Power skills are now central to how work gets done, and how results are delivered.
56% of HR professionals surveyed acknowledge power skills as mission-critical for professional success. As AI accelerates execution and complexity increases, human capabilities such as problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability, communication, and resilience are increasingly shaping judgment, performance, and leadership effectiveness.
Drawing on insights from 1,625 HR leaders across top publicly listed companies in the UK, US, EU, and India, this report examines how power skills are being prioritized, measured, and embedded today, and what organizations must do to turn intent into measurable business impact.
Inside the report you’ll find
- How professionals and leaders interpret the value of power skills, even when the terminology doesn’t land
- The human capabilities that remain critical where technology and automation plateau
- How organizations are prioritizing power skills and where intent fails to translate into action
- Why measurement gaps are limiting business leverage
- What separates informal skill-building efforts from enterprise-level impact
Top 5 findings from the field
- The value is clear. The language isn’t
While 51% of professionals don’t identify with the term “power skills,” a majority acknowledge these capabilities as central to success, revealing a naming gap, not a belief gap. - Human capability is still the performance multiplier
Problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability, communication, and resilience continue to fuel judgment and agility in moments where technology alone falls short. - Prioritization shows up on the balance sheet
Organizations that intentionally invest in power skills see measurable gains. In India, this translates to an average ~7 percentage point uplift in profitability, with similarly positive trends observed in the UK and EU. - What isn’t measured can’t be scaled
87% of organizations rely on manager ratings to assess power skills, yet only 53% track business outcomes, leaving high-impact capabilities under-measured and under-leveraged. - Leadership determines whether skills stay informal or become strategic
Managers often initiate skill-building, but without sustained C-suite sponsorship and integration into business strategy, power skills remain peripheral rather than core organizational levers.
What a leading voice has to say
“While AI has incredible potential, it takes skilled people with creativity, curiosity and first principles thinking to be able to work with these tools and make smart decisions, analyze this data and use it to solve real world problems with these tools. So, power skills will complement and be as essential as technological skills and AI know-how.”
— Kashmira Shah, Director, GenAI and Future Skills Academy, Walmart
