2305 - Exploring the Five Essential Human Skills That Keep Us Relevant in the Age of AI with Steff Vanhaverbeke

0:04Well, hey, Thoughtful Leader. Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. On this show, I interview purpose-driven founders, experts, and change makers who are making a real impact in the world. Want to be a guest? Simple. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click podcast. I'd love to promote your story to our audience of over 100 ,000 and across over 2 ,300 daily episodes and counting. Want to get booked on other great shows like this? Simple. Go to podverified.com and get your free guest authority score. Thousands of hosts are looking for high quality guests and Podverified connects you the right way. Now let's dive into today's episode.

0:58With us right now, it's Steph van Haverbeke. Steph, you're a lecturer, you're a business coach, trainer, facilitator, and you specialize in AI adoption. Your website is coachsteph.live. And by the way, you have a new book. Congratulations. It's called Being Replaced, The Five Human Skills AI Cannot Automate. I am really excited to have this conversation. Steph, it's great to have you. Yeah, thank you. I'm honored to be here. Yeah. Before we get going into the conversation, I always love learning what leaders are kind of into on the outside. What are you currently doing for fun or, you know, what are you geeking out on, as I like to put it?

1:45Well, I live on the outside, you know, the Flemish Ardennes. So that's in Belgium, a region which is very woody and hilly. And so we have a lot of animals. And I like to build, you know, little houses for my animals. That's something. And they look like little chalets. So like Swiss Alps chalets because that's a style I really enjoy. So that's what I do for fun. That is so super cute. What kind of animals do you have come visit? it? Well, we used to have two rabbits. Now we have about 12 and a dog and two cats and a bunch of chickens. So yeah, we have lots. Well, that's one, you know, I got to say that, you know, that has become one of my true joys is just interacting with nature in, you know, as they You know, my parents live out in the country.

2:49And I mean, that's like their daily, like that's their biggest news. They talk about, you know, who's coming to, you know, when they put out all the feed and stuff. And so, yeah, it really is quite enjoyable. Have you named any of them? We didn't name all of our rabbits yet. but my dog which which is of course my my my huge friend yes his name is triple and it comes actually from bel from the belgian beer you know the belgian beers you have blonde and double so it's it's actually from the beer but triple also in dutch means you know to walk on a little pause that's also it's the same it's the same pronunciation so has a double meaning yeah yeah yeah yeah well well i steph i am so excited to talk about ai um and so do you mind just kind of starting with uh what is your thesis uh around your new book called being replaced the five human skills ai can't automate so it's it's uh something that i um that i'm very passionate about because I meet people every day.

4:04So I work with people in companies, small and medium-sized businesses, as well as big enterprises. And I give a lot of training, like awareness training and how-to training, how to prompt, how to, you know, all these kinds of things. And I get a lot of questions, but also a lot of, you know, I see both enthusiasm and also a lot of concerns. And And so I wanted to address those concerns that people have around AI in my new book. So that's, and my main thesis is that, you know, very often you hear this notion that AI will replace us, you know, AI takes away our jobs, you know, and there's some reality to that, of course, yeah.

4:48As AI becomes more, you know, ubiquitous and, you know, everywhere you see it now. and of course a lot of jobs are on the line if you're an accountant if you're a graphic designer, if you're a copywriter those jobs are already disappearing but then my answer to that is if there's something that we humans are very good at is that we are very good at inventing new work so there will always be something that we yeah and there is yeah there there is and i forget what that is called right where you think just so as a company companies will always generally do more right so just because we uh streamline or optimize processes usually most companies then do, you know, they'll find more work to do.

5:53It's not like, well, we improved or we created some efficiencies unless they're, I mean, really struggling financially, which can happen sometimes. Usually they don't just let things go. They reinvest, right? So there is that good news, we hope, for humans and certainly for workplaces that we just don't see just mass layoffs, even though you're right, some areas have absolutely been impacted, like copywriting is a big one that, you know, if you were, Steph, and you're an author yourself, if you were a copywriter, if you were a writer of any sort, like how would you adapt today? Well, that's really interesting because a good friend of mine, he used to be a copywriter and he said, you know, Now, he was a freelance copywriter and he quit that.

6:52And now he has another job full time, you know, doing something else. And then I thought, you know, that's not how to deal with this. Because, you know, if there's one thing that I experience from working with AI on a day-to-day basis is that it really helps me to write better copy. and so instead of you know giving up on the you know the AI replacing us find that thing that you can do with AI that again makes a difference somehow and that is very important and that is a very that is the that is an entrepreneurial drive that is a creative drive that's an innovative thrive. And that's something that we have to cherish and that we have to really develop in ourselves, in ourselves, in our teams, in our companies.

7:48Yeah. Well, so let's talk about what currently AI cannot do. Yeah. So there's five things that I specifically mention as skills, but they are not just skills, they are kind of meta skills, so skills that encompass a lot of things. And the first is flexible thinking. If you worked with AI in this chat interface most of the time, very often you notice that once you get to a certain train of thought with your AI chatbot or agent or whatever, it's very difficult to move away from that. But that's something that we can do. We are very able to switch gears in our thinking. Our brain is really wired for that.

8:41And I go a little bit in depth in the neuropsychology of that as well in the book. So it's really, we are very, our brains are made to adapt and are made to think in flexible ways. So, and that encompasses creative thinking as well as critical thinking. As what I specifically also mentioned is systems thinking. So seeing the parts and the whole at the same time. So then there's a second. Yeah. If you have any questions. No, please, please, please continue. Yeah. And then the second skills is, of course, besides the cognitive intelligence, is emotional intelligence. You know, when ChatGPT5 launched this summer, the first things that people said, no, it has lost its personality.

9:31Yeah. It's lost its, you know, between course empathy you know of course any i cannot be empathic it doesn't have um an actual awareness it doesn't have embodiment so it cannot really feel so it it stimulates empathy and that's something that we really appreciate while working with ai but also that we really appreciate when we're with humans, of course. And I have a little backstory about this. Someone told me a few weeks ago about the situation that her sister-in-law experienced while being in London in the underground or the subway, and she caught her foot somehow in a gap. In London, you always hear, mind the gap when you exit the subway train.

10:24So she caught her foot time she need to go to the hospital and she got you know a little bit you know stonewalled by the yeah the bureaucracy of the nhs because she didn't have her papers with her and everything she was american and um and so and and up until one point that a nurse came to her and she said you know we'll take care of you miss don't worry and that moment that little moment really made all the difference and that sorry but that is something a machine could never do you know if you get that same message from a machine you wouldn't have you know this this you know uh the same the same experience as when a person does that you know so emotional intelligence and be being able to empathize to really feel what another person feels that's that's very important and I will never be able to do.

11:19Yeah, and Steph, I am not sure how much empathy we want AI to have. Maybe we do, maybe we don't. You know, one of the things that I've been tracking lately or I've been really interested in is just ethics around AI. And, you know, here's my main concern. And again, this might kind of step a little outside your realm of expertise. But obviously, we have seen what has become of social media and largely is just profit driven. It's just designed to kind of keep people hooked and engaged. And it's not necessarily for the betterment of mankind. I will just say is maybe a nice way of putting that of like where social media has devolved to.

12:08I'm concerned about the same thing in AI, is that greed, which isn't always a horrible factor, but in this case, greed might cause these AI companies, and these are for-profit companies, to engage with humans in a way that might be a little bit self-serving based on profit motivation. Any thoughts on that? Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. Well, whenever you hear the word algorithm, what is that? The algorithm. You know, it's that little black box that's everywhere on Facebook and on YouTube and everywhere. It's the algorithm. Well, that's artificial intelligence, you know, trying to manipulate you to staying hooked and indeed or to buy something.

13:01And there's science to that. There's really, you know, there's hard science to that. So we can predict human behavior to a certain degree. And so we can model that and program it definitely with AI. So it's already happening. And of course, the ethics around that are, you know, they are prevalent. And I think I'm European. So here we have, I think, a greater awareness and concern towards that. But then when I compare that, what's what I see happening in the US? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, we have the AI Act, which has become, you know, came into effect this year. And there's a lot of, I know, people are, what is that?

13:53And, you know, but, you know, it's regulation, but it's regulation, like the GDPR that benefits us, you know, as citizens, so to say. Yeah, and I'm saying this because I hear these same concerns, and not only from people like potential customers, but also from entrepreneurs. You know, they want to make sure that what they do doesn't hit them in the face somehow, I know, a bit further down the road. You know, I'm just thinking this, too. It's like knowing what we now know around social media, if we had this knowledge, you know, back, you know, five, 10 years ago, how might we, you know, you know, as a society have decided, you know, hey, we know what the dangers are of social media, you know, anticipating those and making choices to protect people.

15:00our kids, you know, protect our mental health. I think we have that opportunity right now. Like, I think that there's a lot we've learned from social. I think there are a lot of similarities and it's a meaningful conversation. You know, but Steph, obviously I love, you know, your view of this in, in recognizing, you know, you know, if, you know, humans have these superpowers that AI is probably going to take some time to improve on, you know, how can we really lean into those irreplaceable superpowers? And I don't know if you got through all of them, but obviously, you know, collaborative intelligence, intuition, innovation, you know, these are all areas.

15:48My wife is a, and I know you have a background in mental health. My wife is a licensed marriage and family therapist. I'll just say this very bluntly. AI is a lot of amazing, wonderful things. I am a power user. I'm using AI at least an hour or two a day. AI is not therapy. It does not do the work that a therapist needs to be able to do. It can very parasocial and it can parrot what a therapist might do if a therapist is trying to just coddle you. It's seldom going to push back in the way that a therapist needs to say, listen, you're BSing me right now. So like a good therapist is going to do that.

16:40AI is probably not going to do that today. And, you know, as a family therapist, I'm sure you also, you know, know these techniques, which are not conversational, but really are experiential. And so that's something an AI can never do. So, you know, an AI will never be able to guide a person from one experience to another and have this embodiment, this embodied sense of, you know, possibility and, you know, creating new experiences inside you. That's something I don't know, but a robot will never be able to do that. It's not a human, right? It's still today. It's still just largely just predictive text, right?

17:24Right. So, so Steph, your book is called Being Replaced, The Five Human Skills, AI Can't Automate. That is on Amazon. You can also find that book at coachsteph.live. Steph, how else do you work with your clients? Well, I work, I work with them every day. and so my role is to be a guide in their AI adoption. And what I found is that when, so a lot of ask is now around the techniques and the workflows, automations and all these kinds of things. And you can imagine a future not so long from now where every business will have this capacity to, up until a certain degree, have automated a lot of the tasks that we humans do right now.

18:25So we can imagine that future. And then the question arises, how will you make the difference in such a future when everything is hyper-optimized, when everybody is an AI super worker? You know, well, then it comes back to, yeah, the real human value that you can create that makes the difference. And so being authentic and being human will make the difference in a world where everything else is run by AI. That's my thesis. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. So, Steph van Heverbeke, your website. One more time, can you share that with us, please? And then, again, just what you would recommend for next steps.

19:26Obviously, go get the book, Being Replaced, The Five Human Skills AI Can't Automate. But where else should people go to connect with you? well the best place is to go to my personal website which is coach steph and that's with two f's dot live and um and i have a special corner on that website exclusively for your listeners so if you type coach steph dot live slash the thoughtful entrepreneur you'll be able to get the book for free. Hey, that's great. Well, I love that. All right. Well, Steph Van Heverbeke, thank you so much for joining us again, your new book, Being Replaced, The Five Human Skills AI Can't Automate.

20:10Steph, thank you so much for your conversation. What's a pleasure.

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