Workers in the AI ​​era will need these skills, according to four executives.

When it comes to the most valuable skills in the AI ​​era, nothing is old or new. It’s actually the same as the old one.

That’s what talent executives and business leaders told CNBC Make It at Forbes’ Future of Work Summit in New York City on October 6.

“Technology is changing so rapidly that it’s less about specific technologies and more about durable features and capabilities than ever before,” said Daniel Chait, CEO of employment platform Greenhouse. “Things that used to be dismissed as, ‘Oh, that’s a soft skill, it’s not that important,’ are now much more fundamental.”

Here are some of the skills your employees should focus on developing today.

Lorraine “Ro” Stomski, Walmart’s chief people officer, said being a lifelong learner opens up more opportunities.

Similarly, Ginny Currier, EY’s chief people and culture officer for the Americas, believes that “learning is becoming a meta-skill.”

“It’s really the foundational skill on which all other skills are built,” says Carlier.

Chait said adaptability and resilience are important today, as new tools are emerging every day and employees are expected to quickly become familiar with them.

“Hard skills are much more ephemeral in the world we live in now,” Chait says. “You learn a tool, it becomes popular, then it fades away, and tomorrow you learn a new tool.”

“If you can demonstrate your ability to learn, you can demonstrate your ability to adapt and grow and provide value in all kinds of ways. That’s what companies are hungry for,” Chait added.

Employers are “increasing their requirements and expectations” when it comes to entry-level hires, Stomski said. Many traditional entry-level responsibilities are simply “redundant” as employers expect AI to assist or complete these tasks.

Rather, employers expect “you to come in at a higher level and practice critical thinking and judgment,” Stomski added.

Karlier says we need to meaningfully evaluate what we’re putting into our AI tools and what we’re getting out of them, calling this a kind of “AI responsibility.” He said quality should be looked at so workers can have confidence “to back up the results”.

“It’s not just the ability to put your hands on the keyboard that matters,” Currier said.

While many of these skills are old, some of the competencies useful to today’s workforce are new.

For example, many employers say that AI fluency is important within their organizations. But that doesn’t mean much, says Hannah Calhoun, vice president of AI and head of AI innovation at Indeed.

“This has become the new ‘digital literacy.’ It’s a really great tagline,” she said. However, many organizations are unclear exactly what AI skills they expect their employees to develop and use in the workplace. This means employees are “shooting at targets that are not clear,” Calhoun said.

She explains that “general AI fluency” is a basic understanding of how AI tools work, what works well, what doesn’t work, where the risks are, and how to review and “ask questions” of the answers you receive.

But it varies greatly by department. “The definition of AI fluency varies considerably,” she said, noting that employers need to be clear about what they expect from employees when it comes to AI.

Today, there is no magic skill set that guarantees worker success.

A low-hiring, low-firing environment means that some employees feel stuck in their roles but have few options for growth within and outside the organization. Meanwhile, employers are grappling with issues such as geopolitical and economic uncertainty and the pressure to transform how AI works. Taken together, these factors can mean additional challenges for employees. But it helps to keep existing skills sharp and pursue new ones with ease.

“Demonstrating your unique people skills and continually investing in them is what sets you apart,” Currier said. “There are some things that humans can do that AI cannot do.”