The number of tasks requiring social skills grew by 24 per cent from 1980 to 2012, compared with 11 per cent for jobs such as maths-intensive tasks.
While jobs filled with routine work shrunk since 2000, the importance of social skills grew by about two per cent.
Mr Schweigert says employers will continue to require emotionally intelligent workers, who could collaborate, innovate, work in teams and bring people together into a team.
"They are going to be the hot roles in the next 20 years."
Sound research from Australia showed that about 40 per cent of today's jobs are at risk of being replaced by technology.
"But technology is just the enabler for new ways of doing things.
"You have a whole range of technologies and new ways of working that are empowering people to do different jobs and to be productive in new things."
He says the industry predicts a 20 per cent growth in jobs in the next decade as a result of changing roles.
"So, it's not all doom and gloom and robots doing everything for us."
Labour MPS will speak to the forum about their Future of Work Commission which has an external reference group of members from business, trade union, academic and community backgrounds.
Commission chairman, Labour's finance spokesman Grant Robertson, says "several hundred" submissions have been received and more are expected by the end of this year.
Change is a constant in the workplace but it's the rapid pace and extent of change that is making the impact this time, he says.
"We believe that New Zealand needs to get its head around the impact of the changes."
Changing careers more often and a lack of income security are likely, he says.
"We need to prepare by getting our education and training system to focus on giving skills that people will need for work and preparing the young people for jobs that don't exist yet.
"But an exciting side of this change is the possibility for people to be their own bosses by starting new businesses and opening up new markets."
Future of Work in NZ
Jobs on the way out (20 years)
• Driving
• Deliveries
• Cleaning
• Storehouse-packing
• Factory work
• Stockbroker research
• Accountancy clerks
• Filing clerks
• Law clerks
• Factory work
• Any routine work that's ripe for automation
Jobs on the way up
• Sales
• Coaches
• Customer service
• Creators of new stuff and ideas
• Health care
• Personal services
• Trade skills
• Banking
• Education
• Training
Skills in demand
• Social skills (+24% in demand 1980-2012)
• Cognitive skills (memory, attention, learning, speech, understanding)
• Collaborative skills (problem-solving, flexible, adaptable, able to lead, bring together people in groups, retrain, innovate, team worker)