As artificial intelligence transforms the world of work, are we about to rediscover the value of human skills?

There is a new front door being fitted to my house as I write this article.

While I sat at my laptop answering emails and writing, the builders outside were measuring, lifting, adjusting and solving problems that no instruction manual could possibly prepare them for. Every few minutes, something unexpected appeared; the frame wasn't quite level, a measurement needed adjusting, a piece of timber needed trimming. Every solution relied on years of experience, judgement and practical skill.

Watching them work, I found myself wondering whether we are on the verge of one of the biggest shifts in how we value people and work. For decades, society has encouraged young people towards academic achievement as the gold standard of success. We celebrated university places, professional careers and office jobs, often implying that working with your mind was somehow more desirable than working with your hands.

But artificial intelligence is beginning to change the conversation.

Perhaps, just perhaps, AI won't simply transform technology. Perhaps it will force us to rethink what we value in people. And if that happens, I wonder whether the working class, whose strengths have often been overlooked, may find themselves uniquely placed for the future.

The promise many of us grew up believing

When I was growing up (90's), there was an unspoken hierarchy. If you did well at school, you were encouraged to pursue A-levels, university and a professional career. If you preferred practical subjects or apprenticeships, the message was often quite different. It wasn't always said directly, but it was certainly implied.

"You could do better than that." "Don't waste your potential." "You don't want to end up doing manual work."

Of course, not every family believed this, and there have always been successful tradespeople and entrepreneurs who challenged that narrative. But across society, academic achievement increasingly became the benchmark against which success was measured. In many ways, education reflected that belief. We became increasingly focused on examinations, qualifications and university destinations, while vocational routes often felt like the alternative rather than an equally valuable aspiration. The irony is that many of the jobs we encouraged children to aspire towards are now the very jobs artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape most rapidly.

AI is changing the rules of the game

Artificial intelligence is extraordinary. It can summarise research papers, draft legal documents, analyse financial data, create presentations, write computer code and produce marketing campaigns in seconds. Tasks that once relied on years of accumulated knowledge can now be completed in moments. That doesn't mean these professions disappear overnight. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers and engineers will continue to play vital roles. However, the nature of many knowledge-based professions is changing. Information is no longer scarce. Retrieval is becoming automated.

At the same time, there are countless things AI still cannot do; It cannot install the front door I watched being fitted this morning, repair a leaking roof when every house presents a different challenge, comfort an anxious child who simply needs another human being, build trust with a family, sense when something feels wrong or make countless intuitive decisions that experienced professionals make every day.

The more I think about it, the more I realise these are not simply manual tasks. They are deeply human ones.

Growing up without a head start

This is where my own story comes in. Neither Paul, my husband, nor I have ever had what people often refer to as the "Bank of Mum and Dad". We haven't inherited wealth. Nobody handed us a business. There wasn't an investor waiting to fund our ideas or provide us with a comfortable safety net. Like millions of ordinary families across the country, we've simply built our lives one decision at a time. Every opportunity we've created has come through taking risks, making mistakes, learning from failure and continuing when it would have been much easier to stop.

I don't say that because our story is unusual. Quite the opposite. I think it's remarkably ordinary, but social media has a habit of making success appear effortless. It presents polished outcomes while hiding the years of uncertainty that came before them. What we rarely see are the evenings spent working after everyone else has gone home, the difficult financial decisions, the setbacks and the moments of self-doubt. Success rarely arrives all at once. More often, it is quietly built through consistency.

The qualities we may have underestimated

Looking back, I don't think growing up without financial advantages was my greatest challenge. In many ways, it became one of my greatest teachers. When nobody is coming to rescue you, you become resourceful. You stop waiting for perfect conditions and begin working with what you have, learn to solve problems because there is no alternative, and keep going because giving up simply isn't an option. Those qualities have served generations of working-class families. They have also become the qualities I rely on most in business today. Perhaps we have underestimated their value.

For years we have celebrated knowledge above almost everything else. Yet knowledge is becoming increasingly accessible. What remains scarce are resilience, adaptability, practical judgement, emotional intelligence and the willingness to persevere when progress feels painfully slow. These qualities cannot simply be downloaded.

Have we misunderstood intelligence?

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we have made is assuming that intelligence looks the same in everyone. Academic intelligence is relatively easy to measure through examinations and qualifications. Practical intelligence is much harder to capture. The experienced electrician who instinctively diagnoses a fault. The builder who immediately recognises why something doesn't quite fit. The nurse who notices subtle changes in a patient's condition long before any machine raises an alarm. The parent who understands exactly what their child needs without a single word being spoken.

These forms of intelligence are no less sophisticated. They simply develop through different experiences. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of processing information, I wonder whether these uniquely human forms of intelligence will become even more valuable.

What does this mean for education?

If AI continues to evolve at its current pace, schools face an important question. Not simply, "What should children know?" But, "What kind of people do we want them to become?"

Knowledge will always matter. So will literacy, numeracy and academic understanding. However, perhaps education now needs to place even greater emphasis on qualities that machines struggle to replicate: curiosity, resilience, communication, creativity, craftsmanship, ethical judgement and meaningful relationships. For years we have encouraged many young people to escape practical work. Perhaps we should instead encourage them to master it. Not because university has become less valuable, but because success has never been limited to a single pathway.

Perhaps it's time to value people differently

I don't believe AI will replace humanity. I believe it will challenge us to reconsider what humanity contributes.

The future is unlikely to belong exclusively to academics or tradespeople. It will belong to people who combine technical knowledge with deeply human qualities: those who can think critically, solve real-world problems, build relationships and continue learning throughout their lives.

As I watched my new front door being fitted this morning, I couldn't help smiling at the irony. For years we've often measured success by how far people moved away from practical work. Perhaps the future will remind us that some of the most valuable skills have been in front of us all along. If that happens, AI may do something none of us expected. It may not simply change the future of work. It may finally help us rediscover the extraordinary value of ordinary people.