According to Kelly Robinson, founder and CEO of recruiting company PKRecruiting, people possess abilities that artificial intelligence (AI) will never be able to replace, and those abilities remain critical to high performance in a wide variety of jobs. “What makes us human also makes us good workers,” she says. “Our ability to feel emotions, adapt to changing circumstances, innovate, and communicate effectively are the qualities that set us apart from machines.”
At a time when some suggest AI could substitute for humans in many roles, Robinson’s remarks suggest that AI’s future may have limits.
The importance of emotional intelligence
“AI doesn’t feel emotions, so it can’t develop emotional intelligence,” Robinson says. “Yet, these skills are critical in many positions.”
Indeed, emotional intelligence — sometimes called “EQ” — sometimes even eclipses IQ in hiring decisions, and for good reason. According to an article in Business News Daily, “Emotional intelligence counts for twice as much as IQ and technical skills combined in determining who will be a top workplace performer.” That’s because people who can regulate their own emotions make good team members and leaders.
“Research has shown that subordinates pick up on their leaders’ mental states,” Robinson notes. For instance, researchers Thomas Sy, Stephane Côté, and Richard Saavedra have documented managers’ emotional sway over their direct reports. In a groundbreaking study, they found that teams took on the moods of their leaders, and negative emotions were more powerful than positive ones.
“Emotions can be viewed as contagious,” Robinson explains. “That’s why I always look for candidates who demonstrate high emotional intelligence. An AI would not qualify on this criterion.”
The importance of flexibility
“Human beings can learn, which also sets them apart from AI,” Robinson says. “In the real world, conditions are always changing. Plans often go awry while they are being executed. When your business or organization depends on the successful outcome of those plans, it’s important to have a human being at the scene — someone who can think and adapt on the fly. AI can’t do this.”
While it may seem that the machine has engaged in thinking to achieve its outputs, that’s not what’s actually going on. Experts often emphasize that AI doesn’t think. As Dr. Kate Darling of MIT writes in Science Focus, “Although AI can use data to predict outcomes, it lacks the ability to understand its actions.”
Experts also highlight the necessity of human oversight over AI. “The bottom line is that skilled humans will always be key to managing the flow and assuring the quality and timeliness of data being fed into AI and machine learning systems,” an article from global tech news outlet ZDNET states. “The mechanics of data management will be autonomous, but the context of the data needs human involvement.”
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of employees who can actually think, learn, and respond to real-world conditions,” Robinson says. “Even if many jobs do start to incorporate AI, human beings will be indispensable to monitor and correct it.”
The importance of innovation
In addition to being unable to adapt, AI also can’t demonstrate creativity and innovation. “These qualities are essential for most professional roles,” Robinson says. “Any time a problem crops up that requires an unorthodox solution, the ability to think creatively is necessary.”
While many AI advocates point to the machine’s ability to generate poems, jokes, essays, and even stories, others have detected a false note in these offerings because AI’s writings spring from algorithms, rather than human intuition or emotion. Since Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT rehash patterns of speech and concepts that are commonly repeated, they tend to produce stilted and unoriginal text.
The importance of true understanding
LLMs also don’t actually understand the information they dig up. As AI expert Daniel Shapiro explains in Forbes, “Current AI models lack understanding of common knowledge about the world. Yann Lecun, a prominent figure in modern AI, gave an example of the sentence “He walked through the door,” and explained that contemporary AI models are unable to determine its meaning.”
Darling agrees. “It lacks the ability to comprehend concepts or context, and is highly susceptible to being misled by biased or mislabeled data that even a four-year-old wouldn’t be fooled by. Output Language Code: EN,” she writes.
AI’s lack of understanding has several implications. First and foremost, they can misunderstand prompts or draw the wrong conclusions based on their research. “People whose jobs already require working with AI often have to fix the machine’s logic,” Robinson says. “Sometimes, this is because the AI interpreted words in a prompt differently than the person intended. Other times, it’s because the AI doesn’t really understand the information it’s uncovering.”
In addition, AIs are willing to report erroneous or inaccurate information with confidence, thereby spreading misinformation and falsehoods.
“Effective human employees exercise judgment and can vet the credibility of sources. AI can prioritize sources incorrectly and regurgitate ideas just because they proliferate on the Internet,” Robinson says. “Organizations only run well when their staff is connected to reality and has an accurate picture of what’s going on.”
Good news for human beings
“From the perspective of recruiting, AI won’t replace human beings anytime soon,” Robinson says. This is good news for those whose jobs AI appears to threaten. While advocates of AI can be rightly proud of how far their creations have come in recent years, claims that these machines will soon relieve human beings of their duties appear to be overblown.