Additional training lacks emotional focus, says LinkedIn workplace expert

Out with the old and in with the new. AI is here and companies around the world are being forced to quickly integrate the technology as they rethink what it means for the productivity of their workforce.

Smart companies are calling on them to upskill their employees and educate them on the new technology to improve their bottom line. But Aneesh Raman, vice president of LinkedIn, tells the story Fortune that a critically overlooked part of training employees in AI is focusing on their soft skills and emotional intelligence.

“We’re using old math for a new equation when we say ‘AI skills’ because we understand that to mean technical skills. That was the knowledge economy, and people had to learn Python and get training through degrees or diplomas,” says Raman. “Your AI skill now is just to know what these AI tools are, and to communicate with AI the same way you communicate with humans.”

Besides AI, softer skills are what bosses are generally looking for. The most in-demand skill of 2024 that companies want from employees is good communication, according to a LinkedIn survey conducted earlier this year. Customer service came in second, with leadership third, project management fourth, management fifth, analytics sixth and teamwork seventh.

Raman says the survey confirms conversations he’s had with business leaders and what kind of talent they need. “We’re starting to talk about empathy, communication, critical listening and these unique human skills that we have in a way that it’s becoming increasingly important in the way we assess candidate and employee success,” he says.

But when it comes to further training, that desire must translate into action. Raman says companies should make time during work hours for staffers to upskill, and create training opportunities for employees to better cultivate and leverage soft skills in service of AI goals.

“We have spent a century building highly sophisticated education, training and qualification systems around IQ. We now have to do that around EQ,” he says. “We need to create empathy bootcamps that are as credible as the coding bootcamps in the knowledge economy – that requires new thinking, organizational design and flatter organizations with more cross-functional work.”

Emma Burleigh
[email protected]

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– California changed a law that allows workers to sue their employers, in an effort to repeal it altogether. New York Times

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