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By Logiscool Ruimsig, Director, Semone Peacock
Artificial intelligence has shifted from experimental tool to economic force. The most dangerous myth parents and executives still believe is that talent guarantees success. It does not, not anymore.
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The signal is clear, the jobs our children will do, do not exist yet. And the skills that earned top marks in the past are no longer reliable predictors of long-term success.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, nearly half of core workplace skills are expected to change by 2030, with analytical thinking, resilience and flexibility ranking above technical proficiency as the most critical capabilities for the future workforce.
Employers are responding to rapid AI integration across industries
At the same time, a 2025 global workplace study by LinkedIn Economic Graph shows hiring is increasingly prioritising adaptability, learning agility and problem solving over traditional credentials, as employers respond to rapid AI integration across industries.
For decades, education systems have rewarded accuracy, compliance and memory. The student who could reproduce information quickly and correctly rose to the top. Standardised testing became the proxy for intelligence. Talent was defined narrowly and celebrated loudly.
But artificial intelligence now performs many of those functions better than humans. It remembers perfectly. It processes instantly. It generates content endlessly. If education continues to reward what machines can already do, we are preparing children for redundancy.
Adaptability cannot be automated easily
Adaptability is different. It is the ability to confront something unfamiliar without freezing. It is cognitive flexibility. It is the willingness to test, fail, adjust and try again. It is problem solving under uncertainty. And unlike raw academic talent, it cannot be automated easily.
This is where traditional education faces a credibility crisis. Schools still organise learning around fixed answers and predictable outcomes. Yet the real world is becoming more volatile and ambiguous. Students graduate having mastered content that AI can already replicate, but without mastering the mental agility to pivot when circumstances change.
Parents often respond by doubling down on marks. More tutoring. More exam preparation. More pressure to outperform peers. It feels rational in a competitive system. But it may be the wrong priority.
A child who learns how to approach unfamiliar problems with curiosity instead of fear has a longer shelf life than a child who simply scores distinctions. A teenager who understands how to learn independently will outpace one who relies on structured instruction.
Stop asking if they’re talented. Start asking if they’re adaptable
A young adult who can collaborate with AI tools rather than compete against them will thrive where others stall. The shift required is philosophical as much as practical. We must stop asking whether children are talented and start asking whether they are adaptable. We must move from rewarding certainty to rewarding exploration.
This does not mean abandoning academic rigour. It means redefining it. Rigour in the age of AI should involve wrestling with complex questions, building solutions from scratch, analysing failures and iterating improvements. It should involve exposure to technology not as passive consumption, but as active creation. It should challenge students to design, test and refine rather than memorise and repeat.
Talent is impressive, adaptability is durable, and in an AI driven economy, durability wins.
