Despite the growing impact of artificial intelligence in the workplace, most HR leaders aren’t prioritizing the reskilling of workers who may be impacted by AI use, according to a Jan. 7 report from The Conference Board.

In a survey of 80 CHROs, only 7% said they’re implementing reskilling strategies for job roles with a high probability of at least a quarter of tasks being taken over by AI. Instead, 62% said their top AI priority includes experimentation with pilots and use cases for human capital management functions.

“Organizations that don’t prioritize upskilling and reskilling their workforce might be caught in a perilous position as the proliferation of AI requires new skills for different roles,” Diana Scott, leader of The Conference Board’s U.S. Human Capital Center, said in a statement. “But by preparing and reskilling your workforce now, HR leaders will put their companies at a competitive advantage.”

Overall, CHROs remain positive in their outlook on the state of the workforce, remaining stable from mid-2024. Hiring and retention expectations fell during the fourth quarter, but employee engagement expectations increased heading into 2025. About 42% said they expect engagement levels to improve, increasing from 36% who said so in mid-2024.

When it comes to AI, 36% of CHROs said they’re advocating for governance policies to mitigate the risks of AI use in the workplace. In addition, 21% said they’re developing and implementing AI literacy programs for the entire workforce, 21% said they’re mitigating concerns about AI by emphasizing potential benefits, and 20% said they’re supporting the creation of new roles to bring AI expertise to the company.

The demand for AI-related skills has skyrocketed, though perhaps in unexpected ways, according to an O’Reilly report. Employers are prioritizing foundational skills rather than platform-specific skills, with particular interest in prompt engineering, AI principles and broad generative AI knowledge, the report found.

At the leadership level, more than half of vice presidents and directors said they haven’t received AI training, according to a December report, and only 42% said they feel confident about using AI tools without compromising company data, according to a General Assembly report. A lack of training could negatively affect security, privacy and corporate competitiveness, the firm said.

The future of work hinges on AI upskilling, according to a report from the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium, which includes companies such as Google, Indeed, Intel and Microsoft and is led by Cisco. Workers will need upskilling in AI literacy, AI preparedness, data analytics, prompt engineering and AI ethics, they said.

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