By Kamales Lardi
To thrive alongside AI, organisations must invest in continuous learning that empowers employees to use AI tools, think critically, collaborate effectively, and adapt to rapid change. Upskilling in these key areas ensures teams can not only keep pace with AI advancements but also drive innovation and value in a tech-driven world.
The application of artificial intelligence (AI) at work is now here, and has become a part of the global business reality. Use of AI-based solutions at work has nearly doubled in the past year, with over 75% of knowledge workers using it as part of their daily work. As AI-powered transformations are expected to deliver tangible business outcomes and value, organizations worldwide are increasing their spending on AI-enabled applications, infrastructure, and related business services. By 2028, AI spending will more than double, estimated to reach $632 billion globally.
A recent report by Boston Consulting Group indicated that leading organizations are currently allotting up to 1.5% of their total budget to AI upskilling. However, it is evident that the pace of AI development could potentially outperform the ability of human workers to learn, adapt and upskill quickly. A deeper investment in resources and capabilities is required to support the massive shift in how employees are expected to achieve their goals and effectively manage their responsibilities in the age of AI.
To understand how AI will reshape work, Microsoft partnered with LinkedIn to conduct a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries. The survey highlights that employees want to use AI-based solutions a work to increase efficiency and free up time for more engaging and creative work. Conversely, 45% of professionals surveyed are worried that AI will replace their jobs, and are considering leaving in the year ahead. From the same survey, only 39% of people who use AI have received formal training from their companies, while only 25% of companies are planning to offer AI upskilling and training.
In my new book, Artificial Intelligence For Business, I highlight the critical need to prioritise upskilling, reskilling and new-skilling to ensure the workforce is able to leverage AI-based solutions effectively. Conventional approaches to close skills gaps are falling short, compared to the pace of AI development and demands of the business and technological landscape.
Organisations will need to build mindful, continuous learning and development programmes to ensure employees are able to apply AI knowledge effectively and stay up to date with rapid developments in the sector. Organisations must invest in upskilling that not only ensure employees are able to use AI tools and solutions, but also think critically, collaborate effectively and adapt continuously.
Strategic Fluency in AI and Decision-Making
Although some degree of technical understanding can be valuable, employees and leadership teams do not need to become technical experts in machine learning or data scientists. But a deep understanding of how AI works in a business context, as well as its impact and risks, are necessary. Strategic fluency – the ability to distinguish between hype and real business value – is critical in determining where AI-based solutions can be most effective, and developing use cases that will deliver business outcomes. Management teams and employees will need to build a foundational understanding of AI concepts, including generative models, automation and natural language processing, within the context of real business applications.
Additionally, ethical awareness is highly critical. This will enable teams working with AI-based solutions to flag issues and abnormalities, such as algorithmic bias, data misuse and regulatory non-compliance. Decision-makers in organisations will need to develop critical oversight capabilities to ensure AI outputs align with human judgement and broader organisational objectives. Effective methods to upskill in strategic fluency and decision-making may include executive briefings, cross-functional learning labs, and AI strategy and ethics courses that are embedded in the context of the business.
Human-AI Collaboration and Workflow Design
AI solutions are transforming job roles, not replacing them. For example, there is a lot of hype in the market currently regarding Agentic AI replacing jobs and team functions. These are AI systems that can make decisions and act independently to achieve specific goals, often with limited human supervision. As intelligent as they systems may appear, true opportunity lies in designing workflows where humans and AI systems support and complement each other. To alleviate fears of being replaced, employees must understand how these AI systems can augment their capabilities.
Upskilling efforts need to focus on task-level integration by conducting skills analysis to understand the tasks each role performs and capabilities required to complete tasks effectively. This will offer insights into what tasks could be automated, and where it is necessary to retain human oversight, intervention and capabilities. Teams will need to learn how to delegate repetitive or data-heavy tasks to AI-based solutions, including deeper training on prompt engineering for large language models, learning to apply AI productivity tools, and how to orchestrate human-AI handoffs in daily workflows.
This shift in working models can be supported by role-specific training on AI tools, as well as job redesign workshops conducted with internal teams to identify high-impact opportunities for automation and augmentation.
Adaptive Mindset and Soft Skills
The success of applying AI for business effectively comes down to the human element – whether people are able to adapt to the new working environments. It is crucial to create an environment where exploration and experimentation are encouraged, learning from failure is normalised, and staying up-to-date with emerging tools and capabilities becomes second nature.
As teams take on more nuanced roles and integrate more AI-based solutions in daily workflows, the need for human-centric skills such as empathy, creativity, communication and cross-functional collaboration become more important. Additionally, psychological safety in the organisation, where employees feel secure enough to test, challenge, and question the AI systems and its output will ensure the appropriate human oversight is put in place and people embrace AI solutions effectively. Organisations can develop adaptive mindsets through leadership coaching, peer-led groups and innovation incentives that reward curiosity and participation.
People at the centre of AI for business
Organisations that want to achieve sustainable success with AI application for business must understand that it is not only a technology investment, but rather a people strategy. Focusing only on the implementation of technology and tools will fall short. The real differentiator lies in how well people are prepared to lead, collaborate and grow in an AI-augmented business world. For business leaders, the call to action is clear – equip your teams to not only work with AI-based solutions, but to embrace and thrive with them.
Kamales Lardi
