I was recently contacted by my old friend and colleague, Terry Jones. Terry and I worked closely together during our time at Google, where he was an exceptional Head of Talent, Learning and Development. We spent years thinking deeply about how leaders grow, how cultures form, and how communication really works when the pressure is on. I trained leaders across Google in every aspect of communication and presentation, while Terry quietly built one of the most commercially effective learning functions I have ever seen. Since then, he has gone on to apply those talents across a range of major organisations.
So when Terry sends me an article and says, “You might want to piggyback on this,” I pay attention.
The piece he shared, AI Will Be Your Biggest Barrier to a UK Job in 2026 , explored a sobering idea. By 2026, AI may be the single biggest barrier to getting a job in the UK, not because people lack ability, but because machines struggle to recognise the very human qualities organisations say they want. Emotional intelligence. Judgement. Presence. And yes, humour.
This struck a deep Humourology nerve.
We are entering an age where humans are being asked to prove their humanity to machines.
That sentence alone should make you smile, or weep, or both.
When Soft Skills Meet Hard Algorithms
The article argues that hiring is increasingly filtered through AI and Applicant Tracking Systems. These systems are excellent at spotting keywords, qualifications and experience. What they cannot easily detect is how someone makes others feel. They cannot hear tone. They cannot sense warmth. They cannot recognise a well-timed pause, a shared laugh, or the confidence that comes from reading a room.
And humour sits right at the heart of this problem.
As comedian Rhys Darby has pointed out, stand-up comedy may be the very last art form AI can ever replace, precisely because it depends on presence, timing and live human connection. You can programme a punchline, but you cannot programme the moment when a room leans in together. The same is true of leadership inside organisations.
Humour is one of the clearest indicators of psychological safety, social intelligence and adaptability. It tells us how someone manages stress, ambiguity and human connection. It reveals confidence without arrogance and intelligence without threat. In leadership terms, it is often the canary in the cultural coal mine.
Yet humour is almost impossible to quantify.
You cannot easily turn it into a metric. You cannot neatly bullet point it on a CV. And you certainly cannot rely on an algorithm to spot it.
Which is precisely why it matters more than ever.
Why Humour Signals Confidence
On the Humourology Podcast, guests from comedians to CEOs have all said versions of the same thing. When pressure rises, humour becomes either a bridge or a barrier.
Psychologically, humour is a form of emotional regulation. Neuroscience shows that laughter reduces cortisol and increases dopamine, helping people think more flexibly and creatively. From a leadership perspective, this means humour is not about being funny. It is about creating calm, trust and connection when things feel uncertain.
This is why Terry’s observation is so important. AI can assess competence. It cannot assess comfort.
It cannot tell whether someone will steady a nervous team, defuse tension in a meeting, or lift morale after a difficult quarter. Those things live in the spaces between words, and humour often reveals them first.
The Hiring Paradox
We are now in a paradoxical moment.
Organisations want people who can handle complexity, ambiguity and human nuance. Yet they are using systems that struggle to recognise those qualities unless they are translated into numbers and narratives that machines can read.
This means leaders and candidates alike need to rethink how human skills are communicated.
Not to dilute them, but to articulate them better.
Three Humourology Takeaways for Leaders and Candidates
- Humour is a leadership signal, not a personality quirk.
If someone uses humour well, it often indicates confidence, emotional intelligence and psychological safety. Leaders should treat it as data, not decoration. - Human skills need human evidence.
Stories, examples and outcomes matter. Whether hiring or applying, show how humour, communication and empathy changed a result, not just how they exist as traits. - AI will raise the value of humanity, not reduce it.
The more automated hiring becomes, the more precious genuinely human qualities will be. Leaders who can spot them, and candidates who can express them, will stand out.
A Final Humourology Thought
Terry was right to flag this article. It is not anti AI. It is pro humanity.
As technology accelerates, humour becomes less of a nice to have and more of a differentiator. It reminds us that leadership is felt before it is measured, and trust is built long before it is tracked.
If you are hiring, listen for the laugh.
If you are applying, do not hide the human.
And if you are leading, remember that sometimes the most intelligent thing you can do in a serious moment is allow a little light in.
That, in many ways, is Humourology.
See you next Tuesday.
Warmest,
Paul x
