An economist describes the skills that can give you 'armor' against AI changing your job

You can master certain skills to build "armor" to defend against AI as it transforms the workplace, an economist and futurist has said.

In an interview on Sunday, Linda Nazareth said the best way to future-proof your career is to master skills machines can't replicate.

When asked by Canadian news show Global News which abilities might be "AI-proof," she said, "Resilience, creativity, empathy, motivation and self-awareness, curiosity, service orientation, and teaching and mentoring."

"Developing these skills gives you a little bit of armor against all the changes ahead," she added.

She said that AI was "somewhat different" from past technological shifts because, unlike earlier tools that merely changed how people work, AI can now "replace" entire job functions.

She asked who would own any increase in productivity and profits, adding, "Will it flow to workers at all? Will there be some benefits there? Will it be a small number of people? Will it show up in tax revenues?"

Nazareth also said she was concerned that AI was replacing entry-level white-collar jobs, and that this could break the talent pipeline for future managers.

She said, "It's a real concern of mine, because how are you going to have the middle and higher-level workers if you don't train them?"

Research shows AI is reshaping tasks — but leaders can't agree on how far it will go

Nazareth's comments come after Indeed published a study on which common work skills were most susceptible to AI transformation.

GenAI Skill Transformation Index, released last month, found that 41% of nearly 2,900 skills had the highest transformational potential, 26% were "highly" exposed, and 46% of skills in a typical job posting were likely to undergo a "hybrid transformation."

It also looked at jobs that were likely to be transformed, listing software development at the top of exposure while finding roles grounded in physical presence and human touch — like nursing — were less affected.

In July, Microsoft researchers analyzed 200,000 Copilot chats and reported that, while AI supports "many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing, and communication," they did not find anything to "indicate it can fully perform any single occupation."