“For a young person, the best thing to do is: Learn how to read and enjoy reading, learn how to speak effectively and persuasively, and learn how to write reasonably well,” Rubenstein told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Instead of simply chasing checks or prestige, the cofounder of $14 billion global investment firm Carlyle Group advised budding workers to “find something that you really enjoy and make it your life’s work.” Rubenstein believes success will follow when young professionals truly enjoy a job that doesn’t feel like work. After all, “Nobody ever won a Nobel Prize hating what they do,” the 77-year-old billionaire said. 

It’s a piece of wisdom entrepreneurs have passed down for generations. And while the value of loving what you do has stayed a constant, so has the recipe for career success, according to Rubenstein. He recognized that the world is changing, and more professionals are leaning on AI for reading and writing. But human judgment will always matter in distinguishing good from bad writing. And it’s a critical skill that business leaders are constantly sharpening; Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett said he spent 80% of his working days with his eyes glued to a page, while JPMorgan leader Jamie Dimon stays current by flipping through five newspapers before his workday even begins.

“I just think the basic skills that have gotten people to be successful over the last several thousand years are probably not going to go away,” Rubenstein said.

CEOs say human skills are becoming more valuable in the AI era

AI is changing how people consume and share information. Around 40% of Americans didn’t read a single book last year, and CEOs are worried that they’re picking up fewer books and reports because of the tech. Catching up on meeting notes, sifting through troves of data, and even reading books in their pastime have all become optimized by AI. Now, leaders predict a soft-skills renaissance as AI takes on more of the rote work.

Daniela Amodei, president and cofounder of Anthropic, believes people skills are more important than ever as humans work alongside AI in the tech transformation. And talent with a liberal arts education—reading- and writing-heavy disciplines spanning humanities, natural sciences, sociology, and the arts—will have the most well-rounded skill set to thrive. The AI pioneer says the tech models are already very good at STEM, so soft skills like EQ, communication, and curiosity are a premium. Those who have “critical thinking skills” and can “interact with other people” will be best set up to thrive.

“I actually think studying the humanities is going to be more important than ever,” Amodei said in an interview with ABC News earlier this year. “The ability to have critical thinking skills and learn how to interact with other people will be more important in the future, rather than less.”

In fact, some of the biggest success stories in tech wouldn’t have been possible without those human skills. Jack Clark, the cofounder of $965 billion Anthropic, said that majoring in English literature and creative writing set him up to become a huge figure in the AI industry. Having “intuitions,” knowing the right questions to ask, and leveraging interdisciplinary insights help break through to new innovation. 

“I’m a literature graduate, and I don’t think you’d put that as a cofounder of a frontier AI company, but what turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future,” Clark said during a conference earlier this year. “That’s turned out to be, like, extremely relevant for AI in a way that I think people wouldn’t have predicted.”

Jaime Teevan, chief scientist at Microsoft, agrees that talent with liberal arts expertise will have a leg-up in the AI era. Now that using the tech is based on natural language, context, intent, and critical thinking, humanities majors who have mastered those skills will be more valuable. As AI takes on mundane, repetitive tasks, judgment, communication, and nuance will be what Gen Z needs to land a job in a competitive market. 

“Metacognitive skills will be very important—flexibility, adaptability, experimentation, thinking critically, being able to challenge things. Developing critical-thinking skills requires friction, doing things that are hard, doing deep thinking,” Teevan told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

“For that, a traditional liberal-arts education is really important.”