Tom Gerencer, a certified professional resume writer and career expert, explains that employers generally look for two kinds of skills: hard skills versus soft skills. Hard skills are technical, job-specific abilities. Soft skills are personality-driven traits that shape how well someone works with others.
Dartmouth College president Philip Hanlon has argued for a more accurate label: "power skills." The term reflects how much these abilities actually influence performance, not how easy they are to develop.
As AI and automation take over repetitive, rules-based tasks, the skills that remain distinctly human become more valuable, not less. Critical thinking, judgment, empathy, and the ability to read social cues can't be replicated by a script or a bot, which is exactly why they're increasingly the deciding factor in hiring and promotion decisions.
This shift shows up clearly in contact centers and BPO environments, where agentic AI now handles a growing share of routine customer interactions. That leaves human agents and team leads to focus on the conversations that require judgment, de-escalation, and relationship management, all of which depend on power skills rather than technical scripts.
Power skills are harder to screen for than technical skills, but they're not impossible to assess. Structured interview questions, situational judgment exercises, and reference checks that specifically probe communication and collaboration can surface candidates who are strong on this dimension, not just technically qualified.
Organizations that treat power skills as a training priority, not just a hiring filter, tend to see the biggest returns. Structured learning and development programs can build communication, coaching, and critical-thinking skills across an existing team, rather than relying purely on recruiting to fill the gap.
Looking to build a workforce with the right mix of technical and power skills? Schedule a call with TDS Global Solutions to discuss your talent strategy.
