Modern jets, he says, generally are not hand-flown aircraft and some have been designed from the outset to be flown for nearly the entire flight on automation. And that, Panosian says, makes a pilot's need for systems and information management skills at least as important as their stick and rudder abilities, and arguably more important.
He said "arguably more important" I read that statement as clearly the man is automation addicted. Otherwise no reasonable thinking person would dismiss the vital necessity of stick and rudder skills having priority over automation monitoring.