“I learned how to think at university, and for the 40 years since I left university, those skills have been degraded, degraded, degraded.”
Instead, human soft skills like curiosity, communication, and critical thinking are incredibly important in leadership and work, according to the 63-year-old CEO. And those are skills that don’t require a college degree to pick up.
“The technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed the technical skills at a relatively low cost,” Winters said.
“I really think in the age of AI, that it’s critical that you know how to think and communicate,” Winters continued. “Not communicate better than ChatGPT, but actually, I’m going to go back to curiosity and empathy.”
While the banking CEO admits that some degree of hard skills are still needed, they’ll only continue to wane in importance as AI takes over more workplace functions. As technology takes over all the heavy lifting, people will have to increasingly engage their human expertise on the job.
“Of course, technical skills are required at some level, but less and less as the machines take out,” Winters said.
