Are Human Capabilities the Key to Business Success?

Deloitte research suggests that high performing teams are prioritising human capabilities alongside AI integration. 

The research, which involved a survey of 1,400 professionals spanning team leaders and team members across a range of industries, examines the attitudes and behaviours related to high performance. 

While structure, skills and technology were all found to contribute to performance, teams need to nurture human capabilities to achieve and sustain high levels of achievement and business success, suggests the research. 

The six human capabilities high performers tend to prioritise are curiosity, emotional intelligence, divergent thinking, informed agility, resilience and effective collaboration. 

To further build these capabilities within an organisation, Deloitte recommends investing in human skills and fostering a workplace culture that does not punish failure. 

The report suggests that, as the half-life of technical skills continues to decline, organisations that prioritise these capabilities are more agile and capable of adapting to new business landscapes. 

An investment in core skills

Of those surveyed, 63% of respondents believed that human skills are likely to increase in importance over the next two years. 

However, Deloitte research suggests that this level of importance is not reflected in company spending, with 93% of organisational expenditures being put into technology infrastructure – compared to 7% spent on work and people-related issues. 

The strongest companies, Deloitte suggests, are those who place a more equal emphasis on both human and technical skills. 

Toyota, for instance, has long prioritised a human-centred approach. 

The manufacturer is combining the use of new technologies and human insight using a principle it refers to as jidoka – automation with a human touch. 

With this strategy, the company hopes to reduce its production preparation lead time by 50% and increase productivity by 20%, according to Toyota. 

Discussing the company’s approach to innovation in a press release, Kazuaki Shingo, Chief Production Officer of Toyota, says: “I want to change the future of car-making through Toyota’s skill. 

“To achieve this, we need to evolve the monozukuri [production] strengths that only Toyota possesses through the fusion of human skills, technology and digital techniques.”

Building a culture of experimentation within a business

To build curiosity and resilience within an organisation, as well as a confidence to work intuitively with AI tools, Deloitte recommends encouraging exploratory behaviour through failure. 

Giving employees the opportunity to try and potentially fail without finding fault, Deloitte suggests, may be the key to develop new skills with emerging technologies. 

However, the report finds that only half of surveyed respondents on high-performing teams say they have the opportunity to learn from failures without fault-finding. 

As AI usage increases across organisations, allowing workers to experiment with unfamiliar technologies can increase fluency and help them prepare for possible futures. 

Microsoft in particular is taking an exploratory approach to new technologies, in a culture of learning that goes right to the top. 

CEO Satya Nadella revealed in an appearance on the MD Meets podcast in November 2025 that he wanted to give himself the best opportunity to learn as much as possible about AI at the start of its emergence by being a “learn-it-all” rather than a “know-it-all”.

He says “I always go back to a sense of purpose and mission and culture, reinterpreted for what is a new world of technological shift and business model shift.”