In the age of gen AI upskilling, learn and let learn

As business leaders, it’s difficult to know which way is up with AI right now.

Although we’re tasked with identifying clear AI use cases and guardrails at our organizations, we’re still wrapping our heads around the technology ourselves. We have to think forward while staying firmly grounded in the present — and in the reality of what the emerging technology means for our business models, employee experience and customers.

It’s a tall order. And it’s going to require us to adapt and learn. But being honest about our need to learn — a need that can be tough for leaders to admit — offers our best path forward.

Because we’re not alone. Generative AI’s rapid introduction across industries has led to a significant skills gap among not only leaders, but employees too, placing heightened pressure on all of us to rapidly uplevel our knowledge base and evolve with the times. However, this evolution isn’t happening organically: 62% of employees report that they lack the skills to effectively and safely use gen AI — and only one in 10 workers globally feel they possess in-demand AI skills.

As leaders, closing this knowledge gap is our top priority. There’s a lot we can do to guide our organizations through disruptions, including what we’re facing right now with gen AI.

But what does sustainable upskilling in the age of AI look like?

Three tactics to ensure AI upskilling becomes an everyday reality

The regular use of gen AI in the workplace requires leadership teams that champion change and help connect the dots for employees.

In my work, I’m focused on upskilling opportunities that encourage employees to leverage AI to automate our network offerings and business model to better support our customers. We’re learning a lot through this process, specifically the need to prioritize AI roadmaps that work around common barriers to upskilling, such as employees’ time constraints and AI’s rapidly evolving nature.

In practice, this means we must:

1. Fuel upskilling goals with adequate resources

Gen AI upskilling is neither a one-off endeavor nor a quick fix. The technology’s sophistication and ongoing evolution requires dedicated educational pathways powered by continuous learning opportunities and financial support.

So, as leaders, we need to provide resources for employees to participate in learning opportunities (that is, workshops), attend third-party courses offered by groups like LinkedIn, or receive tuition reimbursements for upskilling opportunities found independently. We must also ensure that these resources are accessible to our entire employee base, regardless of the nature of an employee’s day-to-day role.

From there, you can institutionalize mechanisms for documenting and sharing learnings. This includes building and popularizing communication avenues that motivate employees to share feedback, learn together and surface potential roadblocks. Encouraging a healthy dialogue around learning, and contributing to these conversations yourself, often leads to greater innovation across your organization.

At my company, we tend to blend the learning and sharing together. For example, we provide a monthly learning campaign on relevant topics, which the entire organization is encouraged to move through at the same time. Last month, our topic was AI. Employees could choose from courses to learn new AI skills relevant to their individual roles, while also joining “Learning Lounges” to share insights and challenges with colleagues.

2. Lead and learn by example

Invest the time to understand emerging gen AI solutions and the impact they have on your organization. You alone are positioned to earn buy-in from employees and illustrate your vision for how gen AI can improve operations in practical ways.

As you clock hours to upskill yourself, look for opportunities to mentor others and make AI usage a routine part of workplace interactions. Consider hosting solution-focused hackathons and other innovation challenges to foster creativity, cross-functional problem solving and collaboration.

Where possible, inspire action directly through on-the-job exercises for real projects. Your employees juggle multiple responsibilities, which makes it challenging to dedicate time to upskilling efforts, no matter how important they are. Injecting new learning initiatives into existing workloads can chip away at both needs at once, especially for employees with demanding schedules.

Check-in with your employees as well. We regularly solicit feedback from our teams to ensure we’re meeting their evolving professional development needs. A candid conversation with a company leader holds significance that might be difficult to achieve in more standard meetings, such as an employee’s regular one-on-ones with their manager.

3. Support upskilling with the right data and technology investments

The best way to prepare employees to improve their AI skills is by equipping them with the required technologies, data and infrastructure. Work with your leaders to make necessary improvements to your data practices and hygiene alongside your tech stack to support your AI goals.

For instance, AI-powered solutions excel in data-rich environments supported by fast, reliable connectivity. Don’t allow a lack of clean data, capacity or security concerns to dampen employee enthusiasm for enhancing their skills or driving innovation. Industries heavily dependent on data and computing — such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, network infrastructure and education — should take swift action.

Iterate over time and work diligently to make sure your technology infrastructure is always up to the task. Gen AI is constantly evolving, and keeping pace with these changes requires a multifaceted approach to upskilling in which technology and data work with your employees, not against them.

Let the learning begin, starting with you

Gen AI solutions could end up being bigger than the cloud — having a wider and longer-lasting impact on our organizational operations and growth.

However, this future will only materialize if we’re up to speed on the technology and prepare to make gen AI part of the everyday routine for all of our employees. Effective, sustainable use of gen AI solutions is an inevitability for your organization, so support your ambition with a flexible training program nurtured within a company culture that values collective, continuous learning.

AI upskilling may feel far removed from your daily responsibilities, but it’s a lift you must start championing — and an important one given gen AI’s potential to revolutionize work as we know it.

Steve Smith is CEO of Zayo.