I couldn't open a number of doors until I had Lockpicking 3. Before that (1-2 points) it failed every time (and I went at it for almost ten minutes in one case), with that (3 points) it succeeded with the first attempt.
I'm not sure whether the rank of the social skills matters for NPCs at this point (but since it's an alpha, most things probably don't have a high/complex success requirement, since the first priority is to ensure that things work at all). They were used when my characters argued with one another over a decision they were faced with, but I don't know how much of an impact they had on who won the debate.
