The 1 Most Important Skill in the Age of AI

How to be successful and find meaning in disruptive times?

Jan van Essen
2 min readFeb 22, 2020
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

What is it that makes humans unique? Artificial intelligence permeates all industries. Automation will profoundly change the way we work. In the next few years, there will hardly be a sector that is not affected by AI.

Many cognitive tasks that could previously only be done by humans will be performed by machines. However, this does not make humans superfluous — on the contrary.

Liberated from monotonous and repetitive tasks, humans will have more freedom to unfold themselves. Their very own ability is to think and act creatively. The decisive competence will be to use the new tools and building blocks in new ways and to find innovative solutions.

The conceptual age begins

Already in 2005, the author Daniel H. Pink described the transition from the information age to the conceptual age in his book “A Whole New Mind”.

In an increasingly automated world, a different way of thinking is gaining in importance. Creativity, innovation, and design are becoming competitive factors in the conceptual economy.

Information technology has been the basis for economic success, now it is important how to use the new…

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Jan van Essen

Creative Coder & Generative Artist · janvanessen.com · How to build the future? · Web3 developer · Impact Tech · Blockchain & Deep Learning