Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit
- LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said "soft skills" are more important as AI takes over routine work.
- He highlighted four communication-specific skills to hone.
- Other Silicon Valley leaders have made more dramatic predictions about AI's impact on jobs.
Personality hires, rejoice. LinkedIn's CEO said soft skills are getting a hard rebrand.
In an interview with the "Tools and Weapons" podcast, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said AI is automating routine tasks. He argued that the shift is elevating four human-centered skills — curiosity, courage, communication, and compassion.
"These turn out to be some really, really important skills to do your job well," the CEO said. "The focus and emphasis on those, along with the AI, is what I think gives us the opportunity to dream big and paint a much more positive picture that exists with humans and technology together moving forward."
Roslansky has a broad view of the job market based on LinkedIn data, though he did not cite specific figures in the interview. His view contrasts with some other Silicon Valley voices (and a growing number of Americans).
This year, OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla predicted that today's five-year-olds won't need a job. Boris Cherny, the creator of Anthropic's Claude Code, said the job title "software engineer" will fade away this year. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said he wants high-paid engineers to spend half their salary on AI tokens.
Roslansky's vision is less jarring. Instead, he argues that AI is reshaping how people think about their jobs, encouraging workers to view their roles as a "collection of tasks" rather than a fixed title.
He breaks those tasks into three buckets: ones AI can fully automate, ones it can augment, and ones that remain deeply human — like resolving conflict, persuading a team, or setting strategy.
"These skills, they're important, but they've historically been talked about as soft skills," Roslansky said. "In a professional world where people are actually much better at these skills and have really honed their craft on it, I think that it makes things a lot better."
As AI handles more automated responsibilities, Roslansky said that agents can free up time for coworker conversations, putting a greater premium on communication, judgment, and emotional intelligence.
He said his thought process has given him a hopeful view of AI's future. Still, he said he doesn't have a crystal ball and could ultimately be wrong.
"Sometimes when you're mired in the technology, and especially with AI, and you kind of draw out where this could potentially go, it leads you to some dark places," he said. "I believe that humans play such an integral role in shaping where that technology should go."
Read the original article on Business Insider
