Organisations are racing to adopt AI, with recent Lloyds research showing that more than a third of UK businesses plan to invest in AI tools and related training in 2026 to keep pace with accelerating adoption.
Investment is rising, urgency is escalating, and leaders increasingly recognise that AI capability will determine who thrives and who falls behind. Yet one critical question remains: does the workforce actually have the skills to use AI in meaningful, productive ways?
Without thinking differently about “the work that needs to be done and how it gets done” and without clear visibility of needed skills, current capabilities, emerging gaps and role-specific proficiency, AI strategies are built on assumptions rather than evidence. Leaders are left guessing who can adapt, where to focus development, and whether upskilling, reskilling, hiring, or deploying AI agents is the right course of action.
Too many AI initiatives are launched without understanding whether people can productively utilize tools and translate them into tangible outcomes. This can lead to pilots stalling, adoption slowing and return on investment remaining unclear. When organisations lack insight into skills, decisions about investment, talent and transformation become guesswork, and the guesswork is a fragile foundation for any AI strategy.
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Skills visibility: the overlooked foundation of AI success
The key to a successful AI strategy is skills visibility. This means understanding what people can do today, identifying the skills they’ll need tomorrow and ensuring these capabilities align directly with business priorities. This needs to be paired with clear understanding of what AI can do today and the skills and capabilities it brings. When organisations make skills measurable and tied to real work, they shift from experimentation to execution.
However, skills visibility cannot be achieved through learning content alone. High-quality learning remains essential, but when content sits in isolation, disconnected from roles, skills and outcomes, it cannot provide the visibility or proof of proficiency that leaders now require. Completing learning activities does not automatically translate into capability, confidence or performance.
This challenge is reflected in the data. Only 10% of HR and L&D professionals feel fully confident their workforce has the skills needed to meet business priorities in the next 12-18 months, and fewer than one in four organisations have a consolidated view of workforce capability. This gap is growing as the pace of AI adoption accelerates.
A connected approach to mapping, building and measuring skills
To achieve true visibility, organisations must connect skills mapping, assessment, development and measurement. When these elements sit in one environment, leaders gain a consistent view of workforce capability, emerging gaps and readiness as business needs evolve.
Structured, skills-aligned learning journeys ensure that development efforts directly build the capabilities the organisation requires. Clear, measurable indicators of progress give leaders confidence that learning is translating into real readiness where it matters most.
At this stage, AI-powered learning becomes critical. By analysing skills data, identifying gaps in real time and recommending targeted development aligned with both role and business priorities, AI helps create a continuous skills supply chain that connects insight, development and execution as needs shift. Rather than relying on static skills audits, organisations gain a dynamic system that evolves with the business.
This approach helps organisations map, build and measure skills at scale, creating a strong foundation for evidence-based decision-making. Instead of relying solely on external hiring, which is costly and often unsustainable, organisations can develop targeted upskilling and reskilling pathways that strengthen the talent they already have.
Aligning skills with business priorities
Skills visibility becomes most powerful when it is directly linked to business priorities. When leaders understand which skills matter most and how their current workforce aligns with those needs, they can make informed and strategic decisions about where to focus development.
This alignment allows organisations to target skills that will have the greatest impact on performance, accelerate AI adoption through capability-led learning pathways and prioritise roles that are critical to future growth.
Leaders can measure readiness and track progress with clarity, while the skills supply chain ensures these insights continually feed into development and execution.
Strategy without skills insight isn’t bold, it’s blind
Technology may power AI transformation, but people determine whether it succeeds. Without a clear understanding of workforce capability, even the most ambitious AI strategy risks becoming a costly and ineffective experiment.
Skills visibility isn’t optional. It is the defining factor separating organisations that merely keep pace with AI from those that lead it.
Organisations that invest in understanding their people, what they can do today, how they can grow and how their skills align with business priorities, will be best positioned to harness the full potential of AI. A strategy that operates without skills insight is not just incomplete; it is fundamentally blind.
Ciara oversees Skillsoft’s people and workforce strategies, which includes accelerating efforts to attract, retain, and develop the best talent in the industry and advancing the company’s culture of leadership and learning.
Ciara brings more than 20 years of HR, total rewards, workforce transformation, and M&A experience to her role. Prior to joining Skillsoft, she served as Head of Total Rewards at Syngenta, where she implemented a best-in-class benefits offering, developed and implemented pay management processes designed to drive equity, and managed her function through a period of transition from a regional to BU-based model. Additionally, she held HR Lead roles in Dell’s Total Rewards Team, as well as a senior HR leadership role on the EMEA HR Workstream for the Dell and EMC Corporation merger.
