Is AI a threat to mankind? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

The rise of AI has been met with mixed reviews. The late Stephen Hawking declared that AI could be the “worst event in the history of our civilization” and Elon Musk has stated "AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

However, AI is an integral part of our everyday lives and does not have to be so intimidating. As AI continues to integrate into our factories and offices, it will streamline and enrich processes to such an extent that companies using AI are better positioned for long-term growth than those who don’t.

An important way to stay relevant in the face of AI is to double down in our efforts to develop a critical “superpower”— emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence involves the ability to recognize, understand and control our own emotions and influence others’ emotions. While AI affords companies unprecedented capabilities (such as speed-of-light calculations), it cannot exude emotional intelligence capabilities.

It’s time that we realize the pressure AI is putting on humans to be far more emotionally intelligent, as our future success in the workplace may depend on it.

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