Strategies for Reskilling in the Workforce

Work is changing faster than your org chart—and that’s not a prediction; it’s what I’ve witnessed doing AI-based deployments for 15+ years across Fortune 100's. Did you know that by 2030, AI is expected to automate 45% of current work activities? That sounds terrifying—until you realize that nearly every role I’ve led has changed completely every 2–3 years anyway 🤯 . 🛍️ Let me take you inside a retailer you know. They adopted AI to optimize their supply chain: predictive restocking, dynamic pricing, and warehouse robotics. Yes, automation changed the roles - but it didn’t eliminate them! 💡 The planners became simulation analysts. 💡 The merchandisers became AI auditors. 💡 And those freed from manual grunt work? They started tackling the backlog of work that had been pilin gup. AI didn’t reduce the workforce — it redefined it, and with redefinition comes opportunity – if we choose to take it! (topic of my 3rd #TEDx talk, releasing in May) Here’s the funny, slightly tragic truth: One executive told me they were “fully embracing AI.” When I asked how, he proudly said: “We bought 200 ChatGPT licenses.” That’s like preparing for a tsunami with a kiddie pool. 🤯 The companies winning in this next era aren’t just using AI — they’re training their people to thrive with it. Operative phrase: “training their people” So here’s how to prepare your workforce for what’s next: 🚀 Assess the now. Map roles and skills most likely to be disrupted or augmented. 🚀 Invest in reskilling. Don’t wait for the job to vanish. Train ahead of the curve. 🚀 Foster a learning culture. Create space (and incentives!) to experiment, fail, and evolve. Use AI responsibly. Don’t just optimize. Humanize. Ethics are part of your product now. One last thought: We’re not competing with AI. We’re competing with people who know how to use AI better than us. What steps are you taking to prepare your team? Share below. #FutureOfWork #AI #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #WorkplaceInnovation #SkillDevelopment #EthicalAI #SolRashidi #TEDx

Recent research from Indeed Hiring Lab indicates that while GenAI is unlikely to fully replace human workers, it will provide significant augmentation to human capabilities. Their analysis of over 2,800 skills shows that GenAI best handles repetitive and knowledge-based tasks, allowing humans to focus on core skills requiring ingenuity, hands-on application, and interpersonal interaction. In a separate analysis, Kyla Scanlon introduces the concept of "friction" as a lens into the AI landscape. She states that while the digital world seeks to eliminate friction for the user, it often transfers that friction to the physical world (underfunded infrastructure, overworked labor). This redistribution of friction potentially devalues traditional skills and credentials. I've been digging into a concept I refer to as skills flux -- a period in which workers will use their existing skills while needing to learn new ones as their jobs change due to automation and AI. Both the Indeed research and Kyla's paper illustrate this transitional period as an opportunity to redefine the basic tenets behind "reskilling" or "upskilling" (I would love to retire those two words from our lexicon). Our focus in L&D needs to be on deeply understanding how automation and AI changes the nuances of jobs (yes, to the task level) and to then develop training that facilitates the workforce to learn new GenAI-specific skills as complementary to their existing skills. L&D's role is to drive a programmatic approach to rapidly develop the workforce while balancing the tension of this period of skills flux. If we do this right, we relieve the company from large workforce displacement and enable the metrics important to the business as the integration of automation and AI evolves -- it's expensive and time-consuming to continually buy skills. This means we change our focus from traditional "reskilling" and "upskilling" programs to enable more dynamic skills strategies. I recommend these two steps to get started: -- Identify the enterprise critical roles across the company -- Conduct a job architecture inventory in alignment with the business to excavate how automation and AI changes the jobs (and, yes, AI can be used to scale this process) This enables a strategy for L&D to be in service of the most critical aspects of business continuity. For the first time in L&D's history, we face the daunting task of simultaneously preparing the workforce to execute strategies resulting from automation and AI while preventing the instability that a skills flux brings to the business and the workforce. Here are links to these two reports: -- Indeed Hiring Lab: https://lnkd.in/grF2C2-E -- Kyla Scanlon: https://lnkd.in/gAkcj4Qi

🚀 How do you maintain your competitive advantage and ensure you don’t fall behind? To keep pace with rapid tech advancements, organizations must ensure their Learning & Development (L&D) programs are tightly aligned with company strategy. As a Leadership and Team Coach, I’m passionate about helping organizations build resilient, high-performing teams. 💪 In my doctoral research, I aim to create a roadmap for reskilling workforces in the AI era. 🤖 Here are five transformative insights from Anand Chopra-McGowan from Emeritus, shared in a recent Harvard Business Review article: 1️⃣ Adopt Agile L&D Approaches Accelerate learning with cross-functional, feedback-driven teams such as with a "learning sprint." 2️⃣ Prioritize Strategic Skills Focus on capabilities that drive enterprise success, not just role-specific training (i.e., start with the end-in-mind). 3️⃣ Encourage Hands-On Application Create engaging, practical learning experiences to foster real-world adoption (i.e., connect the dots to actual work projects). 4️⃣ Shift to Outcome-Based KPIs Evaluate L&D success through business outcomes like productivity or customer engagement—not just participation (i.e., balance between outcomes and engagement/learning). 5️⃣ Build Strategic Partnerships Cultivate strong ties between L&D and business leaders to ensure alignment. With the rise of generative AI, remote work, and shifting consumer behaviors, these strategies can make L&D a powerful driver of business transformation. 🌍💼 How is your organization aligning learning with strategy? Please share in the comments below! 👇 #LeadershipDevelopment #LearningStrategy #Upskilling #FutureOfWork #Careers #Leadership #Thinkers50 #Coach #Professor #Advisor #MG100 #BestAdvice #JennyFernandez https://lnkd.in/dB8HrHxC

Struggling with Skills Gaps? It's Time to Transform Your Strategy. According to EY, nearly two-thirds (62%) of companies are struggling to fully leverage AI due to gaps between technology and talent. This challenge spans industries, threatening to leave many organizations behind. Companies face two key types of skills gaps: scaling up existing capabilities and sourcing entirely new ones. For instance, while many businesses have machine learning engineers, few possess the advanced skills required to implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems or knowledge graphs. So, how can you close these critical gaps? Here are four strategies to get started: 1️⃣ . Upskill Your Workforce for Future Needs It’s not just about addressing today’s gaps but also preparing your team for future roles and skills while making your organization agile enough to pivot through future disruptions. Investing in skills like prompt engineering, AI model integration, and collaborating with AI agents will be essential for long-term success. 2️⃣ . Leverage AI to Boost Efficiency and Job Satisfaction AI tools like Copilot can improve coding speed by 55%, freeing developers to focus on more complex, fulfilling work. This helps alleviate skill shortages while boosting employee satisfaction by automating repetitive tasks and fostering meaningful engagement. 3️⃣ . Close Gaps in Data and Infrastructure Whether you develop in-house capabilities or partner with external AI providers, preparing proprietary data and sourcing the right infrastructure is crucial for effective AI integration. Addressing these foundational elements is key to long-term AI success. 4️⃣ . Build Buy-In by Addressing Employee Concerns AI adoption isn’t just about tech—it’s about people. One of the biggest challenges is earning employee buy-in. Leaders need to emphasize that AI isn’t here to take jobs, but to empower employees. Refactoring roles to collaborate with AI and creating new, AI-enhanced positions provide growth opportunities and help retain top talent. ⏳ The time to act is now. AI is reshaping tasks and roles, and businesses that fail to address these gaps risk being left behind. By upskilling your workforce, modernizing your infrastructure, and fostering a culture of acceptance, you can bridge the talent and technology gaps and unlock the full potential of AI. If this resonates with you, let’s connect. I’d love to hear where you are in your AI journey and explore how I can help. #futureofwork #digitaltransformation #aiandhumans #skillsgap

I'll never forget Ahmed: a brilliant software developer who walked into my office in 2022, terrified that AI would make his skills obsolete. Instead of consoling him, I challenged him: "What if AI isn't your replacement, but your most powerful collaborator?" Three years later, Ahmed leads our AI integration team, having transformed his fear into unprecedented innovation. The 2025 Global Workforce Transformation Report tells a compelling story: Organizations investing in continuous reskilling are experiencing 47% higher innovation rates and 36% lower talent attrition. This isn't just about survival—it's about creating an ecosystem where human creativity and artificial intelligence amplify each other. The World Economic Forum's Talent Mobility Index reveals a critical insight: Professionals who engage in continuous learning are 3.8x more likely to advance in AI-driven industries. At Devsinc, we've witnessed this firsthand. Our internal data shows that employees who participate in our AI reskilling programs increase their market value by 42% within 18 months. For emerging technology professionals, the message is clear: Your most valuable skill is your ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. The 2025 Skills Evolution Study demonstrates that adaptability now outranks technical expertise as the most critical career competency. To my fellow executives: Reskilling isn't an expense—it's the most strategic investment you can make. Companies that prioritize continuous learning are reporting 29% higher profitability and 33% more resilient business models. Last quarter, we transformed our entire learning approach. We developed an AI-powered personalized learning platform that adapts to individual learning styles, reducing reskilling time by 56% and increasing knowledge retention by 63%. The future belongs to those who can dance with technology—not those who fear its shadow. At Devsinc, we've learned that the most powerful algorithm is human potential, continuously upgraded. Your current skills are tomorrow's legacy code. Keep updating your most important software—yourself.