As artificial intelligence becomes a larger part of everyday work, professionals should be thinking about more than how quickly they can learn the latest AI tools. They should also be asking which human abilities become more important when technology can handle more of the work, according to Francisco Tonarely, a Business Development Representative in enterprise technology.
Tonarely sees communication, adaptability, judgment, curiosity, and relationship-building as increasingly important in an AI-supported workplace. He believes AI can expand what people can do, but professionals still need to understand context, evaluate information, communicate with others, and decide when to question the technology's output. "The goal should not be to compete with AI at the things it can do faster," Tonarely said. "The opportunity is to become better at the things that still require context, judgment, communication, and understanding other people."
Recent research points to a growing need for those abilities. Deloitte's 2026 Global Human Capital Trends research, conducted with Oxford Economics and drawing on responses from more than 9,000 business and HR leaders across 89 countries, found that 85% of leaders consider developing organizational and workforce adaptability critical. Yet only 7% said their organizations are leading in helping workers continuously grow and adapt.
Tonarely places adaptability near the top of the list because AI is changing both the tools people use and the expectations surrounding their jobs. Deloitte's research illustrates the pace of that change: one-third of workers surveyed experienced 15 major changes during the previous year. Only 27% of respondents said their organizations managed change effectively, while just 8% said their organizations were highly effective at meeting workers' continuous learning needs. For Tonarely, adaptability does not mean chasing every new technology; it means being willing to reconsider how work gets done when a better approach emerges. "Adaptability needs some discipline behind it," he said. "You cannot change direction every time something new gets attention. At the same time, you cannot become so attached to the way you have always worked that you stop noticing when there is a better way."
Curiosity is another skill Tonarely sees as increasingly important because AI can provide answers quickly, but the quality of those answers still depends partly on the questions people ask. A professional who accepts the first output without thinking may save time but miss context. Someone who is curious is more likely to ask why an answer makes sense, what information might be missing, and how the information applies to the situation at hand. "The fact that you can get an answer quickly does not mean you should stop asking questions," Tonarely said. "If anything, being able to get information faster makes it more important to know which questions are worth asking next." Deloitte has similarly identified curiosity as one of the enduring human capabilities associated with high-performing teams in the AI era, along with resilience, divergent thinking, informed agility, connected teaming, and emotional and social intelligence.
Judgment is another skill that deserves more attention. AI can summarize information, identify patterns, and suggest responses, but someone still has to decide whether those suggestions make sense in a particular situation. Deloitte's research argues that competitive differentiation is increasingly tied to human capabilities such as adaptability, creativity, and judgment as AI becomes more widely available. The research also found that organizations taking a technology-focused approach to AI were 1.6 times more likely not to achieve returns exceeding expectations than organizations taking a more human-centered approach. "Good judgment comes from understanding the situation, not just having information," Tonarely said. "You have to consider what you know, what you do not know, who is affected, and what could happen after the decision."
Communication matters more when information is easier to produce. AI can create reports, summaries, and emails quickly, but that does not automatically make communication better. Tonarely believes effective communication still depends on understanding the person receiving the information. "You can have all the information in the world and still communicate it poorly," he said. "You have to understand who you are speaking with, what matters to them, and what they actually need from the conversation." This distinction is especially relevant in enterprise technology sales, where conversations can involve different priorities and levels of technical understanding.
Relationship-building is the final part of Tonarely's view. AI can help professionals prepare for meetings and organize information, but preparation is not the same as trust. Trust develops through repeated interactions, and people notice whether someone listens, follows through, and treats the relationship as more than a transaction. "You still have another person on the other side of the conversation," Tonarely said. "Technology can help you prepare, but it cannot make somebody trust you. That comes from how you communicate and what you consistently do."
Tonarely does not see the conversation as a choice between becoming better with AI and developing stronger human skills. Professionals will need both. Deloitte found that only 6% of leaders surveyed said their organizations were making progress in designing effective interactions between people and AI, and 65% believed their culture needed to change significantly because of AI. Those figures suggest that providing access to AI tools is only part of the challenge. Organizations also have to help people learn how to work differently. Tonarely believes individuals can also take responsibility for that development. "The people who do well are not necessarily going to be the ones who resist AI or the ones who depend on it for everything," he said. "I think it will be the people who learn how to use it while continuing to develop their own judgment, communication, adaptability, and relationships."
