Upskill your staff in AI or expect them to quit, says Gartner

Organizations that don't have a comprehensive AI people strategy will lose their top talent as soon as this year, according to Gartner.

According to the firm's Global Labor Market Survey, half will see their most talented workers abandon ship for competitors who prioritize workforce enablement over basic adoption.

Only 27% of executives have a comprehensive AI people strategy, the consultancy found, and just 20% believe their workforce is truly AI-ready.

“The survey revealed that in the shift to an AI-powered workforce, most leaders are mistaking basic access or adoption metrics for transformation,” said Swagatam Basu, senior director analyst in the Gartner HR practice.

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“This ‘enablement illusion’ is hiding risks and draining ROI.”

Keeping employees happy

Organizations face a host of challenges on this front, according to Gartner. First and foremost, while AI success is often rated in terms of hours saved, 19% of employees said no time was saved at all.

Instead, Gartner said organizations should be focusing on effective and diverse AI use.

Employees who are proficient with AI across multiple use-cases are twice as likely to be highly productive, 2.3 times more likely to deliver high-quality work, and 3.2 times more likely to drive effective process improvements.

Meanwhile, the use of shadow AI needs to be tackled, with a focus on AI governance.

“Eighty-eight percent of employees with enterprise AI access also use personal AI tools for business tasks, often to save time,” said Diana Sanchez, senior director analyst in the Gartner HR practice.

“While hybrid AI users are 1.7 times more likely to report significant time saved over those using only enterprise solutions, this behavior increases corporate data risk and also drives attrition risks with critical talent.”

Focusing on senior staff is also causing problems, Gartner found. While most employees are offered enterprise AI, 73% of highly productive users are managers or executives.

More junior staff – who, after all, are responsible for the majority of automatable tasks – often don't get enough support and guidance.

Nervy staff are causing problems

Notably, Gartner said nervous staff are holding their organizations back, with anxiety over AI-driven job losses undermining productivity and slowing adoption rates.

Employees with a positive outlook on AI are 3.4 times more likely to be highly productive, according to Basu.

“The most effective drivers of positive AI adoption are employee confidence in their current and future roles, and transparent, ongoing communication about how AI will be used and its impact on jobs.”

Looking ahead, leaders need to provide clear communication about how jobs and skills will evolve with AI and set clear norms for human-AI collaboration to reduce anxiety about job preparedness.

They should carry out regular trust pulse surveys to monitor workforce sentiment around AI, and address concerns early and proactively.

Gartner's findings echo research published this week by HR services provider Randstad, which found that the most limiting factor in AI-led transformation is the human factor, rather than the technology.

More than a quarter of technology professionals told the HR consultancy that their organizations are still not doing enough to develop their skills, and 52% said they were seeking training independently – largely because internal programs cannot keep pace with the rate of technological change.

"Upskilling can no longer be treated as an HR program or professional development perk. It’s business-critical infrastructure, part of your technology stack, not separate from it," said Michael Morris, global head of platform and talent at Randstad Digital.

"It needs to be funded, architected, measured, and continuously improved like any other mission-critical system. The organizations that view workforce capability as a layer of their technology stack are the ones that will finally see the AI ROI that has remained so elusive."

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