Forget coding, Amazon’s AWS CEO wants his own children to master these soft skills in AI age — can you guess them?

Matt Garman may be the CEO of a major tech company, but the chief of Amazon Web Services (AWS), has rather opposite advice for future job seekers, including his own children, about developing skills in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Not in coding, IT, or even medicine. Speaking to CNBC, Matt Garman said he strongly believes in the need to develop more soft skills in the AI era— advice he also gives his children. “Develop your critical thinking skills in college, no matter what subject you study,” he strongly emphasised.

“I think part of going to college is building [your] critical thinking. It’s less about the development of skills, and it really is [about] how do you become a critical thinker? In some ways, I think that’s actually going to be the most important skill going forward,” he added.

Matt Garman's advice for job seekers in AI age: Develop soft skills

Speaking to the publication, Matt Garman stressed that critical thinking is the “number one, biggest key to success in the age of AI”.

“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible. I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn,” he added.

He believes the goal is to excel at tasks that AI cannot replicate or overtake humans in. While AI may handle administrative work, it still struggles with critical thinking, nuanced decision-making, and creative problem-solving, the report added, citing studies.

Besides critical thinking, Garman also highlighted two other important soft skills — adaptability and communication. "(Soft skills) are important today. I think they’ll be just as important, if not more important (in the future),” he added.

“Most customers still want to talk to a person and get personal insights and attention from a human being. Those people skills are going to continue to be super important for a long time,” he believes.

Human edge to make a difference as AI ‘takes’ jobs

Matt Garman is not alone in his thinking. In September, Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at Zoho Corp, echoed similar views. He felt that the human edge in critical thinking and reasoning will continue to be vital in the age of AI and large language models.

“Job roles will evolve, and it is important for everybody to make use of AI, the same way they did when the internet came in. That said, human strengths in reasoning and critical thinking will remain essential, even in the age of AI and LLMs,” he told PTI in an interview.