As artificial intelligence continues to reshape education and work, organizations are facing important questions about the human competencies that will matter most in the years ahead. To help answer those questions, ETS has launched the Center for Advancing Human Competencies, a new research initiative focused on understanding, measuring and supporting the capabilities people need to thrive in an AI-shaped world. In this Q&A, Lydia Liu, AVP of Research at ETS, discusses the vision behind the Center, its research agenda and why building a stronger evidence base for human capability has never been more important.

A: The Center grew out of a simple but urgent need to address a timely question: What human competencies will matter most as AI reshapes learning and work? AI is changing how we learn, work, solve problems and make decisions. This is the right moment as education and workforce systems are being asked to prepare people not only for today’s jobs, but also for roles and challenges that are still emerging. ETS brings a deep legacy of research in assessment, learning, readiness and the science of cognitive and durable skills. The Center brings that expertise to build a stronger evidence base for the human competencies that matter most, how they develop and how they support opportunity for people to thrive across education and work.

A: AI is changing the relationship between what people do themselves and what technology can help with. It is redefining both the competencies people need and how readiness should be understood. As technology becomes capable of performing more complex tasks, the unique human work becomes even more important: greater emphasis is being placed on capabilities such as judgment, asking better questions, verifying information, communicating with clarity, adapting to uncertainty and making responsible decisions. Workforce readiness can no longer be understood as a fixed set of skills. It is also becoming more dynamic. People need to know how to use AI well, when to rely on it, when to question it and where human expertise, independent reasoning and accountability must remain central. The Center will study how these competencies are defined, developed, measured and connected to real education and workforce outcomes.

A: We need a scientific foundation because broad labels are not enough. Terms such as collaboration, creativity, adaptability and critical thinking are powerful, but they must be defined with precision, observed in context and supported by valid evidence. Without that foundation, we risk using these concepts in ways that are inspiring but not actionable, or worse, consequential but not fair. The Center’s role is to move the field from aspiration to evidence by clarifying what these competencies are, how they develop, how they can be measured and how they can be used responsibly to support readiness and workforce preparation. The Center will advance the definitions, measures and validation evidence needed to ensure that human competencies are understood and used in ways that are credible, fair and meaningful.

A: AI raises new questions about what people need to know and be able to do. Readiness asks how we recognize and validate those capabilities. One program focuses on identifying the human competencies that matter in an AI-shaped world. The second program examines readiness by focusing on how those competencies can be recognized and validated at important transition points across education and workforce contexts. The third program studies how competencies are developed and expressed in real disciplines, such as STEM fields. Together, they give us a fuller picture of human capability: what competencies matter, how they grow, how they can be evidenced and validated and ultimately how they can open doors for learners and workers.

A: The most exciting questions are those at the intersection of science and impact. The Center’s research agenda asks: Which human competencies will matter most in an AI-shaped world? How do we define readiness in ways that are meaningful across key education and workforce transitions? How do these competencies develop in fields and become visible within disciplines such as mathematics, science, language and technical education? And perhaps most importantly, how can we translate this evidence into tools that help people see, build and communicate what they are truly capable of?

A: Skills are a universal agenda, but they are never developed or expressed in a vacuum. They are shaped by education systems, labor markets, cultures, technologies and the opportunities people have to learn and demonstrate what they can do. That is why it was essential to build the Center with a global perspective. Without it, we risk treating human competencies as if they look the same everywhere, when the same competency may be valued, developed and measured differently across contexts.

International partnerships allow us to ask better questions and build stronger evidence. Which competencies are central across education and workforce systems? Which are shaped by local culture, policy and economic need? How does the maturity and availability of technology influence the way people respond to AI and develop new skills? A comparative perspective broadens the Center’s evidence base, challenges assumptions that may be too U.S.-centric or too discipline-specific and helps ensure that our frameworks, measures and tools are relevant beyond a single setting. In the end, a global perspective makes the Center’s work more rigorous, more inclusive and more useful to the educators, employers, policymakers and learners who are navigating these changes around the world.

A: Let’s not forget that AI didn’t invent itself. Humans created AI and humans will continue to make decisions about AI. What excites me most is that this moment invites us to put humans back at the center of the discussion. AI will continue to transform work and learning and be extremely powerful, but human capability remains the source of judgment, purpose, creativity, relationships and responsibility. The future of human capability research is not about competing with technology. It is about understanding how people can grow with it, use it wisely and bring forward the competencies that make learning and work more humane, more adaptive and more meaningful. For the Center, human capability research means keeping people at the center of education and work by strengthening the competencies that support agency, relationships and continued growth, while ensuring that technology expands and augments human potential.

A: The most important message is that preparing people for the future requires more than teaching discrete skills for today’s tasks. Organizations should create learning and workforce systems that help people build durable capabilities they can carry across roles, settings and stages of life. The Center will support that work by connecting research, measurement and practice. It will identify which competencies matter in different contexts, develop valid ways to observe them, study how they grow in disciplines and pathways and translate that evidence into tools and guidance that educators, employers, policymakers and learners can use.

A: Success would mean that the Center is producing research and tools that are both scientifically credible and practically useful. We want to see our research shaping how human competencies are defined, measured, taught and recognized across education and workforce systems. We also want to see our tools and insights used, including their uptake by educators, employers and policymakers to make better decisions and create more meaningful opportunities for learners and workers.

A: It is difficult to predict exactly what the world will look like five years from now. If we look back five years, few of us could have anticipated how quickly AI and other forces would reshape learning, work and society. But that is precisely why this work matters. Five years from now, I hope we have a much clearer understanding of how human competencies develop, how they can be validly measured and how they can be used to expand opportunity rather than narrow it. I hope the Center will be recognized as a leading voice in this field, with resources such as a Human Capabilities Report, a Readiness Index, STEM skills indicator banks and practical guidance that helps people and organizations recognize and support the full range of human potential. Most of all, I hope the Center will be a lasting platform for rigorous, responsive and forward-looking work, one that continues to adapt to the most urgent questions of our time and helps ensure that human competencies remain at the center of the future.