AI skills

report
The gap between AI investments
and worker readiness
 Main takeaways

Executive summary 87% 95%

of organizations plan of executives and
to increase AI spending 94% of IT professionals
in the next 12 months. believe AI initiatives will
AI isn’t only the future—it’s already the present. In fact, 81% of fail without staff who can
executives have formally deployed or plan to formally deploy AI- effectively use AI tools.

related tools and technologies. But to actually innovate, drive

more value, and stay competitive, organizations need more than AI
technology. They need AI skill development, too.

We surveyed 1,200 executives and IT professionals across the US and

81% 74%
the UK to better understand the rapidly evolving AI landscape and of IT professionals feel of IT professionals worry
confident they can integrate that AI tools will make
how organizations are preparing for the future.
AI into their roles right now— many of their day-to-day
but only 12% have significant skills obsolete.
experience working with AI.
Our main finding? Even as organizations
accelerate AI adoption, the majority don’t
understand what, if any, AI skills their Both executives and IT professionals believe investing in talent,
employees possess or have an upskilling training, and culture is the first step organizations should take to
prepare for emerging AI technology and tools.
strategy to develop them.
But only

This report dives into the AI landscape, how it’s impacting

organizations, and what you need to do to drive lasting
value with your AI investments.
40%
of organizations have formal
structured training and instruction for AI.
Table of contents

02 Executive summary

04 AI adoption on the rise

07 The AI skills gap impedes success

09 Preparing the workforce to use AI

12 Conclusion

13 Methodology
 PART ONE Are organizations deploying AI technologies?

AI adoption on the rise

Organizations are already using AI: We found that 20% have formally deployed
AI-related technologies and tools, and 55% plan to soon. And even if they don’t
25%
Don’t plan
have formal deployment plans right now, 46% allow employees to use AI tools
to deploy AI
55%
on their own.

The surge of generative AI has only sped up AI adoption. In fact, 92% of

organizations that have adopted or plan to adopt AI have accelerated their AI Plan to
initiatives in the past 12 months. deploy AI
20%
With that acceleration comes an increase in spending for more than 4 in 5 Already
organizations in the next year. On average, these organizations plan to allocate deployed
an additional 17% to AI in the next 12 months.
AI

*Note: AI-related technologies include machine learning, automation, generative AI, etc.

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 4
 Organizations’ top 5 reasons for using AI

The promise of improved efficiency

drives AI adoption
Organizations are primarily adopting AI to boost efficiency, improve the customer
experience, and enhance specific business functions, including fraud prevention,
data analysis, and forecasting. Despite the prevalence of generative AI, only 6% of
organizations plan to leverage AI technology for generative AI capabilities.

Not sure where to start using AI

in your business?
Start here

Only the top five responses are recorded in this chart; numbers will not add up to 100%.

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 5
 Why organizations aren’t investing in AI

Orgs foregoing AI cite budget

and talent concerns
But not everyone is jumping right in—at least, not yet. 25% of organizations don’t
plan to deploy AI technology within the next year, and 12% aren’t increasing their
AI spend.

Their primary reasons for waiting? They either lack the budget and/or talent to
properly use AI technology or are satisfied with their current tools.

It’s easy to assume these organizations will fall behind the early adopters. But
that isn’t necessarily true. Organizations that develop a strategy and upskill their
teams before adopting AI will drive value faster than organizations that adopt AI
without a plan or the people to use it.

The takeaway? Even though the vast majority of executives and IT professionals
believe organizations that don’t invest in AI will fall behind the competition, AI
alone doesn’t guarantee future success. Organizations need an AI deployment
and skill development strategy to improve efficiency, enhance the customer
experience, and otherwise drive value from their investments. 94% of executives and 92% of IT professionals believe
organizations who do not invest in AI in the near
future will fall behind the competition.

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 6
 PART TWO
Benefits of using AI for organizations
The AI skills gap
impedes success
Among the organizations that have already deployed AI technologies, 97%
have benefited, citing increased productivity and efficiency, improved
customer service, and reduced human error.

For IT professionals, job security drives

interest in AI skill development
But AI isn’t without its challenges, especially for technologists worried about
job security. Nearly 3 in 4 IT practitioners worry the skills they use in their
daily role will become obsolete very quickly because of AI tools. And 69%
think they’re at least somewhat at risk of being replaced by AI.

With 35% of executives investing in AI technology and tools to eliminate

unnecessary positions, their concerns aren’t unfounded. Despite these
concerns, or perhaps because of them, IT professionals know they’ll need to
learn AI skills to secure their careers. In fact, 96% say staying up to date with
AI skills is the best way to ensure their job security in a competitive market.
Only the top six responses are recorded in this chart; numbers will not add up to 100%.

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 7
 Leaders lack visibility into AI
skills and literacy
IT professionals’ desire to learn means they’ll be more receptive to any upskilling Employees who are confident in their AI skills but lack formal training and experience
opportunities their organization provides. There’s just one problem: The vast won’t build and deploy AI technology with best practices, data security, and privacy
majority of executives lack insight into their teams’ AI skills and expertise. And until concerns in mind.
leaders understand the skills their teams have, they won’t be able to develop the
skills they need. The AI skills gap doesn’t only apply to advanced technical skills, either. To make the
most of AI, organizations need an accurate way to benchmark AI skills across their
organization and use their insights to create a plan for skill development. This should
90% of executives don’t completely understand include basic AI literacy as well as hands-on experiences where employees can apply
their team’s AI skill and proficiency. what they learn, experiment, and make mistakes in a safe environment.

Even IT practitioners seem unsure of their AI skills: While 81% of IT professionals

feel confident they can integrate AI into their roles right now, only 12% have
significant experience working with AI. Having trouble navigating generative AI’s
security risks and privacy concerns?
In other words, leaders can’t rely on employee self-assessment as an accurate
measure of AI skills. If they do, they open themselves to risks down the line. Get expert tips

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 8
 What should orgs do to use AI technology effectively?

PART THREE

Preparing the workforce

to use AI
IDC research indicates that about two-fifths (41%) of global
organizations say that investments in skills and digital training of
employees will be their most enduring technology investment in
2023 and 2024, even outpacing pressing investments in generative
AI solutions such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

In other words, when it comes to long-term value, training trumps

tech. And with AI, we found both leaders and IT practitioners know
this: 95% of executives and 94% of IT professionals believe AI
initiatives will fail without staff who can effectively use these tools.

On top of that, executives and IT professionals agree investing

in talent, training, and creating the right culture are the most
important steps an organization should take to prepare for
emerging AI technology. But only 40% of organizations have formal
structured training and instruction for AI.

IDC Skills Forward: Staying Competitive Amid the Worsening IT Talent Shortage, Doc #US51248323, September 2023

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 9
 Common barriers to AI upskilling
If everyone is aligned, why haven’t most organizations implemented AI upskilling programs?
Our research found three primary reasons.

Organizations adopt technology Organizations believe they Organizations encounter

first and train employees later can outsource AI skills general upskilling challenges
80% of executives and 72% of IT 91% of executives are at least somewhat Even if organizations decide to upskill their
practitioners agree their organization likely to replace or outsource talent employees, they often encounter barriers
often invests in new technology without to successfully deploy AI initiatives. that prevent them from implementing
considering the training employees need But outsourcing is only a stopgap solution. successful skill development programs.
to use it. Without a skill development Because AI is still relatively new, The most common challenges they face?
strategy for their tech investments, there’s a limited number of AI experts, Finding the right training (42%), ensuring
organizations struggle to achieve their and the ones available on the market training is the right fit for the AI tool (49%),
goals and drive customer value. may not possess the right skillset. and procuring budget (48%).

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 10
 Creating an upskilling program that (actually) solves the AI skills gap
To clear these hurdles, close the AI skills gap, and drive value from their AI investments, organizations need to:

Reconsider outsourcing vs. upskilling Provide hands-on learning opportunities

Finding AI experts in the market is a gamble. Organizations that develop Technologists find it easier to learn and retain new information with
AI talent from their existing workforce will build the exact AI skills they hands-on activities. Labs and sandboxes give them a risk-free way to
need while providing valuable professional development opportunities to learn new AI tools while navigating the myriad ethical, security, and
their teams. privacy concerns.

Create an AI skill development strategy Track AI upskilling success and build

before adopting AI technology a continuous learning culture
Organizations that want to take advantage of emerging technologies Once organizations have implemented an upskilling program, they need
don’t always have time to train their employees first. But if they can to measure its impact. Course completion and employee satisfaction are
implement an upskilling strategy before deploying AI technology, their useful metrics, but skill improvement and impact on ROI provide a better
teams can start driving value from day one. understanding of long-term AI success.

Assess employees’ current AI knowledge and skills

Organizations need visibility into their teams’ AI capabilities. Once
they understand their strengths and weaknesses, they can develop an
upskilling program that fills in the gaps and gives them the skills they
need to use AI tools effectively.

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 11
 CONCLUSION

AI skills drive AI success

While most organizations are adopting or planning to adopt AI, their teams lack
the skills to use these tools and technologies effectively. And the longer they
wait to upskill their teams, the wider those skills gaps will grow.

For the majority of organizations, this means rethinking their approach to AI.
To drive lasting value from their AI investments, they need a comprehensive AI
upskilling strategy with skills benchmarking, hands-on learning, and a continuous
learning culture.

As AI advances, there will never be a shortage of new skills to learn. You’ll need
to constantly build up your org’s AI skills to leverage the latest tech and keep
your competitive advantage.

Build AI skills in your org with Pluralsight

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 12
 Methodology About Pluralsight
For this report, we partnered with Wakefield Research to Pluralsight helps organizations around the globe advance their
understand leaders’ and technologists’ perspectives on AI, technology workforce. Because the hardest part of building a
uncover its current and future impact, and provide leaders business isn’t building software and technology. It’s building up the
with the actionable insights they need to leverage AI as a people who grow your business. We’re the only partner who helps
competitive differentiator. leaders build better teams and better products, all at the same time.

To do this, we surveyed 1,200 executives and IT professionals Our upskilling and AI solutions help you create the talent you need,
across the United States and United Kingdom. when you need it. From prompt engineering to creating AI models
for the cloud and using generative AI techniques for cyber defense,
Pluralsight Skills delivers expert-authored courses in the latest
Position technologies paired with hands-on labs and sandboxes. Upskilling
with Skills equips your team to execute on strategic investments that
Executive 600 50% ultimately drive innovation, automation, and efficiency.
IT professionals 600 50%

Region Explore our AI solution

United States 700 58%

United Kingdom 500 42%

Executive summary Part one: AI adoption on the rise Part two: The AI skills gap impedes success Part three: Preparing the workforce to use AI Conclusion 13