Generative artificial intelligence continues to take the world by storm, with AI investment expected to grow substantially over the next three years.
As more organizations invest in generative AI this year and into the future, upskilling the workforce will remain a top priority for business leaders. Today’s workers need to have the right AI skills so they can work most effectively alongside AI and carry out the AI-related strategies organizations are putting forward.
That’s why in 2023, Amazon made a commitment to provide free AI skills training for two million people globally by 2025. We met this goal a year early due to the rising demand from customers and partners who want to help their employees gain AI literacy. I expect this demand will continue in 2025.
Here are five other upskilling trends leaders should keep top of mind when developing their learning and development strategies this year.
Generative AI is on the rise, but soft skills can’t be overlooked. While it’s important that companies take steps to ensure their workers have AI literacy skills to understand the basics of working with generative AI, business leaders shouldn’t overlook the ongoing importance of soft skills, including effective communications, manager coaching and decision-making.
As with any evolving technology, there is still much we don’t know about generative AI. Employees need to feel empowered to experiment with new tools or take on new projects. That’s why instilling a culture of ongoing learning is important. The only way to unlock all of generative AI’s potential is to ensure your workforce has both the technical and soft skills needed to think critically and experiment confidently.
Cohort-style training will emerge as a key way to upskill teams more quickly. At the rate generative AI is evolving, it can be difficult to figure out where to begin with upskilling efforts. How do you ensure your entire workforce has the right skills needed to work most effectively with AI and specific to their role?
To address this challenge, many organizations are deploying short-term, specific AI training for different teams. Cohort-style training is beneficial because employees are able to take away actionable use cases with hands-on learning. Once employees are trained, leaders can make quick decisions about redeploying them into new roles that are important to help the business innovate. Given the success we’ve seen with cohort-style training, I anticipate more leaders will adopt this approach as they continue to upskill their talent this year and beyond.
Generative AI-powered learning takes off in 2025. Not only will gaining skills to work alongside generative AI be important in 2025, but we will also see generative AI change how we learn and develop new skills. In the past, we’ve seen technology help democratize education by giving more people access to learning tools.
Generative AI will expand on this through the rise of generative AI-powered tutors and coaches. Past studies have shown that learning one-on-one with a tutor can be much more effective than learning in a classroom. Generative AI-powered tutors will be a powerful tool to help students improve their performance. They can assess students’ current knowledge and skill level, identify areas where they need improvement and share recommendations to further their education.
Digital learning assistants can improve the bottom line. Outside of school settings, generative AI-powered learning assistants also have the potential to help employees upskill and reskill faster at work. Digital learning tools provide employees with a more engaging and personalized way of learning, empowering them to learn faster and enhance their understanding of core AI concepts. As a result, they are able to use generative AI to help your business innovate.
Measuring the impact upskilling has on the business. In addition to helping our customers get started with generative AI training efforts, we are also helping them determine the best ways to measure how effective these upskilling initiatives are. Productivity is one area that should be evaluated, but taking steps to ensure your workforce has the skills needed to keep up with the new demands of generative AI will have more benefits.
When teams have the training and relevant skills needed to complete important tasks or projects, leaders don’t have to look elsewhere to recruit new hires or abandon a new project. When you look to measure the value of generative AI training, think about what your organization may not have been able to accomplish if your employees didn’t have the new skills they have today.
Looking ahead
2025 and the next few years ahead will continue to hold many unknowns given how rapidly AI is evolving. What we do know for certain is that upskilling your workforce will empower them to confidently take on new opportunities that will drive your business to new heights.
