The proliferation of innovations in generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) requires a new approach to employee attraction, engagement and retention. Our survey reveals that, compared to late adopters, companies that adopted Generation AI earlier placed more emphasis on talent development, with two-thirds already having a strategic approach to meet their needs. future talent and skills needs.
Organizations need to think about the full range of AI generation capability needs – from general mastery of business objectives to deep, domain-specific technical capabilities – and the speed and scale at which they need to be developed. However, organizations are struggling to move from foundational AI generation and compliance training to practical, results-driven training. skills building.
What to consider
To seize this opportunity, organizations must adopt a collaborative, large-scale approach to upskilling and reskilling. Reinventing their learning and development (L&D) can help organizations meet the demands of the AI generation and elevate L&D functions to be stronger strategic partners for business leaders. Here are three considerations:
- Objectives before roles. While it’s tempting to rush to build generic AI knowledge in all roles at once, start with business outcomes and how investments in generative AI can enable or accelerate them. Define the skills required to achieve these results and identify the groups within the organization who need to develop these skills. This is important because the AI generation has led to faster role redesign and creation; skills, especially those that are sustainable, provide a clearer and more sustainable currency.
- People-centered training and development. Many transformations fail due to human and cultural challenges. With Generation AI, the nature of work and required skills will be continually reshaped, and some employees may view upskilling efforts as a threat to their well-established professional identity. By taking an empathetic, human-centered approach, L&D can transform initial fear into curiosity, fostering a mindset of opportunity and continuous learning.
- Corporate learning, reinvented. Next-generation skills will be fundamentally different. Gen AI technology makes the ultimate learning dream possible: at scale, personalized, in the workflow, and when it matters. This will require closer collaboration across the HR function, stronger business integration to integrate learning experiences into work environments, and a refreshed approach to the L&D technology ecosystem.
Where to start
Below are four identified high-level goals to focus on, including associated priority skills and employee groups that may need training efforts:
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Lead and generate value: Prioritize skills to inspire “the art of the possible from the AI generation.” Make informed decisions, including taking into account risks and ethics, on investments to accelerate and improve value creation. Model behaviors to encourage innovation and experimentation.
Target groups include leaders, who define the transformation vision and strategy; domain and functional leaders, responsible for achieving transformation results; and change agents, who influence the adoption and scaling of solutions.
Effective formats include highly immersive moments embedded within a longer journey (e.g., “going to see” organizations on similar paths), ideally linked to strategy development and execution.
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Create and deploy templates: Prioritize the skills needed to safely design, develop, test, and deploy AI models in support of business use cases, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and risk management.
Target groups include cross-functional teams of technology talent, such as data scientists, data and AI engineers, and product managers.
Formats can include team coaching to help accelerate team effectiveness, as well as deeper learning paths and technical certifications.
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Enable value in specific areas: Prioritize skills to identify areas where AI generation can improve outcomes, reinvent workflows and approaches, and operationalize new ways of working in specific domains or functional areas.
Target groups include domain and functional experts, who shape the development and deployment of gen AI solutions to enable relevant use cases, and experts who provide advice on governance, legal aspects, risk management , talents and operational aspects of gen AI.
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Increase the daily: Prioritize skills to responsibly integrate generational AI tools into daily tasks and continuous learning, ranging from protocols for risk, security, data literacy and ethics to skills sustainable, human-oriented critiques that cannot be increased as easily (e.g., empathy, critical thinking). , resilience).
Target groups include frontline staff who can leverage next-generation AI tools specifically tailored to their needs (e.g., AI-generated scripts for customer agents), employees who use a set more wide range of next-generation AI tools to improve tasks, as well as line workers. managers with visibility into their daily work.
Formats must be scalable and personalized. Fortunately, the AI generation is revolutionizing effective and efficient learning in the workplace (e.g. AI co-pilots as coaches).
Organizations that take a more strategic approach to addressing the human side of AI generation are poised to take full advantage of the technology. When L&D industry leaders and business leaders join forces to launch and lead a “skills push,” they can fully harness the business impact of the AI generation and foster a culture of courageous, continuous growth, helping all employees to achieve their goals.
