to see, such as “AI literacy,” which topped the list, and “process optimization,” which ranked fourth. But it heavily skews towards skills that technology can’t replicate, like “conflict management,” “public speaking,” “stakeholder management,” and “customer engagement,” all of which made the top ten. (Skills were ranked according to the rate they were added to profiles, the percentage of people hired in the last year with that skill, and the growth of the skill in job postings.)

Michele Capra, a senior client partner and vice president in the Recruitment Process Outsourcing practice at Korn Ferry, says that skills like conflict mitigation and public speaking are just two of the workforce muscles people will have to rebuild as they return to the office and rely more on AI for their work. So much communication takes place over screens or via text, she says, that she’s noticed clients asking more and more for a “verbal readout” of a situation. “Leaders want to know that they have people who can have confident conversations,” she says.

For his part, David Farris, sector lead for the Professional Services practice at Korn Ferry, says that he’s increasingly seeing a convergence of AI-driven and human skills. To be sure, other skills that made LinkedIn’s list—like “risk management,” “growth strategy,” and “innovative thinking”—feature elements of both. Right now, the human aspect of those skills is a more pronounced need, if only because what we feed into AI to help with scenario planning and decision-making will make it smarter and more capable in the future. “Skills are clustering and overlapping because of business change, not HR change,” says Farris.

Take “go-to-market strategy” as an example. Now that expertise in launching a product or service has become a critically in-demand skill, says Farris, related roles will require a blend of AI’s capacity to adapt to constantly changing consumer behavior and the human talent for framing solutions to drive market share and growth. “The need is the ability to have a more strategic conversation about where the market is headed, and figure out how to get there first,” he says.

To be sure, skills lists inevitably change, so career experts advise workers to stay flexible. Capra expects to see firms refine their skills-based hiring and training approaches this year. She has observed that leaders and hiring managers are getting more sophisticated about identifying the precise skills a role calls for. “More companies are focusing on a smaller set of critical skills that they need in a shorter time frame,” she says.

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Talent Acquisition capabilities.

Read more This Week in Leadership articles