The AI-Powered Workforce: Why EQ is the Key to Sustainable Success

Author: Chris Wolf – Director, Learning and Development

Artificial intelligence’s impact on workplaces and education has sparked widespread debate over concerns from job displacement to data privacy. As a tech-driven real estate company, Cardinal chose to go all in on AI. We hired an expert, partnered with product development teams, and created conditions for our team members to dabble in tools like GPT and Gemini. Not only is the use of AI encouraged; it’s expected.

The future of Cardinal will be built by humans with high EQ who know how to leverage AI.

Since 2020, Cardinal has invested generously in learning and development. From dedicated design and facilitation teams to ‘learning in the flow’ software, we’ve focused on delivering measurable returns. Amidst the constant disruption in 2022, we expanded our Boss to Coach program to all people leaders. This investment proved crucial as we navigated the increasingly uncertain and dynamic business landscape.

Today, business is in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world! Team leaders must know how to use our technologies, develop others, and build rapport with prospects or residents—all while working alongside AI.

AI Without EQ: The Hidden Risk of Falling Behind

Matt Beane’s book The Skill Code emphasizes how advances in AI and automation can inadvertently deskill the workforce. These advancements disrupt traditional learning pathways and broaden the gap between novices and experts. No one is exempt from this experience.

Beane’s research highlights that AI can remove key learning moments from workflows, creating skill decay in areas we don’t anticipate. We observed this with our on-site manager’s recent transition from one community to another. Her initial reliance on centralized accounting powered by our CX3 service meant she never built the foundational skills needed to complete our manual accounting month-end process. This skill gap surfaced after she moved to a community operating with the traditional staffing model.  This wasn’t a personal failing; it was a structural one. Without intentional learning design, AI can create invisible gaps in expertise.

Now, we’re proactively working to prevent this pitfall.

The structural gap that surfaced at Cardinal is a symptom of a larger shift. Essentialism author, Greg McKeown, recently shared insights on society’s shift away from the Information Age to the new Influencer Age. Put simply, the Information Age bred distraction. Now, we’ve entered an era of opinion-saturated noise. The Influencer Age has created a byproduct of disorientation.

The antidote? Develop the skill of discernment.

To drive performance, we’re injecting the Cardinal teams with a potent combination of skill development and leadership development. Right now, our culture of learning is being fueled by a few new programs and offerings like:

• Cardinal Way of Leasing 4.0: A conversational sales methodology focused on building trust, rapport, and value
• Leaders in the Modern Workplace: An eight-competency program teaching research-backed frameworks like smart brevity for communication and the problem-solving cycle for building agile teams
• AI Learning Sessions: A bi-weekly offering for anyone to learn Gemini and NotebookLM

As AI allows us to run a little leaner and more efficiently, a new daily discipline has emerged: every team leader must create the conditions for learning to take place. If it were easy, every company would be doing it. To cultivate a culture of continuous learning, here’s a simple yet powerful practice to use in your next meeting:

In addition to sharing, “Here’s what we achieved,” add, “Here’s what I learned… [this week, from a podcast, LinkedIn post, or book, etc.].”

Not only will this help close the novice-expert gap, but it will also give fellow team members license to learn and grow their skills at work.

Workforce Expectations Have Shifted

Employees today face an unrelenting pace of change, and AI is accelerating it. A workforce that doesn’t receive continuous development will fall behind—fast. That’s why Cardinal is doubling down on coaching and leadership learning. We’re not just helping our teams manage change; we’re equipping them to drive it.

Annual reviews don’t cut it, and today’s workforce expects ongoing development. We leverage coaching to foster continuous learning and to combat the constant disruption. This includes teaching people managers the key coaching principles and galvanizing cohorts to work with an executive coach.

We know change fatigue is prevalent, and our executive leaders are committed to combating it. Over the next few quarters, they’ll work one-on-one with a coach to upskill in the areas of change management, systems thinking, and how to use culture as a lever for organizational change.

In a world where AI is reshaping our work, Cardinal’s path is clear: We believe an enabled and empowered workforce is the key to sustainable success. 

We’re not adapting to the future; we’re building it.

The question is: Are you equipping your workforce with the discernment, agility, and leadership skills to thrive in this new era?