is real and understandable. According to Citrix’s Work 2035 How people and technology will pioneer new ways of working, 83% of professionals believe that by 2035, technology will automate repetitive and low-value tasks, and 72% believe that within the next 15 years, technology and AI will generate more revenue for their organization than human workers and will absorb more of the annual operating costs. More money for robots and less for humans? It may sound alarming, but it doesn’t have to be.

The same way GPS slashed the mental calculus required for navigation, new AI systems are already automating processes as complex as preparing tax returns, citing legal precedent, and diagnosing cancer.

That means future leaders won’t just need measurable technical skills, but also something uniquely human: emotional intelligence.

The increasing importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) at the highest levels of leadership means that roles will shift, particularly for CEOs. The cliche picture of siloed visionaries running numbers and scenarios as they grind away on the Next Big Thing will give way to something much more collaborative and empathetic. Instead, these executives will refocus their energies to transform into chief experience officers, for both their customers and their employees. It will be up to them to prioritize, and then for CHROs and other HR leaders to promote, cultures of transparency, accountability, and empathy—all of which are crucial during this transition into a new working world where humans and technology are inextricably intertwined.

This becomes even more critical as organizations and roles get further distributed and fragmented. With fewer rapport-building opportunities to anchor teams and connect executives with their frontline employees—like spontaneous hallway chats and in-office birthday celebrations with way too much chocolate cake—all leaders, working in tandem, will have to be the glue (or perhaps frosting) holding it all together.

Quartz readers agree: In the 2020 WX insight poll, 63% of leaders (those with senior director titles and above) and 45% of workers (those who aren’t in management positions) believe companies will have a higher responsibility for protecting workers, as salaried opportunities evaporate. The C-suite will have to balance their long-held priorities of profit and productivity (the robots will handle that) and instead focus on the long-term well-being of their workforce. And that can only come from a deep skillset grounded in relational intelligence.

will also become indispensable for one of the most important—and costly—parts of running a business: keeping the employee pipeline filled with incredible candidates.

According to one study, it costs 150-200% of an employee’s salary to replace them, but it only costs 10-20% of their salary to keep them. Still, at some point, you’ll need to make new hires, especially considering the roles that will emerge in the marketplace of the future: an ethics officer for your product team, someone to manage the virtual reality resources for your freelancers, a staff psychologist who helps bridge the gap between human and machine.

In fact, the Covid-19 crisis has made 71% of business leaders believe human workers are more important than technology, according to the Work 2035 report. But, neither technology nor people are going anywhere. The trick is figuring out how to make them fit together in the way that best supports your goals.

For HR, that means that the work doesn’t end when employment contracts are signed. AI and human managers must be in lockstep through the entire employee life-cycle. And, according to the Work 2035 report, that life-cycle could shrink exponentially, as industries move to a freelancer-forward, project-based employment model.

With team needs in a constant state of flux, AI can do what it does best: blitz through HR busywork, sort through mounds of employee engagement surveys, and, when trained correctly, mitigate the unconscious biases that plague hiring and advancement decisions.

In return, human hiring managers are freed to focus on individualized employee development plans, the mental health of their reports, and regular team assessments to determine if their workforce has the necessary skills not just for today but for the change on the horizon.

Together, they ensure HR practices are held accountable with quantifiable goals and unbiased algorithms while still leaving space for human intuition.

a good friend but bitter enemy. With all the new screens, pings, and everything in between, leaders will have to protect their workers’ well-being from system overload.

On one hand, technology will free us from the bonds of mundane office work. According to a 2018 survey of 50,000 information economy workers, the average employee “checks in” with communication tools every six minutes. And that’s not even counting the time lost to meetings, administrative tasks, and general life interruptions.

With AI’s help, managers could also focus on the most rewarding parts of our jobs—coming up with new products, implementing new strategies, and mentoring employees. But at some point we all have to charge our own batteries (away from the actual batteries).

According to the Work 2035 report, over two-thirds of professionals (67%) believe that leadership will have to significantly increase investment in worker mental wellbeing programs as a direct response to digital-induced burnout.

One way to accomplish that is to rethink productivity. For example, you could celebrate every time AI lets teams get the weekend started a little earlier.

“Greetings, fellow humans. Our machines have done their work valiantly this week, reducing our average workday by 1 hour and 27 minutes. Now, let us enjoy these refreshments before us.”

Another is giving employees permission to disconnect—or even writing it into their contracts. Mandatory offline time, along with minimum vacation requirements and wellness stipends, can prevent burnout by ensuring that employees aren’t tempted to check their email once or twice or 15 times on a Sunday afternoon. Even the tools teams use must be considered through this lens. Instead of five different software solutions that keep workers bouncing back and forth, streamline down to one or two and use AI to help streamline the rest.

As lines between work and non-work life erode, these measures won’t just be nice-to-haves managers trot out during slow seasons and kick to the curb when work picks up. They will be critical tools for keeping everyone sane and engaged.

Long hours don’t automatically equate to good work. A flood of messages doesn’t always suggest movement on a project. And the sooner leaders can spot and celebrate actual progress, the better.

every minute of the workday will generate terabytes of data. In the morning, analyses of your email frequency to chart your productivity over time; during meetings, scans of your pupil dilation and heart rate to gauge interest; on your vacation, procedures to alert your boss if you’re trying to sneak in some extra work.

Even now, though, when the amount of data is still relatively small, the dynamics of data collection aren’t seen as equitable.

But the days of uninhibited corporate data collection will be over. Soon, every company will have an employee data contract in place.

For leaders, it may feel like a win-win: more personal data toward increased productivity. But, not everyone shares that feeling. According to our 2020 WX insight poll of Quartz readers, 72% of non-managers said they would not be willing to compromise their personal data privacy for enhanced productivity, compared to 43% of leaders.

The tension between these two POVs is clear, so there must be an equal value exchange and above all else: trust. Leaders have to do the work to discern what data they genuinely need and take only that, message to employees why it’s important, let them opt in or out, and then communicate back the positive impact they’ve helped create.

Another key way to foster trust and encourage participation is anonymity. Promising privacy will create higher-quality datasets, plus business decisions should be based on aggregate trends rather than the answers from specific individuals.

Furthermore, using data as a tool to penalize is a quick way to discourage employees from providing reliable metrics in the future. You’ll probably start to hear a lot of “Oops, I didn’t realize I haven’t been wearing my biotracker for the past 14 days,” and “Oh, I marked ‘exceeds expectations’ on every single survey question because I couldn’t be happier working here.”

And finally, data-sharing should also be a two-way street, with workers able to access valuable information about when, where, and how they produce their best work.

that won’t change over the next 15 years is competition for good jobs and growth opportunities. In fact, 57% of employees surveyed in the Work 2035 report said that they would have a chip implanted under their skin if it would “significantly enhance their performance and remuneration.”

“I like your gumption,” you say to your employees as they place their forearms on your desk, ready to receive their injection of productivity-enhancing nano-robots. “But let’s consider a few other options first.”

The first is working with AI to learn new skills, which, according to 79% of professionals surveyed in Work 2035, will be a significant future factor for upskilling. That means both the soft skills—cross-cultural competency, change management, adaptive thinking—and the hard skills like cybersecurity strategy, 3D modeling, and blockchain technologies. Unlike programs of the past, AI training can be tailored to meet each employee’s needs, highlighting where they need to focus, predict future training their role will require, and aggregate recommended content based on past work.

Not only will AI be an important upskilling tool, by 2035, 75% of those surveyed by Citrix believe that a company’s leadership team will be partially augmented by technology. But, according to a 2019 report from MIT and Boston Consulting Group, 40% of companies don’t see returns on their investment in AI, primarily because employees aren’t able to tap the potential benefits. This is less a technical challenge to overcome and more of an implementation problem. In fact, in order to develop a workforce that’s equipped to use AI, you don’t need the best coders, you need the best learners.

The appetite is there, and the people are ready: In a survey of Quartz readers, 68% of workers and 82% of leaders say they’re excited by the prospect of mastering new skills and technologies.