When it comes to early career talent, AI fluency is no longer a differentiator—it’s the baseline. Generative AI and autonomous agents are reshaping how we work, meaning that today’s emerging professionals intuitively know how to collaborate with AI.
For leaders developing a modern AI workforce strategy, the data is clear. According to Futureforce’s Emerging Talent Playbook, early-career professionals are four times more likely to use AI daily, delivering results significantly faster than legacy workflows.
This technical speed acts as a catalyst for a much deeper transformation. As Allison, an Account Executive highlighted in the Playbook, notes:
But if everyone has access to the same powerful tools in the Agentic era, what actually sets a candidate apart? The answer isn’t knowing a new programming language or the perfect prompting framework — it’s your soft skills.
What AI Can’t Replicate
Jim Roth, President, Customer Success at Salesforce, recently spoke to engineering students at Northwestern University about launching a career in the age of AI, and he highlighted three timeless, human-centric skills that endure regardless of technology:
- Critical Thinking: Knowing the “why” behind your decision-making.
- Communication: The power of storytelling to move people and ideas.
- Relationships: Learning how to connect with people on an individual level.
While AI can draft emails, summarize meetings, and prototype code in seconds, it’s interpersonal connection and strategic thinking that turn these outputs into real business impact.
But how can you put those timeless skills into practice?
Key Soft Skills for the Agentic Era (And How to Cultivate Them)
If you’re searching for opportunities to put Jim Roth’s soft skills into action, here are three actions to ponder in your next tech project:
- For Critical Thinking, don’t just accept AI outputs at face value. Always audit the results by asking: What nuance is the AI missing? What are the ethical implications? Be the strategic manager, not just the prompter.
- For Communication, let AI analyse spreadsheets, but use your empathy to frame the narrative. Practice translating dense, technical AI outputs into simple, business-focused stories tailored to the specific people in the room.
- For Relationship Building, don’t solely rely on automated emails or AI-generated meeting summaries. Actively prioritize live conversations, camera-on collaboration, and 1:1 check-ins.
The Power of Reverse Mentorship
At Salesforce, we follow a forward-thinking AI workforce strategy, integrating early career talent AI capabilities into the workforce from the jump. Early-career professionals are stepping in to help close the AI fluency gap across teams, exchanging their modern perspectives for colleagues’ institutional wisdom through reverse mentorship — and hiring managers recognise the advantage.
Just recently Nathalie Scardino, Salesforce’s President & Chief People Officer, hosted our Futureforce Reverse Mentorship Lab Showcase in San Francisco. In her closing remarks, she emphasised to Futureforce hires the importance of staying human: “Keep betting on your uniquely human superpowers.”
Why Early Career Talent Should Be Excited About AI
It’s easy to look at the rapid rise of autonomous agents and worry about the future of entry-level roles. But the reality is the exact opposite.
As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently noted, “For a lot of [early career talent], they have been told ‘well there might be difficulty getting a job…’ But the reality is that companies like ours badly need these people.”
Companies don’t just need your native AI speed; they need the soft skills that turn that speed into real business impact. In the Agentic era, your capacity to be human isn’t a vulnerability—it’s your ultimate competitive advantage.
Interested in learning more about Salesforce’s approach to AI-native talent? Download our Emerging Talent Playbook.
