What are diplomatic competencies for the AI era?

In my previous blog post, Why AI Will Make Diplomacy More Important, I argued that AI will enhance the relevance of diplomacy. Now, let’s consider the competencies diplomats will need to succeed in an AI-driven world: What talents, knowledge, and skills are essential for negotiation, representation, and effective participation in international relations in the coming years?

AI will reshape the diplomatic profession by handling much of the repetitive paperwork, freeing diplomats to focus on the core aspects of their role: engaging with people, listening, and solving problems. To prepare for this shift, diplomatic training should focus on three sets of competencies: talents, knowledge, and skills.

Diplomatic TALENTS

Talents are natural abilities that people are born with. They come from who you are, your family, your culture, and your experiences growing up. While we can’t teach talents, we can help people improve them. At Diplo, we have identified 24 important talents for diplomats, and several are especially crucial for the AI era: curiosity, being a good listener, creativity, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous learning.

Diplomatic KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is about understanding facts, ideas, and the world around us. We gain knowledge through school, work, and experiences. As you can see from the box below, the traditional corpus of diplomatic knowledge remains relevant for the AI era. A new area of knowledge is about understanding how AI functions and how it impacts society. This includes a grasp of the way data impacts AI, what privacy requirements are, and how AI impacts law, ethics, and security. With this knowledge, diplomats can participate in important discussions about AI and its impact on the world.

Diplomatic SKILLS

Skills are abilities that can be learned and improved with practice. In the AI era, diplomats will need both traditional and new skills. Traditional communication, negotiations, and problem-solving skills will remain very important. However, new skills such as creating effective prompts for AI, analysing data, and using AI for policy forecasting will gain relevance.

In emerging hybrid intelligence models, diplomats must effectively collaborate with AI systems, blending human judgment and intuition with machine inference and efficiency. By leveraging AI’s data processing capabilities and pattern recognition alongside human empathy, cultural understanding, and nuanced interpretation of context, diplomats can navigate the intricacies of international relations more adeptly. This hybrid approach allows for faster analysis of large-scale information while maintaining the critical human touch necessary in diplomatic interactions.

How talents, knowledge, and skills work together

Talents, knowledge, and skills are all interconnected. Talents form the foundation for building skills and knowledge. They help diplomats learn and adapt to new situations. Knowledge provides the context and understanding needed to use skills effectively. Skills, especially those needed for high-level performance, improve through practice and targeted development.

As AI takes over repetitive tasks, diplomats will be able to focus more on what matters—engaging, negotiating, and understanding people. These core activities have always been at the heart of diplomacy, and AI will make these skills even more essential.

Preparing for the AI era

As AI is already changing diplomacy, the need for preparing diplomats is very urgent. How can we help today’s diplomats learn the new AI competencies they need? How do we train the next generation of diplomats? And how can we create environments that help diplomats use their talents, knowledge, and skills effectively?

These are critical questions for ministries of foreign affairs, diplomatic training centres, universities and others involved in preparing diplomats for their work.

The conversation about the competencies diplomats need for the AI era is just beginning. By addressing AI transformation of diplomacy properly, we can make diplomacy stronger and ready for future challenges.