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Psychology graduates bring a mix of soft and hard skills that will be highly valued in workplaces shaped by AI, says Dr Oliver Bones, Associate Professor of Psychological Science at University of Wollongong in Dubai
Conversations about the future of work inevitably focus on technology—the promise of AI assistants and automation, the virtual office and the fading memory of water-cooler catch-ups. Yet it is humans who will populate this new world (for now). Training in psychology will become increasingly important, both for understanding the human factors that enable workplaces to navigate this transition successfully and for providing tools to engage critically and thoughtfully with these emergent technologies.
Many years ago, I was a vinyl record enthusiast and amateur DJ. This was still the era of ‘crate-digging’—obsessive, hours-long hunts through stacks of vinyl in record shops. One night I heard a DJ play a record that I had only found that day on a ‘white label’: an almost mythic artefact, a test pressing with no official artwork or information about the artist, just a mysterious plain white label. Intrigued, I approached the DJ booth to see if they had somehow also managed to acquire the same rare, white label release. What I instead saw was something completely new to me: a digital turntable. I vividly recall being rooted to the spot as I processed the profound and unsettling implications; the DJ was playing a digital version of my white label vinyl record. This changed everything.
Many people would have experienced similarly disorientating moments in their encounters with technologies such as generative AI: a dawning sense of rupture, happening without fanfare yet irrevocably altering the landscape. A task which took days or weeks to complete can now be done in moments. And yet technology has not yet been adopted at scale, so that there are for now separate trajectories for those who have and have not incorporated it into their workflow—like the digital turntable in the early 2000s. Within the workplace these disruptive technologies demand a workforce that possesses a capacity and appetite for their adoption. Understanding how individuals learn, the extent to which they are motivated to upskill, and the extent to which they welcome or are resistant to change and adaptation, are all questions to which psychology offers insight.
A parallel development in the workplace is the ongoing move towards remote and hybrid working models, which gained momentum during the pandemic and is projected to continue. Managing teams remotely while maintaining effective communication necessitates a rethinking of traditional workplace cultures and strategies. Psychology has much to say about communication style and the cognitive load associated with communicating on digital platforms. An associated concern is that of employee well-being: there is a growing recognition that—more than merely an ethical concern—attention to factors which foster good mental health, purpose and belonging can be significant drivers of productivity and innovation. Psychology provides the theoretical frameworks and practical tools for meeting these challenges, and to address the question of how to approach this in an increasingly virtualised working environment.
An understanding of human cognition, emotion and behaviour is likely to become increasingly in demand to support the design and implementation of user-centred AI systems that better understand the human on the other side of the interaction, and to produce systems that are more accessible and intuitive to use: job titles like UX Researcher for AI and Behavioural Data Scientist now dominate job listing platforms.
Crucially however, the blend of ‘soft’ (e.g., critical thinking, analytical reasoning, communication) and ‘hard’ skills (e.g., data analysis, inferential statistics) that psychology graduates develop will be sought after within any workplace featuring this new technology. Behavioural research is notoriously challenging—controlling for extraneous variables, accounting for bias, ensuring internal validity and navigating countless complexities. Yet, these very hurdles train students to think critically: Does this study truly support the authors’ claims? Does this data justify this conclusion? These questions will be highly valuable in this new era. While AI and automation will increasingly handle routine tasks, future workplaces will place a premium on employees who can evaluate evidence. In an age of AI-driven analytics, a psychology graduate, highly trained in data analysis and critical thinking, who asks ‘Does this data justify this conclusion?’ will be well positioned to protect their employer from poor decision making and costly assumptions.
The future of work is not just a story of technological advancement; it is a human one. As AI and automation reshape workplaces, the critical differentiator will not be machines but our ability to use them thoughtfully and critically. Psychology provides tools to navigate this transformation: from designing intuitive AI systems and fostering resilient, remote teams, to cultivating a workforce capable of adapting to and engaging critically with technological developments. In this new landscape the intersection of human psychology and emergent technology will not only define how we work but also our capacity to thrive.
