Growth @Rifa AI | Making AI work like your most reliable teammate | Previously @ Topmate | 30u30 IQ

AI isn’t replacing people. It’s replacing processes that slow them down.

At Rifa AI, we’re building intelligent agents that automate back-office conversations across chat, voice, email, and support without breaking ops.

The goal isn’t to sound human.
The goal is to get work done, with AI that can reason, act, and complete entire workflows across tools.

Our best users don’t even realize they’re talking to a bot.
That’s the point.

Before this, I led growth at Topmate and picked up a few hard truths:
 → Shiny doesn’t scale
 → Funnels lie
 → Speed breaks things, but it also builds them

Rifa is a tougher game. The stakes are higher.
You’re shipping into systems where mistakes cost trust, not just clicks.

That’s why I care about:
 → AI that’s functional, not performative
 → Growth that’s compound, not chaotic
 → Shipping like it’s a reflex, not an event

If you’re building at the intersection of AI, ops, and velocity, let’s chat.

Shubham Khoker

I just saw Ankit's post about Topmate hitting profitability, and I couldn’t scroll past without smiling.

To the world, "profitability" is a financial metric. To me, having been in the trenches with Ankit and Dinesh, I know it’s a badge of pure grit.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: My time as Head of Growth at topmate.io was my real MBA.

It was the most intense classroom I’ve ever stepped into. Working with both of you gave me my earliest instincts for product, growth, and just... how to operate in absolute chaos without losing clarity.

A lot of the DNA I carry today as a founder comes straight from those months. The pace, the difficult decisions, and the relentless execution.

You don’t forget teams like that.

Seeing them hit profitability is a reminder of what consistent execution looks like when most people would have given up.

Huge congratulations to Ankit, Dinesh, and the entire team.

This win is well-earned. So proud to have been a small part of this journey.

Everyone’s busy calling themselves “AI-first.”
But your customers don’t care about it. 

When we first started pitching to healthcare clients, I thought leading with “AI-powered” would make their eyes light up. Instead, it usually made them lean back in their chairs, because for most healthcare stakeholders, AI-first sounds risky.

They’re not thinking about the model you used.
They’re thinking: what happens if it fails? Will it violate compliance? Leak data? Or give the wrong answer to a patient?

So now, I start those conversations differently.
About what we’ve done to make sure AI actually works when it’s supposed to.

Every voice agent we build passes through a simple checklist before going live:
→ Does it log every interaction for audit trails?
→ Does it know when to stop and escalate to a human?
→ Does it meet every compliance protocol, even if no one’s watching?

Once that foundation is clear, then the conversation about automation begins.

AI might get you in the door, but risk management keeps you in the room.
That’s what actually builds long-term trust.

I predict AI will vanish by 2030.
And I say that as someone who spends every single day building with it.

Not literally, but in how we talk about it. 
Five years ago, AI was a buzzword.
Today, it’s a feature.
Five years from now, it’ll just be invisible infrastructure.

No one will brag about “AI-first” anymore, just like no one says “internet-first” today. Because the best technology always disappears behind the experience.

When we deploy voice agents in hospitals, no patient ever says, “Wow, this AI bot is amazing.”

They just say,
“Finally… someone actually picked up.”
That’s the direction we’re headed. AI won’t live in headlines or product launches.

It’ll live inside workflows, quietly fixing things that humans don’t have the time or patience to.

So, here’s what I’m betting on:
𝟭/ 𝗔𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.
We’ve hit peak hype, and the next winners won’t be the flashiest demos; they’ll be the ones that never break in production. 

𝟮/ 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗮𝘁.
In healthcare, reliability is the foundation. The companies that bake guardrails in from day one will outlast the ones chasing speed.

𝟯/ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿.
Typing, clicking, searching; all of it will fade into natural conversations. Your voice will become the universal remote for how you access systems.

And maybe that’s the irony:
AI will be everywhere, precisely because it will feel like it’s nowhere.
By 2030, the best AI won’t feel like AI at all, it’ll just feel human.

If that happens, what’s one part of your workflow you hope disappears first?

Building should feel hard.
But it shouldn’t feel blurry.

Most people assume burnout happens when you work too much.
In my experience, it’s when you don’t know what you’re working towards anymore.

The chaos creeps in quietly: 
→ Too many priorities
→ Too many opinions
→ Too many half-baked “let’s just test it” plans

Suddenly your calendar’s full, your brain’s fried, and you're still not moving.
And the worst part?
You start confusing activity with progress.

I’m not anti-hustle.
I’m anti-chaos.

The only thing that’s ever pulled me out of a spiral wasn’t rest—it was clarity.
Clarity of: 
→ What problem actually needs solving
→ What to drop (even if it’s shiny)
→ What not to chase this quarter

Because burnout isn’t just about energy.
It’s about direction.

And sometimes the most productive thing you can do is… stop and think.
That’s not a “growth hack.”
That’s survival.

Tag a founder who needs to hear this.

The first time I had to let someone go, I didn’t sleep that night.

I kept replaying the conversation in my head; the silence after I said their name, the way they nodded slowly, the awkward gratitude at the end.

Nothing prepares you for that moment.
When we hired our first person at Rifa AI, it felt like validation, like someone believed in what we were building.

But when it doesn’t work out, it hits differently.
You start asking yourself if you could’ve coached better, communicated sooner, or just seen it coming.

That’s when I learned something that never makes it into startup books:
Company culture isn’t defined by how you celebrate wins. It’s defined by how you handle endings.

Hiring is about hope.
Firing, when done right, is about honesty.
Both take a piece of you.

And both, in their own way, make you a better builder — and maybe, a better human.

When you’re a non-technical founder building a technical product, impostor syndrome moves in next door, rent-free.


There have been times when the team was deep in conversation about inference speeds and vector databases, and I’d be there, nodding, jotting notes, then Googling half the terms later, only to realize I still didn’t get all of it.

However, I’ve learned that it’s part of the job.
I’m lucky to have a co-founder who lives and breathes the tech side (that’s Sameer). My role has always been to connect what we’re building to what the customer actually feels.

So I stopped pretending to understand everything and started asking the simplest questions again.

Every time I asked a “dumb” question, the conversation got clearer for everyone in the room. We stopped over-explaining to each other and started building something users could actually use.

Over time, it has become my strength. I stopped trying to sound technical and focused on what I can understand and build with.

Yeah, impostor syndrome still drops by sometimes, but I’ve learned to make peace with it.

If you’re a non-technical founder quietly sitting through a technical meeting, feeling like an outsider, you’re not behind.

You’re just seeing the problem through a different lens.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what your team needs.

Everyone says “talk to your customers.”
I’m taking that advice one notch higher, and I’ll pay you for your time.
No clickbait. Stay with me till the end.

As we explore the healthcare vertical at Rifa AI, I’ve realised something important:
You can’t automate an industry you don’t understand.
You can’t sit behind dashboards and guess how frontline workflows operate.

So before we ship anything in healthcare, I want to learn from the people who actually hold the system together. The ones who deal with chaos, patient load, insurance calls, and operational bottlenecks every single day.

That’s why I want to speak with:
→ Front desk staff at hospitals/clinics
→ Patient coordinators
→ Medical receptionists
→ Nurses who work closely with ops/patient flow

I’m not looking for confidential data. I’m looking for operational reality. I want to know where the friction is, what the "unwritten rules" of your workflow are, and what tools drive you crazy.

And yes, I’m happy to compensate for your time.
It could be a paid virtual meeting or a conversation over a coffee.

If you work in US healthcare operations and are open to a 30-minute paid chat (or know someone who fits), drop me a DM, tag them below, or share this post.

If you’re planning to build a startup, here’s the part that no MBA or mentor ever tells you.

Last week, when Anisha Jain and the HIVE team at the University of Chicago asked me to speak to their students, I said yes instantly.

Because I remembered what it felt like to be in their shoes.
Hungry to build something, unsure where to start, and confused by all the startup terms around “AI,” “product-market fit,” “fundraising,” and “the right time.”

Back then, I thought progress would be about finding the perfect idea or learning the right framework. But, once you get past the excitement and the theory, you hit the part where nothing looks linear, certainty disappears, and you have to build even when your confidence doesn’t show up with you.

That’s the phase that actually teaches you what matters, and here’s what I learned during that phase:
1. Start with a problem that keeps bothering you.
You don’t need to know how to code on Day 1. What you really need is a problem you can’t ignore... something you’re willing to think about even when no one’s watching.

2. A co-founder is someone who believes in the same future you see.
Skills can be hired, but what you can’t hire is someone who shows up on hard days with the same energy as you do.

3. Investors look for clarity more than big pitches.
If you can explain what you're building, who it helps, and why now is the right moment, the conversation changes instantly.

4. Your early job will teach you more about building a company than any “startup guide.”
For me, most of my instincts came from Topmate, the messy days, the mistakes, the adrenaline, the long nights. That’s where I learned how startups actually work.

None of this shows up in the pitch decks or the headline interviews. But it’s exactly what determines whether you ship something real or just talk about it.

So, if you’re at that stage: excited, overwhelmed, curious, questioning everything, that’s exactly where most real journeys begin.

P.S. What’s one lesson your founder journey has taught you?

I thought I knew what leadership was.
Then I became a founder.

Turns out, leading one branch of the company and leading a company are two completely different things.

When I was working as a Growth Head, it was about ownership within a structure.
We had a clear direction, a set goal, and a team to rally.

Someone had already built the walls of the house; my job was to optimize the rooms, fix the wiring, and ensure growth. There was stability, even in chaos.

At Rifa, I quickly realized leadership from the ground up is a whole different game.

There is no existing structure. You are literally building the walls while simultaneously deciding what kind of house you even want to live in.

The shift is profound, and honestly, sometimes scary.
You stop being a functional head and become the emotional backbone of the entire operation. Every product pivot, every client bet, every tough hiring call has effects that you simply cannot delegate away.
 
They need someone who can admit, "Yes, this is fog," and still be the first one to take a step forward.

That's the real leadership muscle I had to build, and that’s the part most leadership books skip:

The silence that comes with being responsible for everything, and the humility it takes to show up every day, even when you don’t have all the answers.

If you've made the jump from employee to founder, what surprised you most about leadership?

People keep asking me, "When will your AI be smart enough to replace a nurse?"

I tell them that's the wrong question.

The right question is, "How can our AI be reliable enough to handle the 5 hours of administrative work that burns a nurse out every single day?"

The goal isn't to replace our heroes, it's to give them room to be human. Isn’t it?

You don’t need a dev team or a $50K budget to build a voice agent anymore.
Hard to believe, but that’s where we are now.

I’ve seen companies spend months wiring together APIs, vendors, and compliance checks just to make a phone line “talk.” By the time it goes live, the use case has already changed.

That’s the gap we’re closing with Rifa.
Building automation shouldn’t feel like building another product; it should feel like setting one up.

With our platform, you can design, test, and deploy a compliant AI voice agent in minutes. 
You don’t need to know coding. 
You can simply drag, drop, and go live on any phone number.

And it doesn’t stop when the call ends.

→ Your CRM updates automatically.
→ Follow-ups get scheduled.
→ Issues get flagged without anyone touching a dashboard.

Because real automation shouldn’t add another layer of complexity, it should remove it. That’s what we’re betting on at Rifa: making AI powerful and practical for the people who actually use it.

If building automation were this simple, what’s the first workflow you’d hand off?

We are building an AI Voice Agent to automate phone calls. But to get our first 10 customers, I had to make hundreds of phone calls myself.

That’s the irony of building in AI today. 
Everyone wants to automate everything, including product development and GTM.

But here’s the reality I’ve seen time and again, from leading growth to now building Rifa…
AI can automate workflows, but can’t automate trust.

And when you are selling into industries where a single mistake has consequences— healthcare, finance, compliance-heavy ops—that difference matters.

These buyers aren't looking for a "cool AI tool." 
They're worried because the risk surface has expanded:

_ "What if the response is wrong?"
– “Who is liable for the model’s error?”
– “How do I explain this to an auditor?”
– “What does this break in my existing workflow?”
– “What happens if the model behaves unpredictably?”

These aren’t objections you solve with a funnel, or a case study, or an automated sequence.
These are objections that need context, interpretation, and reassurance. 

And this is where old-school GTM suddenly becomes a superpower again because it helps buyers process risk at a human pace.

That’s why the AI companies that are winning right now have strong trust-building mechanisms:
• High-context conversations
• Non-scalable onboarding
• Long-form demos
• Domain fluency
• Founder-led selling in v1
• Field intelligence from real calls

Because GTM in AI is about risk translation before efficiency or growth. 

If your product is AI-first, your early GTM must be risk-first. 
And right now, risk is still interpreted by humans, not workflows.

See, AI will eventually sell AI.
We’ll get there.

But we're in the messy middle, where technology has leapfrogged, but buyer psychology hasn’t caught up.

The biggest mistake you’re making as a founder is trying to make your GTM move as fast as your tech. While in reality, it should match the pace of your buyer’s fear.

Don't let the hype trick you into hiding behind your screen.

P.S. Are you also seeing traditional channels outperform the automated ones right now?

PW (PhysicsWallah)

As a professor of communication at Physics Wallah, I have trained over 900+ students in the BFSI sector, achieving a 98% success rate and the highest faculty rating of 4.9/5. 

I have developed a comprehensive student-centric teaching strategy, bridging gaps in experiential learning. My role includes designing robust curricula aligned with market standards and creating Teaching Learning Materials (TLM). 

I have spearheaded program launches, conducted 1:1 interview training programs leading to a 60% rise in average salaries, and played a key role in organizational communication. 

Additionally, I have received appreciation for my training effectiveness, content design, and strategy.

Soft Skills Faculty

Saka Learning Systems

As an independent consultant, I have successfully designed and delivered customized training programs across diverse industries, including automotive, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, aviation, FinTech, retail, and IT. 

My expertise in competency-based behavioral training has been highly appreciated, leading to increased engagement and measurable impact. 

Recognized as an empaneled trainer for Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programs with a top private bank, I have trained 300+ cabin crew in communication and interview skills. I also spearheaded the resume template launch program, surpassing forecasts by 500%, and collaborated with an internationally renowned resume writer for global clients. My approach ensures high CSAT ratings and 98%+ success rates.

Learning And Development Specialist/ Training Manager

Borderless Consultants

Communication Coach & Resume Review

Zero Gravity Photography

As an experienced event coordinator and sales representative, I successfully managed end-to-end event execution while driving revenue growth. A key achievement in my career was being awarded “Employee of the Month” for achieving the highest sales in a single month. This recognition highlighted my ability to build strong client relationships, exceed sales targets, and contribute significantly to business growth. My expertise in training and mentoring new team members further enhanced overall team performance. Now, as I step into a Training Manager role, I aim to leverage my leadership, sales expertise, and event management experience to develop high-performing teams.

Event Director

Soft Skill & Corporate Trainer | 41K | I Help Individuals Master Public Speaking with Confidence | Professor-PW | Speaker - G Summit 2023 | 30+ Webinars | Resume Review & Interview Prep Coach | Trained 1000+ | 30+ Brands

Is communicating with confidence holding you back?
Got your dream job. Now, how to prepare for the interview?
Built a company but struggling to construct a healthy company culture?

Don’t worry, I’m here to help!
Hello, I’m Vrinda Gupta, your go-to Soft Skills Coach & Corporate Trainer

I’ve helped 4000+ professionals develop strong communication skills, enabling them to navigate professional challenges with self-assurance. 

And I’m proud to say that 100% of my clients have achieved their goals after working with me.

Who I’ve Trained:
- IT professionals, cabin crew, and corporate employees
- Students through universities looking forward to getting hired
- National & international industry leaders across multiple industries
- 30+ top brand collaborations including Dove, Puma, Boat, and Times of India

How I Help Professionals & Leaders Grow:
- Interview Preparation
- Workplace Communication
- Sales & Business Communication 
- Networking & Professional Etiquette
- Leadership & Personality Development
- Public Speaking & Confidence Building

Whether you’re a fresher, mid-level executive, manager, or founder, the right soft skills can change everything.

If you’re ready to step up your game, let’s connect! 

DM me or drop me an email at vrindagupta02@gmail.com to get started!

Vrinda Gupta

Last month, I had a panic attack ten minutes before a training session.

Standing in the washroom, hands shaking, I thought,
"You literally teach people how to handle this."
The irony hit hard.

Because here’s what most people never see —
my students see the confident trainer.
Nobody talks about the sleepless nights, the mental exhaustion, or the multiple tabs open in your mind.

“Did that session land?”

Everyone celebrated the confident speaker.
I was just trying to stay steady.

Then it clicked —
you can’t pour from an empty cup.
So I started doing what I ask my students to do:
take my own advice.

I learned about cortisol — the reason your body feels tired but your mind won’t switch off.
Took real breaks between sessions.

And finally listened to my friends persistent suggestion — Vedistry Mentacalm, proven to reduce stress and lower cortisol naturally in just 60 days. (She was right, of course.) 

My thoughts became clearer.

Because stress and sleep aren’t separate — they feed each other.

And when you heal both, your balance returns.
 I also paired it with Vedistry Zzowin —  that helps you fall asleep faster and wake up fresh — the change was overall.

The late-night spirals slowed down.

My mornings felt fresher, steadier. Both are clinically tested and backed by 7 decades of Ayurvedic expertise.

For every coach, trainer, or leader reading this:
Your mental wellness isn’t selfish.

It’s the foundation that makes your work sustainable.

Thanks Vedistry Pvt ltd for this.

2x TEDx Speaker I Favikon Ambassador (India) I Keynote Speaker I Empowering Leaders with Confident Communication I Soft Skills Coach I Corporate Trainer I DM for Collaborations

The #1 question I hear most these days from Founders is a little strange: 

‘Won't empathy make me lose control?’

And here’s what 20+ years of leadership research shows:

Empathetic leaders don’t lose control.
In fact, they gain clarity.

Because they:

→ Lead with presence, not fear
→ Understand what’s actually driving underperformance
→ Create teams that self-regulate through psychological safety

The real reason people question empathy in leadership? 

FEAR. 

Because there's a massive perception gap.

Research shows:

→ 86% of employees believe empathetic leadership boosts morale
→ 87% say it's essential for creating psychological safety
→ Yet 68% of CEOs still fear it will undermine their authority

That's not a leadership problem. 
That's a narrative problem.

Here's what the data actually shows about empathy and team dynamics:

→ Their teams show 25% more engagement
→ They maintain higher standards (not lower)
→ Retention costs drop because trust replaces fear
→ They resolve issues faster by addressing root causes

The ‘loss of control fear is rooted in a misunderstanding of what empathy does.

Empathy doesn't eliminate accountability, rather it channels it. 

It transforms ‘You failed’ into ‘What happened?’
And that's where real leadership begins.

The question isn't whether empathy costs you control. 
It's whether you want compliance or commitment.

Most high-performing teams choose commitment.

What’s your biggest hesitation around leading with empathy, and is it still valid?

#LeadershipDevelopment #EmpathyAtWork #ExecutivePresence #SoftSkillsArePowerSkills

If you could master just one skill before Dec 31, what would it be?


Here’s mine: Listening without interrupting.

Trust me, it’s harder than it sounds.

And more powerful than most leadership frameworks.

Why?

Because deep listening is a skill that never shows up in metrics,
But changes everything:

→ How people grow
→ How decisions land
→ How teams feel seen
→ How conflict de-escalates

The higher up you go, the less people tell you when you interrupt.

So you assume you’re doing fine.

But really, you're just going unchallenged.

So here’s my rep for the rest of the year:

Shut up, breathe, let them finish, and then respond.

You want to lead better in 2026?

Start by speaking 20% less.
Let the room breathe.

That’s where real leadership begins.

What’s one skill you’d commit to mastering by Dec 31, and why that one?

#Softskills #Communicationcoach #Skillstolearn #Growth #Development #Leadership

She was leading million-dollar projects, and yet couldn’t lead the room.

And it cost her 

Every year, her promotion got passed over.
Every year, she got the same feedback: ‘You're doing great.’
That’s it!

On our first call, I asked her to walk me through a recent leadership meeting.

10 minutes in, I stopped her.

You’re doing all the work, I said. 
But you’re not claiming any of it.

That’s when she realised:


→ She over-explained instead of driving direction
→ She played the expert, not the executive
→ She filled silence instead of using it

In her mind, being liked meant being promotable.

But the company read as caution.

She didn't know the answer,
Because no one had ever asked the right question. 

No one had ever told her:

→ People promote clarity, not effort
→ Leadership is as much about what you communicate as what you deliver
→ Influence doesn’t come from talking more but from knowing when to speak, and how

We worked together for 6 months.

On communication that commands trust.

→ Tone
→ Authority
→ Strategic silence
→ Feedback that lands

By month 2, she was showing up differently.

By month 6, she wasn’t waiting to be seen.

And by the end of the year?

She messaged me: "I finally got the promotion."

The takeaway?

Most people don’t need more skills; they just need to be seen differently.

That starts with how they speak.

If you’re a high performer stuck at the same level, it might not be your output.

It might be the signal you’re sending.

Let’s fix that!

#LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutivePresence #CommunicationSkills #LeadershipCoaching #SpeakingWithImpact #StrategicCommunication #InfluenceNotJustEffort

Every week, I meet professionals buried in certifications, data tools, AI prompts, leadership badges, and yet still unsure what to say in a tough meeting or how to lead through uncertainty.

So, I’m breaking the ice today:
The future doesn’t care how many tools you’ve learned.

It cares how 

→ Clearly you can think
→ Calmly you can lead
→ Effectively you can communicate under pressure

Upskilling is everywhere, yes, we get it.

But how much of it is actually useful?

According to the World Economic Forum, 39% of core skills will change by 2030.

And yet that doesn’t mean we need newer skills 

It means we’ve undervalued the ones that already matter most.

So what actually makes someone future-ready?

3 things that never go out of style:

1. Analytical thinking
2. Communication
3. Adaptability

And here’s the good news:

You don’t need a course or a badge to build these.
You just need practice, quiet, weekly, deliberate reps.

Try this for 15 minutes a week:

→ Revisit one decision 
What was your logic behind it?

→ Rewrite one email 
Was it as clear and respectful as it could be?

→ Reflect on one moment of change 
How did you respond?

That’s the real upskilling plan

More self-awareness

More precision

More influence

Because maybe the future won’t reward those who learn the most.

It’ll reward those who can communicate what they already know, better.

#FutureOfWork #SoftSkillsMatter #LeadershipDevelopment #CommunicationSkills #Upskilling #CareerGrowth

A few years back, the job hunt for fresh graduates meant campus placements and generic resumes. But now, the game has changed.

If you’re a student or fresh graduate here’s one truth: 

LinkedIn is no longer optional, it’s your launchpad.

Here’s what top recruiters are looking for:

1. LinkedIn isn’t just a job portal, it’s a network builder. 

Find roles, follow companies, engage with content, and learn how hiring managers think.

2. Don’t hide your campus projects, volunteer work, or skills. 

These are your differentiators. Use your profile and content to tell a story, not just your degree.

And once you land that interview:

-Know more about the company than the average candidate: find alumni on LinkedIn, follow the company page, and read recent updates.

-Prepare examples that show your adaptability, communication, and problem-solving. 

Practice your “Tell me about yourself” so that it’s more than a summary, it’s your opening pitch.  

Being a fresher today means blending the best of digital presence with genuine, prepared interview skills.

To every student navigating this journey: 

Your potential multiplies when you show up prepared both online and in person.

What’s one piece of advice you wish someone gave you when you started your career?

#LinkedInvertis #InvertisUniversity

Soft skills just got rebranded, and it changes everything.

Last week, LinkedIn released its 2025 Workplace Learning Report.

The message from global L&D leaders was loud and clear:
Soft skills are now "power skills."

Not because it sounds better.

But because in today’s economy:

1. AI can summarize a report. But it can’t influence the room.

2. Automation can speed up workflows. 
But it can’t align people.

3. Tools can do the task. 
But only humans can build trust.

The top 4 capabilities L&D leaders are investing in globally are:

→ Leadership
→ Communication
→ Collaboration
→ Adaptability

Not technical certifications
Not software upskilling
Just fluency at scale

This is no longer a “development opportunity.”
It’s a business differentiator.

Because when your team can:

1. Speak with precision
2. Manage conflict with grace
3. Lead meetings that drive real action
4. Deliver feedback that lands
5. Shift tone depending on who's in the room

You don’t just work better,
you lead faster.

The WEF says 39% of core skills will be obsolete by 2030.

But communication, resilience, and decision-making under pressure will amplify. 

However, my question today is:

If communication is listed as a key skill in every job description then why m is it still the least rigorously trained skill in the business?

#softskills #communicationcoach #coach #coachinbusiness #leadership

“Unemployability is a bigger problem than unemployment.”

That was the uncomfortable truth at the Bengaluru Skill Summit 2025, where 3,000+ leaders came together to fix a broken pipeline.

Here’s what they uncovered:

55% of Indian graduates aren’t job-ready.

Not because there aren’t jobs
Not because they lack degrees

But because they lack the skills employers actually need.

For context:

MBA graduates = 78% employability
Engineers = 71.5%

But the real gap isn’t the degree.
It’s what stacks on top of it:

→ Communication
→ Problem-solving
→ Emotional intelligence

The market is automating everything it can.

The roles that remain?

They demand people who can:

→ Adapt in real time
→ Communicate with clarity
→ Lead through uncertainty
→ Build trust across diverse teams

And that’s where most graduates fall short.

The takeaway?

Stop training workers.

Start developing leaders at every level.

What’s the biggest soft skills gap you’re seeing in your industry and what’s it costing?

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The Battle

Shubham Khoker

Vrinda Gupta

Followers

Posts

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Performance ScoreShubham Khoker's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreVrinda Gupta's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Shubham Khoker

Vrinda Gupta

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Shubham Khoker's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreVrinda Gupta's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreShubham Khoker's LinkedIn Performance