The human factor: why emotional skills are key to adopting AI

Two people using the same AI tool can produce very different results. The difference doesn’t always lie in technical expertise, but in how professionals interact with the technology, their work, and their colleagues.

These behaviors align closely with the concept of emotional intelligence, popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman. The concept includes self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills—the ability to recognize emotions, manage reactions, and understand others’ perspectives.

The importance of the human factor in technology adoption

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025 report shows that employers still consider analytical thinking the most important skill. Resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership, social influence, motivation, and self-awareness are also among the most frequently cited skills.

This data suggests that behavioral skills are gaining importance alongside technical ones, even in roles that use AI daily. Below are four behaviors that illustrate this trend.

Four behaviors that make a difference

1. Recognize how AI influences decisions

Self-aware professionals notice when they’re accepting an answer simply because they’re in a hurry or tired. For example, an analyst might ask themselves, before sending an AI-generated summary, whether they would trust the text as much if it had been written by a junior colleague.

2. Maintain self-control when faced with imperfect answers

Poor results are common, especially when the request is vague. People with emotional self-control don’t abandon the tool or accept the first answer. Instead, they refine the command, provide context, audience, and objectives, and test new versions.

3. Use empathy to adapt the result to the audience

AI-generated texts tend to be generic. Empathetic professionals review the material with the recipient in mind. For instance, when writing an email to an unhappy customer, they request a more thoughtful version and adjust the tone instead of sending the standard draft.

4. Preserve critical thinking and accountability

Generative AI systems can produce convincing but incorrect answers—a phenomenon known as hallucination. Emotionally mature individuals verify numbers, sources, and names before using the content and avoid entering sensitive customer or company data into unauthorized tools.

How these behaviors manifest in daily life

In practice, these four behaviors boil down to reviewing carefully, persisting methodically, considering the audience, and taking responsibility for the final result. None of them require advanced programming knowledge, and all can be developed through regular use of the tool.

For professionals, this means that technical expertise and the ability to use technology judiciously go hand in hand.