The Skill You Need in 2025

Quote: 

“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” -Steve Jobs

The New Skill You Need for the New Year

A new year is always a good time to look at your life and find ways to improve. Each January, gym memberships spike by 12% or more, but 80% of those who join in January quit the gym in their first 5 months. This year, as you set professional goals for yourself, there is one that will be much easier to sustain than a gym members. 2025 will be the year we learn to ask great questions.

2024 held waves of layoffs, and a tighter labor market than we’d seen in many years. Job seekers were becoming frustrated and asking the question: are jobs being replaced by AI? Is that why there are so few openings? Because AI has replaced workers. The answer is no. AI is not replacing workers. But - someone who knows how to leverage AI might. Ignoring generative AI or hoping it disappears is no longer an option. History offers a powerful parallel to our current moment: the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

In the 1400s and 1500s, scribes held an essential role in society. A scribe was a person, usually a monk, who would copy books by hand. Sometimes the books had beautiful illustrations, and sometimes it was just text. The scribes were known as either clericus or scriptor in Latin—or “clerks” and “scriveners” in English. This was a distinction that referred to the kind of material that the scribe might copy. Producing a single text could take weeks, months, or even years, and required a great amount of skill and concentration.

All of this changed in the mid-1400s with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenburg. As the printing press took hold, what once required countless hours of skilled labor could be accomplished faster, cheaper, and at scale.  Scribes, who were paid to copy text, were understandably nervous at being made irrelevant by the quick and efficient machine. However, instead of being made obsolete, the scribes became more needed, as the printing press enabled a boom of printed books, requiring work from those who were knowledgeable about printing. Scribes transitioned into editor and publisher roles, and provided much-needed context about the burgeoning industry. 

The 16th century saw the publication of some 200 million books. By the 17th century, somewhere between 500 million - 1 billion books were printed. As literacy rates increased and publication became easier, books became more and more prevalent, as did the need for the services of the scribes, who continued to contribute to the production of books. 

I believe this is the way generative AI will affect our workforces. Will we all be doing the exact same work in the future that we are now? Perhaps not. But will there still be a great need for hard workers and thoughtful thinkers? Absolutely. 

We need the ability to Ask Great Questions. 

Developing great AI prompts is a skill, and one we should all be working on. And here’s the great news - we can practice this skill FOR FREE, with no one ever knowing. It’s one of the only professional skills I know of that you can improve completely on your own, with little cooperation or outside input. Practice only requires sitting down with your AI account and asking experimental questions.

Recently, someone I work with told me they thought that using AI for work seemed like cheating. I completely understand this reaction, and there are certainly ways to use AI that would be unethical. One way that I like to think about AI is to treat it like a thought partner. Rather than asking AI to write the email for me - I’ll draft and email and ask AI to make it better. This makes it feel less like cheating and more like using a tool. 

Imagine that you could talk to someone about your work, and that they wouldn’t judge you, no matter how silly of a question you asked. Now imagine that that same person has the ability to create complicated plans and outlines in seconds, and they have the knowledge of the entire internet at their disposal. If you knew someone like that, who had unlimited time for you, you’d be silly not to utilize them. As professionals, it is vital that we use the tools we have, and Chat GPT, Microsoft CoPilot and Google Gemini are just that - they are tools. Treat them as such, as use them to the best of your ability. 

What are some great questions to ask to set you apart in 2025? How about these?

• I am interested in breaking into a new field, such as sales. What are some common first steps? 

• Are there certifications I can get that will set my resume apart? 

• Here is what I’m doing to find a job in X area – can you tell me what I might be missing? 

• I want to stand out in my current job so that I will be considered for promotion. Can you give me some ideas of ways I can go above and beyond? 

Then, interact with AI to improve the answers it gives you. There is a way to do this without revealing any sensitive company data. Basically, you can ask Chat GPT or Copilot anything you would google. The main difference is that these generative AI systems will allow you to have a conversation.

But the right result will depend on the right prompt. Just as you probably practice your communication skills, your executive presence, and your active listening skills- you should practice your AI query skills. Make sure you are asking the best questions to get the best results.

Affirmation: 

I can have, do, or be anything I want.