PRESENT: Human communication at work in the age of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is getting very good at a great many things.
Being human with another human being is not one of them.

"I can think of a book no more timely than this. As we all race to understand how AI will transform, enhance and detract from our working lives, we also have this gnawing feeling that this moment is a call for humanity at work to step up too."

— Tess Nixon-Spiller, Philanthropy & Fundraising Consultant

AI can now analyse, summarise, draft, structure and present information faster, cheaper and more tirelessly than any human. Much of what knowledge professionals have been trained to do is being absorbed by software that doesn't sleep, doesn't forget, and doesn't charge by the hour.

So the question every professional now has to answer is no longer what can I do? It's what can I do that software cannot?

The answer isn't technical. It's human. Trust built over time. Influence rooted in genuine understanding. The capacity to read people, to challenge with care, to land a message when it matters, to inspire someone who is struggling. These are not things software does. They are things people do. They are your Human USP — and developing them is no longer optional.

Present is a field guide to the work computers cannot.

Drawing on three decades of work with senior professionals across boardrooms, charities, universities and humanitarian organisations — and grounded in doctoral research into how communication skills are actually built — Dr Richard Feltham sets out a clear, practical map of the eight skills that define irreplaceable human communication at work:

• Emotional Capital — building the trust everything else depends on


• Clarity of Aim — knowing what you actually want from a conversation


• Feedback — giving it well, receiving it without flinching


• Courageous Conversations — having the conversation you've been avoiding


• Open Questions — the engine of real understanding


• Storytelling — the most reliable way to make an idea stick


• Presentations — leadership in miniature


• Making Connections — relationships that compound over a career

Who this book is for

If you're already good at what you do — technically skilled, experienced, entrusted with real responsibility — but you sense there is more to develop on the human side, this book is written for you. Not for beginners. Not for those struggling. For professionals who want to become the version of themselves that turns up fully in the conversations that matter, builds the relationships others rely on, and has the courageous conversation rather than avoiding it.

How it will make a difference

Present will not make you eloquent, charismatic or funny. It will make you someone people trust, because you have done the work to be worth trusting. Every chapter pairs a clear principle with deliberate, practical exercises drawn from coaching rooms, lecture halls and rehearsal studios — the kind of practice that closes the gap between knowing and doing. You'll find a hundred key takeaways, sixteen reference micro-skills, and a chapter on resilience for when the work gets hard.

This isn't a book about knowing more. It's a book about who you can be — in the moment, under pressure, when it matters.

The gap between the communicator you are and the communicator you could be is smaller than you think. Start closing it today.