Contrary to popular belief, you won’t need a machine learning degree or other highly technical skills to succeed in the near future, according to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.

As more artificial intelligence-powered tools get integrated into the workplace, employers will prioritize hiring workers with “soft skills” like creativity and adaptability, Garman told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Friday. His advice to his own child, a rising high school senior, he said: Develop your critical thinking skills in college, no matter what subject you study.

“I think part of going to college is building [your] critical thinking,” Garman said. “It’s less about the development of skills and it really is [about] how do you become a critical thinker? In some ways, I think that’s actually going to be the most important skill going forward.”

Critical thinking skills will be most people’s No. 1 biggest key to success in the age of AI, he added.

“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible,” said Garman. “I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn.”

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The list of skills and administrative tasks that AI tools can replicate continues to grow, seemingly each day. Amazon, Garman’s employer, is among the multiple companies that have announced plans to reduce their corporate workforces while adopting more AI tools and agents in the coming years.

But AI is no match for human intellect when it comes to using critical thinking and creativity to generate new ideas and make nuanced judgments, research shows. It could be “the most valuable skill of the future” for human workers, particularly those tasked with curating and refining the output of AI tools, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during an event hosted by Howard University in January 2024.

“AI can generate lots of great ideas, but you still need a human there to say, ‘This is the thing other people want,’” said Altman.

Students can hone and apply their critical thinking skills across pretty much any area of study. Current workers can improve them through daily habits ranging from playing strategic board games to asking more questions, research shows. Multiple online courses say they’ll help you improve your critical thinking and communication skills, including one offered for free through Harvard University and edX.

Once you’ve developed those skills, you can showcase them to your current or prospective employers by highlighting examples of difficult problems you’ve solved at work — or asking thoughtful, purposeful questions that reflect your curiosity and communication skills, LinkedIn career expert Andrew McCaskill told Make It in January 2022.

Garman highlighted two other important soft skills for both today and the future: the ability to smoothly adapt to new technologies, including AI-based tools and agents, and communicate effectively with colleagues and customers.

Communication is another skill where humans have a leg up over AI — particularly in terms of our ability to pick up on social cues, exhibiting empathy and emotional intelligence, actively listen, and provide insightful feedback, research shows.

″[Those skills] are important today. I think they’ll be just as important, if not more important [in the future],” Garman said.

As employers make plans to integrate more and more AI tools in the workplace, recruiters are specifically targeting prospective employees with the “adaptability” to keep up with technological changes, according to a LinkedIn blog post published in February 2024.

AI tools can handle various administrative tasks, but most customers “still want to talk to a person” and get personal insights and attention from a human being, added Garman.

“Those people skills are going to continue to be super important for a long time,” he said.

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The so-called “big, beautiful” budget bill made headlines for, among other things, introducing a new type of investing account that parents could open on behalf of children under 18.

For U.S. citizens born from 2025 through 2028, the government will seed the portfolios, which have come to be known as Trump accounts, with an initial contribution of $1,000.

It’s easy to see why the accounts took the spotlight — free money is free money. But if you’re a parent looking to save money for your child’s education in particular, the bill also quietly made an investment vehicle designed for that purpose more flexible.

When it comes to saving for a child’s education, “a 529 account is the only account that is both tax-deferred and tax-exempt,” as long as you put the money toward a qualified educational expense, says Tai Kim, a wealth strategist at Truist Wealth. “And that definition has been ever-growing.”

Under the new bill, accounts that were originally designed to let families save for higher education costs now support an even larger swath of education and career-related costs.

Here’s how the accounts work, and what expenses now qualify.

Named for a section of the tax code, 529 accounts were originally designed to help parents and students cover the cost of a college education and are administered by state governments. Each state, except Wyoming, offers at least one plan.

Contributions to these accounts are subject to federal income tax, but, depending where you live, could be exempt from state tax. Money you deposit into these accounts can be invested into a portfolio of mutual funds and grows tax-free. And, provided you put money you withdraw toward qualified educational expenses, you won’t owe the government anything when you take the money out.

Earnings withdrawn for non-qualified costs are subject to tax and a penalty, and previously, that meant anything that wasn’t related to higher education. In recent years, though, more expenses have qualified, including K-12 education costs, trade school and apprentice expenses up to $10,000 in student loans.

The recently passed bill further expands the scope of education and training costs that you can use 529 money for tax-free. These include:

• Vocational programs, such as those for welding, plumbing, HVAC work, commercial driving and cosmetology.
• Required continuing education, such as courses that nurses, real estate agents and teachers might need to maintain licensure.
• Tuition, books, fees and supplies related to licensing programs, including exam prep and review materials for exams in law, accounting or finance.  

Generally, to qualify, programs must be approved by credentialing organizations or listed in a state-maintained Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act directory or the Veteran Affairs Department’s Web-Enabled Approval Management System.

A common concern that parents have when opening a 529 account, Kim says, is that their child won’t find a use for the money.

That the funds can be withdrawn tax-free for a broader range of educational and professional expenses, with the expansion of the benefits — plus a provision that allows for a portion of unused funds to be rolled over into an IRA — can help assuage that fear.

“We encourage clients to open a 529 plan as soon as the baby is born, or even before,” she says.

When exploring what plan might be best for you, the first consideration is whether you’ll get a credit or deduction on your state income tax for contributing to your state’s plan. If your state offers a generous break, investing in that plan is a “no brainer,” says Kim.

If your state doesn’t offer a tax break, or if you live in a state without income tax, you may want to look elsewhere.

You can open a 529 account under any state’s plan, regardless of where you live. In fact, nine states provide state income tax breaks to residents regardless of whether they use an in-state or out-of-state plan. Sites like Saving for College and Morningstar have 529 rankings, which could help you narrow things down.

In general, though, keep two things in mind, says Kim: “What it boils down to is investment options and fees.”

While virtually every state offers some version of a target-date mutual fund — a type of diversified investment that becomes more conservative as you near a financial goal — some plans offer funds with better track records, more flexibility in building your portfolio and more modest costs, says Kim.

Different states may also have different rules that could benefit your particular situation, say, around transferring beneficiaries if you have multiple children or gifting rules if grandparents are funding an account, Kim says.

If you’re not sure which plan is best for you, it may be wise to talk with a financial advisor about your options.

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Personal finance consultant Michela Allocca made some financial sacrifices in her 20s, and she has no regrets.

At age 30, Allocca has a net worth of more than $700,000 according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. In her experience, you sometimes need to make temporary sacrifices to stay grounded financially, even when it feels like everyone else is spending, she says.

“We act like not having these things in our early 20s means we’re never going to have them,” says Allocca, the Chicago-based author of “Own Your Money.” But often, “they’re status signal things,” rather than things people “genuinely and sincerely care about,” she tells CNBC Make It.

Holding off on certain expenses early in her career helped her stay on track financially, Allocca wrote in a recent LinkedIn post that detailed four financial habits she avoided in her own early 20s. Here are those habits, and what she did instead:

1. She didn’t travel a lot

The social pressure to travel in your 20s can be strong, whether to become more worldly or simply because it seems like everyone else is doing it, says Allocca. Many young people take big trips right after college, often with little thought about whether it’s affordable because they believe, “well, money will always come,” she notes.

Even a budget-conscious trip can cost $1,000 to $2,000, an expense that’s particularly hard to justify early in your career when you’re earning a low salary, says Allocca. A single trip can cost as much as an entire month’s rent: Gen Z spends an average of $1,600 per month on rent, according to data published in January by credit firm Experian.

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When Allocca was 22 and earning $60,000 per year in Boston, flights in particular felt expensive relative to her income, so she focused on taking affordable, domestic trips, she says. While she began taking bigger trips by her late 20s — including a recent visit to Japan — she says they were planned and budgeted for well in advance.

While she now travels on her own terms, she says it’s “both normal and OK” for people in their 20s to hold off until they can afford the expense. “If I am going to go on a vacation, it has to be something that I actually want to go on, not because I’m feeling pressured to go somewhere,” she says.

2. She didn’t live alone until she was 27

Whether it was sharing one bathroom with three other roommates or moving back in with her parents during the Covid-19 pandemic, Allocca chose not to live alone for most of her 20s.

“I was able to continue to save, on average, about $1,000 a month because I wasn’t dumping all my money into rent. And that actually really helped me get ahead” on investments, she says.

Social media can create unrealistic expectations for what early-career earners can afford, says Allocca. In large cities like San Francisco or New York, residents need to earn more than $100,000 annually to keep rent below the commonly recommended 30% of their budget, according to a Zillow report published in May.

“I feel bad for Gen Z, because their perception of what’s normal at their age is so warped,” she says. “There’s all this [online] pressure for young people to live in a high-rise or live alone in these major cities, and it’s just not reasonable.”

At age 27, Allocca finally decided to live alone in a nicer apartment with more space and amenities. She needed a home office, and by that point, knew her income could support a roughly $1,000-per-month rent increase without derailing her financial goals, she says.

3. She didn’t splurge on clothes

Allocca took a minimalist approach to her wardrobe in her early 20s, often buying the same pieces in different colors and sticking to a few signature shades so everything was easy to mix and match, she says. She shopped mostly at inexpensive stores like Primark and Old Navy, she adds.

“When you have a general color scheme, you can match your clothes easier,” says Allocca. “It also helps eliminate the paradox of choice.”

Her approach kept her clothing costs low. “I wasn’t prioritizing shopping as part of my budget,” Allocca says. “If I did need to buy something, I was going to those really inexpensive stores so I could get the least expensive version possible.”

Today, she uses the same principles for what she calls a capsule wardrobe of “elevated basics” — versatile pieces that work with most of what she already owns, she says. She’s now more willing to spend money on better quality that she knows will last for years, she adds — like a roughly $450 cashmere sweater that’s currently the most expensive item in her closet.

4. She didn’t pay for convenience

In her 20s, Allocca avoided spending on things she could easily do herself. When her walk to work was about 30 minutes, she’d make the trip on foot rather than paying for a ride or public transit, she says.

“I didn’t take any unnecessary Ubers, I never ordered delivery,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

Many people justify convenience purchases by thinking “my time is so valuable.” Allocca didn’t see it that way, she says: “The time that I was saving, I wasn’t doing anything valuable with it. So what difference does it make if I spend the 10 extra minutes to go walk and pick up my dinner?”

She only ordered out from restaurants within walking distance, she notes. “If I’m not willing to go pick it up, then I’m not ordering it out, I’m cooking at home” she says. “To me, it’s creating some parameters around, ‘Is this reasonable?’”

Even today, Allocca rarely allows herself to pay for convenience, and only in “extenuating circumstances,” she says — like paying for delivered groceries after coming home from a long trip. By consistently avoiding most convenience costs, from rides to delivery fees, she says she’s freed up around $200 per month.

When paired with her low rent, that money “made a big difference” in her ability to save in her 20s, she says. And while she sacrificed some comfort in her 20s, “when I look back at all of these things, I don’t have any regrets,” she says.

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Nearly everyone is overloaded with information these days. In each minute of every day, 138.9 million reels are played on Instagram and Facebook, according to a 2024 report by Domo called “Data Never Sleeps.”

Consuming this much content on a daily basis has shown to have negative effects on a person’s ability to focus. Since 2004, psychologist Gloria Mark has studied attention spans, and her research shows that people’s attention when viewing a screen decreased from an average of two and half minutes in 2004 to an average of 47 seconds in 2016 — which is about the length of many videos on social media.

But the impacts don’t stop there. In Harvard physician Dr. Aditi Nerurkar’s book, “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience,” she discusses yet another side effect of information overload: “popcorn brain.”

Popcorn brain is when “our brains get habituated to this constant streaming of information, making it harder for us to look away and disconnect from our devices, slow down our thoughts, and live fully offline,” Nerurkar wrote in her book.

“While not a true medical diagnosis, popcorn brain is a growing cultural phenomenon.”

Here’s how to gain more control over what you’re consuming, and shift your popcorn brain.

The concept of popcorn brain was created by researcher David Levy in 2011, and it can look like staying up-to-date with the news to frequently checking your social media to see who’s engaging with what you’re sharing. The overload of information can lower your productivity levels, affect your memory and cause you to feel more stressed.

To get out of the loop of picking up your phone every few minutes, and ditch your popcorn brain, Nerurkar suggests four practices:

1. Limit yourself to no more than 20 minutes twice a day of scrolling on your phone. “At all other times, use your phone only for essential calls, texts and emails,” she said. To stick to your limit, set a timer when you’re scrolling.
2. Turn off push notifications and pop-up features.
3. Keep your smartphone at least ten feet away from your workstation to focus on work. “At home, consider doing the same, especially when you’re with your family members,” Nerurkar suggested.
4. Don’t put your phone on the nightstand when you’re going to sleep. This tactic helps you to avoid checking your phone right before bed or early in the morning. Let your loved ones know to call in case of emergencies, and keep your phone’s ringer on.

Ditching your smartphone won’t be easy when you first start, she acknowledged. It’s important to have helpful alternatives for when you want to reach for your phone like a notepad, a fidget toy, a book or a quick exercise like walking around the room.

“Rewiring your brain and overcoming your primal urge to scroll is a major feat,” Nerurkar said.

“In time, your stress will thank you because you’ll be deciding who and what gets your attention, not a device in the palm of your hand.”

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You don’t need to eat a big slab of meat every day to meet your protein needs. In fact, loading up on animal-based protein, especially from factory-farmed sources, can do more harm than good.

Studies show that an excessive amount of red meat can lead to increased inflammation, accelerated aging, and increased risk of chronic disease. One major culprit? A sugar molecule called “Neu5Gc,” commonly found in red meat. Your body sees it as a foreign invader, triggering an immune response that can lead to long-term inflammation.

Of course, you should always consult with your doctor before making any drastic changes to your diet. But for many people, plant-based protein can be a powerful alternative that’s packed with benefits like fiber, healthy fats, and anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

Plus, research has continuously shown that non-meat protein sources can be better for your health, longevity, and brain function. Here are six high-protein foods I love and recommend all the time — your body and brain will thank you.

Lentils are my top choice when it comes to legumes. They’re one of the most protein-rich legumes, with fewer calories than most. They’re also higher in resistant starch and prebiotic fiber, which feed your gut microbiome.

Pro tip: Soak or pressure-cook lentils to reduce lectins, which can impact or slow down nutrient absorption. You can add lentils to soups, stews, or homemade veggie burgers.

Hemp seeds are one of the rare plant-based proteins that contain all nine essential amino acids, making them a complete protein.

They’re rich in omega-3s, magnesium, and gut-friendly fiber. Just be sure to choose organic, cold-pressed hemp protein with no added sugars.

Pro tip: Trader Joe’s sells organic hemp protein power, which I like adding to smoothies. You can find hemp hearts at Costco — perfect on salads or roasted vegetables.

Native to Brazil’s Cerrado region, Barù nuts pack more protein per serving than nearly any other nut. They’re also full of antioxidants and fiber, and have a satisfying, earthy crunch.

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Pro tip: You can usually find Barù nuts at grocery stores, but if you don’t, try looking online. I love snacking on a handful daily. They taste like a cross between peanuts and almonds.

This blue-green algae is one of the most protein-dense foods on the planet (by weight, it’s nearly 70% protein). It contains iron, B vitamins, and a powerful antioxidant called phycocyanin that helps support brain and immune function.

Pro tip: Try adding spirulina to your smoothies or juices. You can also substitute it with chlorella, another nutrient-rich algae, in powder or tablet form.

Flaxseeds don’t get enough love, but they’re a fantastic source of plant protein, omega-3s, and lignans, which have hormone-balancing benefits.

When flaxseeds are in their whole form, you cannot digest their beneficial compound, so always choose ground flaxseeds.

Pro tip: I like to keep a bag of organic whole flax in the refrigerator and grind it as needed to ensure freshness (just like you’d only grind coffee beans right before brewing). Add to smoothies, sprinkle on salads, or try my cinnamon flaxseed mug in a muffin recipe for a quick, healthy breakfast.

Sick of quinoa or couscous? Sorghum is a protein-rich ancient grain with a subtly sweet, nutty flavor. One cup has 21 grams of protein (more than twice that of quinoa), and three ounces of sorghum has more iron than a serving of steak!

Even better? It’s a great source of polyphenols and one of the few lectin-free grains.

Pro tip: Use sorghum flour for gluten-free baking, or look for it in pasta form for a high-protein, plant-forward meal.

Dr. Steven Gundry, MD, is a former cardiac surgeon, founder of GundryMD, and author of the bestselling books ”The Gut-Brain Paradox″ and ”The Plant Paradox.” For over two decades, his research has focused on the microbiome’s role in chronic disease and longevity. He received his degrees from Yale University and the Medical College of Georgia, and completed his surgical residency at the University of Michigan. Follow him on Instagram @drstevengundry.

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