NEW YORK, NY, August 22, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ — As artificial intelligence becomes a larger part of everyday work, Francisco Tonarely believes professionals should be thinking about more than how quickly they can learn the latest AI tools.
They should also be asking which human abilities become more important when technology can handle more of the work.
Tonarely, a Miami-based Business Development Representative working in enterprise technology, sees communication, adaptability, judgment, curiosity, and relationship-building as increasingly important in an AI-supported workplace. He believes AI can expand what people can do, but professionals still need to understand context, evaluate information, communicate with others, and decide when to question the technology’s output.
“The goal should not be to compete with AI at the things it can do faster,” Tonarely said. “The opportunity is to become better at the things that still require context, judgment, communication, and understanding other people.”
Recent research points to a growing need for those abilities. Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends research, conducted with Oxford Economics and drawing on responses from more than 9,000 business and human resources leaders across 89 countries, found that 85% of leaders consider developing organizational and workforce adaptability critical. Yet only 7% said their organizations are leading in helping workers continuously grow and adapt.
Adaptability Becomes a Daily Skill
Tonarely places adaptability near the top of the list because AI is changing both the tools people use and the expectations surrounding their jobs.
Deloitte’s research illustrates the pace of that change. One-third of workers surveyed experienced 15 major changes during the previous year. Only 27% of respondents said their organizations managed change effectively, while just 8% said their organizations were highly effective at meeting workers’ continuous learning needs.
For Tonarely, adaptability does not mean chasing every new technology or changing direction whenever a new AI product appears.
Instead, it means being willing to reconsider how work gets done when a better approach emerges.
“Adaptability needs some discipline behind it,” Tonarely said. “You cannot change direction every time something new gets attention. At the same time, you cannot become so attached to the way you have always worked that you stop noticing when there is a better way.”
He believes professionals should become comfortable learning continuously rather than treating learning as something that happens only during formal training.
Curiosity Helps People Work Better With AI
Tonarely also sees curiosity as increasingly important because AI can provide answers quickly, but the quality of those answers still depends partly on the questions people ask.
A professional who accepts the first output without thinking about it may save time but miss context.
Someone who is curious is more likely to ask why an answer makes sense, what information might be missing, whether another interpretation is possible, and how the information applies to the situation at hand.
“The fact that you can get an answer quickly does not mean you should stop asking questions,” Tonarely said. “If anything, I think being able to get information faster makes it more important to know which questions are worth asking next.”
Deloitte has similarly identified curiosity as one of the enduring human capabilities associated with high-performing teams in the AI era. Its January 2026 study of 1,394 employees also highlighted resilience, divergent thinking, informed agility, connected teaming, and emotional and social intelligence.
Tonarely believes curiosity is particularly important for younger professionals. AI can make it easier to access explanations and information that once took much longer to find, but easy access should not be confused with expertise.
“AI can help you learn, but you still have to care enough to understand what you are learning,” he said.
Human Judgment Remains Part of the Job
Judgment is another skill Tonarely believes deserves more attention.
AI can summarize information, identify patterns, suggest responses, and help professionals consider possible actions. Someone still has to decide whether those suggestions make sense in a particular situation.
That becomes especially important when the information is incomplete or when there is no single correct answer.
Deloitte’s 2026 Human Capital Trends research argues that competitive differentiation is increasingly tied to human capabilities such as adaptability, creativity, and judgment as AI becomes more widely available. The research also found that organizations taking a technology-focused approach to AI were 1.6 times more likely not to achieve returns exceeding expectations than organizations taking a more human-centered approach.
“Good judgment comes from understanding the situation, not just having information,” Tonarely said. “You have to consider what you know, what you do not know, who is affected, and what could happen after the decision.”
He believes this is one reason professionals should view AI as a tool that supports thinking rather than replacing it.
Communication Matters More When Information Is Easier to Produce
AI can also make producing information easier. Reports, summaries, emails, presentations, and research can all be created more quickly.
That does not automatically make communication better.
Tonarely believes effective communication still depends on understanding the person receiving the information.
“You can have all the information in the world and still communicate it poorly,” he said. “You have to understand who you are speaking with, what matters to them, and what they actually need from the conversation.”
That distinction is especially relevant in enterprise technology sales, where Tonarely works with conversations that can involve different priorities and levels of technical understanding.
A useful explanation for one person may be unnecessarily complicated for another. In other cases, simplifying an issue too much can leave out information someone needs to make a decision.
Tonarely sees communication as the ability to recognize that difference.
Relationships Cannot Be Automated in the Same Way as Tasks
Relationship-building is the final part of Tonarely’s view of the human skills that matter in an AI-supported workplace.
AI can help professionals prepare for meetings, organize information, draft follow-ups, and keep track of details. Tonarely believes those capabilities can make people more prepared, but preparation is not the same as trust.
Trust develops through repeated interactions.
People notice whether someone listens, follows through, admits when they do not know something, and treats the relationship as more than a transaction.
“You still have another person on the other side of the conversation,” Tonarely said. “Technology can help you prepare, but it cannot make somebody trust you. That comes from how you communicate and what you consistently do.”
For sales professionals in particular, Tonarely believes AI should create more opportunities for meaningful interaction rather than simply increasing outreach volume.
AI Skills and Human Skills Should Develop Together
Tonarely does not see the conversation as a choice between becoming better with AI and developing stronger human skills.
Professionals will increasingly need both.
Deloitte found that only 6% of leaders surveyed said their organizations were making progress in designing effective interactions between people and AI. The same research found that 65% of organizations believed their culture needed to change significantly because of AI.
Those figures suggest that providing access to AI tools is only part of the challenge.
Organizations also have to help people learn how to work differently.
Tonarely believes individuals can also take responsibility for that development. They can experiment with AI while continuing to strengthen the abilities that help them evaluate information, understand people, and respond when circumstances change.
“The people who do well are not necessarily going to be the ones who resist AI or the ones who depend on it for everything,” Tonarely said. “I think it will be the people who learn how to use it while continuing to develop their own judgment, communication, adaptability, and relationships.”
As AI becomes a more ordinary part of work, those skills may become less visible than the technology itself.
Tonarely believes that makes them more important to develop, not less.
About Francisco Tonarely
Francisco Tonarely is a New York-based Business Development Representative working in enterprise technology. His professional interests include artificial intelligence, enterprise architecture, technology sales, business transformation, career development, and the changing relationship between people and technology at work. He is particularly interested in how professionals can combine emerging tools with communication, curiosity, adaptability, judgment, and strong relationships. Outside of his professional work, Tonarely coaches youth lacrosse and volunteers in the New York community.
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