Humans will no longer be needed to operate the machines.

We are rapidly moving past this point - humans won't be needed to think at all, as for the most part, an AI will out perform them even in what people would consider creative tasks. Most humans are not overly creative and are of course tied to combining what they know - an AI can know and understand many magnitudes more and combine and test them in theory of millions times through simulation at almost zero cost.

Like grow your food or be skilled at something other humans will value you for.

Yes. This is actually what my next topic was going to be about - values. :)