Fourteen quotations printed in the book. Kogan Page sent a manuscript to each of these people before publication and asked what they thought, which is how advance praise works and is worth knowing as you read it. They are reproduced in full and in the order the book prints them. None was paid for and none is marked up as a review in this page's structured data, because a solicited cover quote and a review are different things.
“A survival guide for human ingenuity.”
“A powerful and practical 'operating system' for career survival in the AI era, and a timely and optimistic reminder that human judgment is the superpower that will save us.”
“At a time of profound change and uncertainty, I distrust anyone promising simple solutions. This is the antidote. A marvellously humane model for building capability amid the 21st century's tumult.”
“In proposing 'superskills' for the new era of AI, Hirji outlines what is essential to navigate the most intense technological disruption humanity has yet had to face.”
“The business leaders who successfully scale their organisations invest in people, not just technology. This book shows you exactly how to do that in the age of AI.”
“A guide to the AI age grounded not in futurism or hype, but in wisdom and humanity. He asks not how technology will change us, but how we can change ourselves.”
“The compass we didn't know we needed. What makes us irreplaceable isn't processing power, it's seven deeply human abilities that must be actively practised.”
“The greatest risk of AI isn't that machines become more human, but that humans stop exercising judgement, taste and care. These are essential skills for everyone, especially leaders.”
“The AI Age is moving fast and will impact every industry and field. Rahim Hirji's seven superskills are the key ones to keep thriving in the world that is now opening up.”
“One of the exceptionally rare books that I will reread. Rahim Hirji turns nonfiction into narrative and gives language to human skills I've observed and taken for granted.”
“Both a call to arms and a primer for a different way of thinking. A simple framework for building agency and embracing what it means to be human alongside the accelerated power AI brings.”
“SuperSkills addresses a question every leader is now asking: will my work and I remain relevant as technology accelerates? It shows how to shape your circumstances rather than drift.”
“Even in an age of rapid technological advancement, the human role remains irreplaceable. This book shows how we can embrace change without fear and shape the future rather than have it happen to us.”
“Whether AI is our ally depends upon how well we employ the SuperSkills offered in this book. Our humanity and our future are at stake. Read, heed, and relish this book, for your sake and the sake of the generations to come.”
Published, unsolicited, and linked so you can read the whole thing.
Nessa McEniff, Learnovate Centre, Trinity College Dublin, in TheJournal.ie, October 2026
Writing in TheJournal.ie ahead of the Learnovation Summit, the managing director of the Learnovate Centre at Trinity College Dublin describes the rule Rahim suggested to Learnovate, a “human at the start” approach to the technology, and sets out drift versus design: going wherever the algorithm leads, against deciding deliberately when and how to use it. Read the piece.
David Boyle, Saturday AI Thoughts, 27 June 2026
A recommendation from a reader who spent twenty-five years in data and analytics. He calls the book “thoughtful and well written”, says it “asks the question that matters: as the machine does more of the thinking, who stays in charge?”, and adds that “Hirji asks it better than most”.
He names all seven skills and singles out the last: “This is the book’s last and best skill, the augmented mindset, which in plain terms means staying the author of your own work.” One line, he writes, stays with him: “proof is the new speed limit”. He ends on the book’s daily log, Hand, Head, Hours: “what stayed yours, what you caught, where the freed time went”.
His own view of where to hand over and where to hold on is in the piece itself: A thousand small bargains.
Arab News
The Saudi daily quoted the argument in its coverage of the book: “A reminder that success is not about what you know today, it is about how fast you can learn tomorrow.”
Kevin Campbell, Beta Tester Life, 30 August and 7 September 2026
Four chapters in, on the passage about empathy: “A brilliant paragraph from a thought-provoking book. AI may learn to recognise emotion and produce an appropriate response. But recognising empathy is not the same as experiencing it.” … A week later, the longest independent review the book has had. It takes the argument apart rather than summarising it, finds the diagnosis sound, and discusses drift versus design, the ten-word anchor, altitude, Hand Head Hours and the Five Loops by name. It also makes three criticisms, which are below.
It is linked here rather than quoted selectively. The two points that touch the research rather than the book are answered on the citations page.
Nine hosts who read the book and then said on air what they thought of it. None was asked to. Each line links to the conversation it came from, where the whole transcript is published.
“You have put together an approach that is going to help people find themselves with purpose, meaning, a sense of control, and on top, a framework that can help them make it happen.”
“I absolutely love the story of how they come together, and I think you are going to make a huge difference in the world.”
“This conversation has been fascinating to me. I have learned such a lot. I would absolutely be highly recommending people obviously catch their copy of the book.”
“I hope you'll also read Super Skills. It's a fantastic book.”
“I'm really excited to see the impact that your book is going to have.”
“One of the things that I loved about this book is that most books about AI start with the technology, but this one starts with a story of a boat.”
“I'm really looking forward to reading the book and getting into it myself. Huge insights there.”
“Rahim, this has been an awesome conversation. Just been phenomenal.”
“Thank you so much, Rahim, for sharing your experience, for sharing your work around these super skills, these human skills that are tremendously important.”
“Rahim, this has been a super fascinating conversation.”
Readers who put their name and their job to it, in public, without being asked. Each entry links to the post it is quoted from.
“Our future value won’t come from competing with AI. It will come from strengthening the capabilities AI can’t easily replicate: curiosity, adaptability, empathy, communication and judgement.”
Her post opens by quoting the book’s own line back, that AI is not coming for our jobs but for our judgement, and she reaches it from the other direction: it is what stuck with her at Springer Nature’s Career Growth Week, which prompted her to finish the book. She is a former colleague and says so herself. This is an employee writing in a personal capacity and not her employer citing the work, a distinction already recorded on the citations page.
“If you’re trying to find your place as AI bulldozes its way into your work and life, and you’re thinking that there has got to be more to your role than quality checking AI’s work, then you’re going to enjoy this book.”
She picks out the test the book applies to a skill rather than the list of skills: each one gains value as AI improves, works everywhere, and is teachable. She names three of the seven and refuses to give away the rest.
“It is an excellent book worth reading and an important contribution to this article, but it also made me think beyond the question of which human skills will remain valuable.”
He used the book as the starting point for an article of his own on what leaders in regulated, risk-bearing functions have to become better at. Using a book to argue past it is a better compliment than agreeing with it.
“It’s a rich, thoughtful, eminently quotable dive into the value of being human as technology gets more powerful and more capable than ever. Highly recommended for AI advocates, skeptics, and all those in between.”
Posted on publication day. A former colleague from the Quizlet years.
“When I saw that Rahim had written a book about AI, I almost scrolled past it. I thought, here is another AI book. But that is not the case. It is not about the technology. It is about us.”
The most common thing readers say, put more plainly than anyone else has managed. She picks out empathy, and algorithmic drift as “the gradual way we let automated systems take over decisions that used to require human judgment”, which is a fair summary of the term written by someone with no reason to flatter it.
“Superskills makes a lot of sense. When I assess a candidate I am looking deep beyond the experience. This takes judgment and subjectivity, which we all gain from our varied life experiences and from speaking to a diverse range of people across the world.”
She calls him a long time friend in the post, so that is stated here too. What makes it worth quoting is that she is testing the argument against her own trade and finding it holds: her verdict on the checkbox CV is that traditional recruitment is dead.
“This isn’t a book about fearing AI. It’s a practical guide to staying sharp, staying human, and staying valuable in a world where machines can perform many of the tasks we once considered uniquely ours.”
Written the morning after the launch. The two lines she says stayed with her are both from the book: “The floor is moving under careers that felt permanent” and “This is the inheritance our generation receives.”
“Rahim’s new book, SuperSkills, sets out seven human skills for the AI age. The idea of drift versus design is especially strong. It is easy to let the algorithm and the pace of change make choices for us by default. Choosing deliberately is harder, but that is the work of leadership. AI creates options. Humans create decisions.”
She calls it a must read. She was on the Oystercatchers panel with him in May, which she says herself in the post, and the question she takes away is her own rather than the book’s: what do we want humans to remain responsible for?
“This is absolutely a priority read. … What strikes me as I read it, is the expertise and pragmatism he brings to the topic, and indeed he brought to our panel, is borne from the many years he spent as a practitioner, in multiple specialist fields. His identified 7 Superskills have been deeply researched and validated over many years. They feel familiar, yet also progressive. But it’s his thoughts around drift vs design that I can’t leave behind.”
The first line was written the morning after the launch at the Ismaili Centre, a month before she had finished it. The rest came on 6 August, and the part worth reading is where she turns the question on herself: whether her own career was drifted into or designed, and what would have been different if she had designed it. She ends by saying the work will shape how Oystercatchers advises its clients on their future facing marketing systems and capabilities. She chaired the panel he spoke on in May, so she is not a stranger, and that is stated here rather than left for somebody to discover.
“As AI becomes better at doing tasks, your competitive advantage shifts from what you know to how you think, judge, adapt, and collaborate. The biggest risk isn't losing your job to AI, but becoming overly reliant on AI and allowing your own judgment to atrophy. Hirji calls this algorithmic drift.”
He attended the launch and put the book on his summer reading list beside four others. The only person on this list to write the phrase algorithmic drift and attribute it, and he sets out all seven skills by name.
“A standout highlight was an inspiring session with Rahim Hirji exploring SuperSkills and Human Judgement. As AI transforms daily workflows, the real differentiator isn't just algorithmic speed, it is intentional human design, critical judgement, empathy, and ethical stewardship. Technology accelerates the how, but human judgement defines the why.”
Written up as one of three takeaways from his EMEA People Operations leadership days in London, where the session took place. The other named testimonial from that engagement is Karina Govindji's.
“Rahim Hirji provides further evidence of the drift into AI at the expense of human value, this time in Audit. Recommend his excellent book if you want to explore how we make conscious decisions about AI use and the skills we need to be developing.”
He applies drift to audit, a sector this research has not written about, and he uses the term as a category rather than as a quotation.
“Last week, I got to be stage host for a Negotiating Humanity event at the Ars Electronica Festival. And as I ended the morning, I chose to go back to the words of Rahim Hirji. If you are thinking about what happens to leadership in the age of AI, and what we need beyond our tech and soft skills then you need to read this book.”
She closed a festival session in Vienna by quoting this work from the stage, which is the only instance here of the argument being used in front of an audience by somebody else. Rahim endorsed her own book, disclosed because the exchange runs both ways.
“In the age of AI, knowledge is no longer power. Intelligence costs almost nothing. What will separate us now is uniqueness, the ability to apply judgement, curiosity, and empathy where data cannot reach.”
She quotes the book directly rather than describing it, and the line she chose is the one the Box of Amazing essay of November 2025 is built on.
“As artificial intelligence continues to reshape how we work and live, our greatest advantage will not be artificial intelligence itself. It will be the qualities that technology cannot replicate: empathy, integrity, curiosity, courage and our ability to build meaningful human connections.”
A friend, which he says in the post, writing at the launch weekend.
“Superskills is a business book but it doesn't read that way. It is a book about staying human in an era of accelerated technological shift. I am a practical person and so I am still reflecting on Chapter 2 titled Change Readiness. A task is set to discover what as an individual you will not trade in times of challenge, Rahim calls this your anchor.”
Read an uncorrected proof. A friend, which she says in the post. The anchor is the part she takes away, and she is the only reader on this list to name it.
“For two years now I've been trying to work out what AI really does to the work I do, and to the people I do it with. Most of what I've read is either alarmist or dismissive. Rahim is neither. He's after something more useful, which is what we still bring that they don't. It is rare to open a business book and find your own world, and your own community, in it.”
One of the first reviews of the book, from an advance copy, before publication. A friend, and Rahim disclosed that himself when sharing it. A dispute-resolution practitioner reading the Paris climate talks passage as a description of his own job is the specific thing worth having here.
“The leaders who feel most at risk right now are not behind on tools. They are drifting, quietly handing over their judgment without realizing it. Rahim calls this synthetic seniority, and it is one of the more significant challenges organizations are going to face in the next few years. Because we are not just dealing with juniors who look more senior than they are. We are also losing the pipeline that used to build real seniority over time.”
She hosted the session this is drawn from, so she is a collaborator rather than an unconnected reader, and that is worth knowing when weighing it. What makes it the strongest entry here is not praise: it is that she uses four of the named concepts to make her own argument to her own audience, and her readers pick the terms up in the comments.
“Congratulations to Rahim Hirji on the publication of his new book. I had the opportunity to chat to Rahim recently and hear him speak. The future of work is indeed human.”
A short notice rather than a review, and it names none of the ideas. It is here for who is saying it: the person accountable for leadership and capability development across a global technology firm, who held the equivalent brief at Microsoft. Date decoded from the post id rather than from a relative timestamp.
“Suddenly my mind started wrestling with this idea of drift versus design. Am I drifting? But wait, where am I drifting? How do I fix it? I found myself becoming more confident in my own choice of pursuing my hunches and internal thoughts before engaging AI in the conversation.”
Written after the launch at the Ismaili Centre, before she had finished the book. She returned to the argument at length in her own essay in September.
“This was a random find in City Airport last month. But a very welcome one as it is one of the best books I have read on AI for a while. It is about the 7 human skills you need to master as AI come more and more into our work life’s. What I liked was super up-to-date examples and frameworks that are easy to implement. Worth a read!”
He has written his own book on blending human and AI skills, so he is a competitor as much as a reader.
“Onto my next reading venture, Super Skills by Rahim Hirji. I found this book fascinating. The book explores the human skills that are becoming increasingly important in the way we work and lead.”
What she does next is the interesting part. She takes the human skills straight into a budget question, asking how an organisation embraces empathy, trust, listening and empowerment while staying profitable in a hard financial climate, and answers it by saying the choice is false and the work is to create the space for both.
The bookshop reviews, reported as a pattern and with no names used, because a reader who wrote a review for a shop did not write it for this page.
Ten reviews were visible across the United Kingdom and United States bookshop listings at the end of September 2026, eight of them marked verified purchase, all ten at five stars. No names are used here, because a reader who wrote a review for a bookshop did not write it to appear on the author’s website. What is reported instead is the pattern.
Four of the ten name drift versus design as the idea that stayed with them, unprompted and independently of one another, which makes it the most transmissible thing in the book by some distance. One describes noticing drift afterwards “in your own habits and in how teams operate”. Another reaches for the same image the book uses, being the driver while the machine is the engine. Several say they arrived expecting a book about which jobs disappear and that this is not that book. A parent and a manager each describe using it for something the book does not set out to do, raising children and leading a team through change. Two of the ten carry criticisms, and both appear below.
Five objections from four readers, grouped by who made them. Two of them arrived at the same one without having read each other.
David Boyle, Saturday AI Thoughts
From a reader who agrees with the diagnosis. Boyle’s position is that “the reflexive reply, the one the title invites, is to hold the line and always stay human”, and that this “would be mostly an over-reaction”. His counter-case is that “most of the handovers are not surrenders. They are careful bargains, and good ones”, and that what stays with you when you hand over the middle of a task is the part that decides the outcome: the framing at the start, the judgement of whether it is good enough at the end, and the call about whether it needs to be better. He is right that a book with this title invites the reflexive answer. His point stands as he made it.
Kevin Campbell, Beta Tester Life
Three objections from one review, two of which are corrections. “More than forty named tests, loops, drills and matrices” are set against a part two of about three thousand words, and the review argues the system that should hold them together is outweighed by its own parts. An anonymous reader reached the same place from the other direction, without having read him: a couple of the seven overlap enough that they could arguably have been five, and anyone allergic to frameworks may find it neat. That one is a note for a second edition. The seven are set out as one system on how the skills hold together, and what they produce between them is the subject of how the seven skills produce judgement. … The narrative scenes compress timelines and imagine human detail, and the US Airways 1549 reconstruction is demonstrably out of order. That is correct and accepted: the scene supports no claim made anywhere on this site, and will be corrected in a later printing. … The introduction rounds the Forum figure to close to half, where the 2025 Future of Jobs report says 39 per cent by 2030, down from 44 per cent in 2023. The rounding is loose. The evidence base carries the full series back to 2016 and records the report’s own words, that skills are transformed or become outdated rather than jobs vanishing.
An anonymous reader
One reader finds the autobiographical passages out of place in a book aimed at working leaders. That is a matter of taste rather than of fact, and the passages are deliberate. They are staying.
Two related pages, and what each one holds.
Two other pages carry related material and neither duplicates this one. Cited and referenced records what people have done with the research rather than said about the book: written work building on it, the pages cited as a source, podcasts, panels, and the work circulating inside organisations. Nothing on that page was asked for, which is the reason it is kept apart from the endorsements above. Quotes to share carries lines from the book and the research with the page each comes from attached.
Asked and answered.
No. Kogan Page sent a manuscript to each of the fourteen before publication and asked for a line. None was paid for and none of them had any financial interest in the book. They were solicited, which is different from paid and different again from an unsolicited review, and the page says so at the top of the section rather than in a footnote.
Because the criticisms exist whether or not this page carries them, and because two independent readers arriving at the same objection is information a buyer should have before spending money. Four criticisms are collected here with what is being done about each. Two are corrections for a later printing, one is a matter of taste, and one is answered by the research research rather than by the book.
Somebody who wrote a review for a bookshop wrote it for other shoppers, not for the author's website. The ratings and the names are left where they were published and only the pattern across them is reported here, including both of the criticisms they contain.
On the cited and referenced page, which records independent use: written work building on the argument, research pages cited as a source, podcasts, panels summarised by their organisers, and the work circulating inside organisations. It deliberately excludes everything that was asked for, including the endorsements on this page.
First published 2026-09-27. Written and checked by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026). Every quotation on this page is reproduced as it was written and attributed to the person who wrote it.
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