Irreplaceable: Why Human Traits Beat AI Even In The Automated Workforce

If anxiety about being replaced by an AI bot sounds familiar, you are far from alone. A study from EY finds that three-quarters of workers around the world fear AI will render entire job categories obsolete, and roughly two out of three are specifically worried that their own role will be eliminated by automation.

While this fear of displacement by new technology is completely natural, humans retain a set of unique inherent qualities that can make us impossible for AI to replace, according to Pascal Bornet, author of Irreplaceable: The Art of Standing Out in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Bornet, who previously founded and led AI and automation practices at both McKinsey and Ernst & Young, has centered his research on the intersection of human capability and artificial intelligence. “AI is built by people, for people,” he explains. “If you take the human element out of AI, the technology becomes essentially useless. AI delivers massive amounts of value, but all that value is ultimately meant to serve human needs.”

To position yourself as irreplaceable in the AI era, Bornet outlines three core “ready” competencies that will be non-negotiable for the future workforce. Many human abilities — including our individual personalities, unique life histories, emotional awareness, and authentic self-expression — are one-of-a-kind to humans, and no technology can ever replicate these traits. Bornet calls this set of innate human skills “humics”, and he often uses the example of children playing in a sandbox to explain how these skills work in practice.

“Kids build elaborate structures and invent brand-new games on a regular basis,” he says. “They are the architects of their own imaginative realms. ChatGPT can generate stories, but that is not the same type of creativity. The unique thing we bring as humans is true, original novelty.”

Children also discuss and negotiate the rules of their games together, collectively deciding what is good and what is not. This form of independent critical thinking is the second core “humic” skill that makes up what Bornet calls being “human-ready”.

“No technology will ever tell us what is good or what is bad,” Bornet says. “The design of ethical frameworks can only come from humans.”