There are some eye-watering figures around AI investment across Europe. Government-sponsored programmes alone are targeting billions of pounds at the technology and AI skills.

However, while being au fait with the latest AI interface is all well and good—and AI fluency is now commanding pay premiums for new and existing employees—it doesn’t mean businesses are getting the maximum value from their tech investment.

In this issue of HRO Today EMEA, we do some straight-talking about skills to discover that organisations are placing a great deal of emphasis on those that are truly human: creativity, communication, and above all, the ability to be agile, adapt, and be ready for change. And ultimately it is these skills which will win the day.

While employees may be fearful that AI will replace them, there’s also the fear that AI will make work something less than it is now—that employees will become little more than slaves to the machines, dodging between digital interfaces to provide one system with input from another.

Thankfully forward-thinking businesses know this is not the case. The key to value from technology doesn’t lie in system efficiency; it lies in the human ability to work with, and therefore capitalise on, those systems. Human beings recognise value, they recognise best practices, and they recognise what is better for people.

At the end of the day, it should be remembered that while AI can do things fast, accurately, and repeatedly, what it doesn’t do is care. Technology doesn’t actually care about your business, your people, or indeed, you. Which means, for success, businesses must continue to invest in and look after the people who do.

Simon Kent

Editor-at-Large