Adaptability:The Ultimate Human Skill in the Age of AI
In 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote,“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Half a century later, this isn’t just a provocative idea. It’s a practical imperative for survival.
We’re living through an era of relentless acceleration in many areas of life and work. The exponential pace technological advancement is one of the most obvious, exciting, and for some worrying frontiers of change. As you read this, artificial intelligence is rewriting the nature of work and ultimately the state of the world. Technologies emerge, evolve, and expire before we’ve fully grasped them. The half-life of knowledge is shrinking. What worked yesterday won’t work tomorrow.
In a world like this, static expertise is a liability. There is no advantage in defending the status quo. The ability to adapt—including a willingness to let go of outdated assumptions and rethink what we know—is a real (and ironically, sustainable) advantage.
The Adaptation Imperative
For most of human history, knowledge was something we accumulated. It compounded over time. The more we knew, the more valuable we became—especially in the world of work, where specialists are often prized above generalists. But in today’s world, with increasingly powerful AI tools putting all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, knowing is no longer enough. Expertise has a shelf life. The moment we stop questioning, challenging, and evolving, we fall behind.
Learning is easy. We’re rewarded for it. We take courses, earn certifications, collect credentials. But unlearning? That’s harder. It means confronting the possibility that what made us successful in the past could be exactly what holds us back today and leaves us woefully unprepared for tomorrow. It requires humility—the willingness to admit that what we once believed to be true may no longer be relevant. And relearning? That’s where reinvention happens. It’s where we rebuild our thinking, our skills, and our value in real time.
This cycle—learn, unlearn, relearn—isn’t just a mindset shift; it’s a necessary practice in an era where change never stops. It’s a fundamental requirement for thriving in an era defined by AI-driven change.
AI Will Not Replace You—But Failing to Adapt Will Render You Obsolete
AI’s ability to take on an expanding and increasingly impressive list of human tasks is undeniable. The fear of AI replacing human jobs is understandable. But the real risk isn’t AI itself. It’s human stagnation.
The workforce of the future won’t be divided into those who use AI and those who don’t. It will be divided into those who adapt with AI and those who are left behind by it. Those who see AI as an opportunity to expand their thinking, amplify their abilities, and challenge their own assumptions will thrive. Those who resist change—who cling to old ways of working simply because they’re familiar—will struggle.
Six or so years ago—just before COVID ground the world to a halt and well before OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT and sparked the current AI hype cycle—a colleague and I began the research that would result in the Adapt Manifesto. Looking at patterns across nearly 100 different digital transformation initiatives, we found that the difference between success and failure often came down to whether the organization in question, and the leaders responsible for driving it forward, embraced a state of always-on adaptability.
Among the ideas we outline in the Manifesto as features of an adaptive mindset, one principle is clearly inspired by Toffler’s thinking: Learn. Unlearn. Relearn. Repeat. With the addition of one simple word, we wanted to highlight that learning, unlearning, and relearning isn’t something one does just once, or even every now and again. It’s a constant cycle for anyone who wants to keep up with (let alone get ahead of) the kind of rapid change we’re experiencing today. It reminds us that adaptability is not a passive reaction to change—it is an active discipline. The future belongs to those who continuously adapt, re-evaluate their understanding, and make the needed shifts—even as machines take on more and more of the work they’ve taken for granted as uniquely human endeavors.
Become a Lifelong Unlearner
Adaptability is not just about responding to change. It’s about anticipating it. The most adaptable people cultivate a deep curiosity about the world. They ask questions, explore unfamiliar ideas, and read beyond their industry to uncover new insights. Instead of clinging to certainty, they challenge their own assumptions, actively seeking out perspectives that contradict their beliefs.
They also understand that growth happens in discomfort. When something feels unfamiliar or difficult, it often signals an opportunity to expand their thinking. Rather than avoiding these challenges, they lean into them, testing new approaches and experimenting with different ways of doing things. They treat failure not as a setback but as an essential part of learning—an opportunity to unlearn what didn’t work and relearn what might.
More than anything, lifelong unlearners are never satisfied with what they know. They don’t just accept change; they drive it. They rebuild themselves constantly, embracing uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a threat. In a world where adaptability is the ultimate power skill, they don’t just survive—they thrive.
Adaptability Is the Ultimate Power Skill
If Toffler’s insight was a prediction, it is now an undeniable reality. The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn isn’t a soft skill—it’s a survival skill. It’s what separates those who drive change from those who are disrupted by it.
So, ask yourself:
What are you clinging to that no longer serves you? What beliefs or practices might be holding you back from embracing change? Consider what you are willing to unlearn today to prepare for tomorrow. The habits, assumptions, or outdated ways of thinking that once led to success may now stand in your way. And finally, how will you relearn and reinvent yourself—again and again?
When the speed of change is relentless and the scope of change is pervasive, your capacity to adapt must be instant on and always on. Those who embrace it don’t just navigate the future—they become (as another visionary thinker, Buckminster Fuller, once wrote) the architects of it.
The future doesn’t wait for those who hesitate. It rewards those bold enough to rewrite the rules and redefine what’s possible. It’s built by those brave enough to challenge their own assumptions, jettison their hard-earned knowledge when it no longer suits their needs, take on new understanding, and remain curious as technology and other trends call into question the nature of work we do and the world we live in.
Learn. Unlearn. Relearn. Repeat.
This isn’t just a mantra—it’s the key to thriving in an increasingly AI-powered, undeniably unpredictable world.
This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of human Magazine.
