We are in an age of rapidly evolving and growing intelligence, changing work environments and near-constant disruption — and artificial intelligence (AI) is at the center of it all. The rise of AI has many learning and development (L&D) professionals wondering what its impact on careers will be, the skills needed to succeed in an AI world, the risks of using it and much more.
These questions have become even more critical from the L&D perspective when you consider how rapid the adoption of AI has been. According to a GP Strategies poll in the fall of 2023, 32% of people reported using ChatGPT regularly to increase productivity. On top of that, the ChatGPT platform reached one million users in a mere five days after its launch — something that took Netflix over three years to do and Facebook ten months.
This means we must harness the power of AI to enable and extend human capabilities — not replace them — and we have to do it fast. Organizations that develop their AI-enhanced workforce are likely to outpace those that do not.
The L&D Response to the Rise of AI
The rapid rise of AI means we are facing one of the biggest, most impactful retooling or reskilling eras we have ever seen before. In 2021, McKinsey & Company found that 87% of companies recognized that they had skill gaps or would experience them in the next five years. AI has accelerated this.
Organizations need to see AI as augmenting the workforce, not replacing it. And organizations need to map skill gaps and reskilling not to what work was, but to the new way of working, in which humans are enabled by AI technologies.
So, how should L&D professionals respond to this? We must consider the following questions and allow the answers to guide our approach to the future:
- What skills does our company need to compete in the market now?
- How will AI change the workflow and what skills do humans need as a result?
- What are the skills our employees need to succeed in our organization?
- What mix of AI technologies do we need, and do we have the people and expertise to use them effectively?
- How will we ensure the responsible use of AI across our enterprise?
Considering your answers to these questions will help you identify areas of need specific to your organization and will inform not just how you can implement AI, but how you should implement AI.
Preparing for the Human+AI Future
The workforce will reshape itself to prioritize people with the skills to harness AI. And to fully harness the opportunities AI provides, you must create a plan for AI adoption.
For more on responsible AI adoption and AI use cases in the L&D world, check out GP Strategies’ new e-book, The Learning Leader’s Human+AI Handbook: Learning Innovation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
