Most workplace training is based on a relatively straightforward assumption: employees have defined roles which require particular skills that demands training to help them perform their responsibilities more effectively.
AI is beginning to challenge that assumption as its increasing capability to draft, analyse, summarise, research and complete more complex tasks. Organisations need to consider whether they are preparing employees to work more efficiently in roles that may themselves be changing.
The question is shifting from “how can we train people to use AI in their current jobs?” to “what will those jobs become when AI can perform some of the work?”
AI is changing tasks before it changes jobs
Much of the fear around AI replacing jobs fails to take into account that most jobs comprise of multiple tasks, or varying complexity. Managers, for example, may analyse information, prepare reports, conduct meetings, coach employees, respond to stakeholders, solve problems and make decisions.
While AI may become highly capable of assisting with some of these responsibilities, it is likely to remain far less suited to others. Meaning jobs may not disappear, but their composition changes. As AI significantly reduces the time required to prepare reports, analyse information or complete routine administrative work, organisations should be shifting their attention to what their employees could be doing instead. Should they spend more time on strategic thinking, relationship management, complex problem-solving or work requiring greater judgement?
It becomes less a question about technology, more about job design and workforce capability.
What happens to the time AI saves?
The promise of AI is frequently expressed in terms of productivity. A task that previously took several hours may take 30 minutes, while a repetitive administrative process may require significantly less human involvement. But saving time does not always equate to creating value. If AI saves an employee five hours a week, what becomes of that time:
- Does the employee simply receive more work?
- Does the time disappear into additional meetings, emails and administration?
- Does the organisation deliberately redirect that capacity towards higher-value activities?
Unless organisations actively consider these questions, there is a risk that AI simply makes employees more productive. Without fundamentally improving the way work is designed, staff simply do more work, faster.
Training needs to evolve with the work
As the division of labour between humans and AI continues to shift, workplace training should focus on building capabilities that allow employees to work effectively. That means fostering newer capabilities such as knowing what to delegate to AI, determining where human oversight is required and evaluating AI-generated outputs.
As the work changes, so too the skills required to perform it well must change.
Stop training for a static future
There is little value in preparing employees perfectly for roles that are already changing.
Organisations therefore need to move beyond asking, “How do we teach employees to use AI?” and start asking, “How is AI changing what we need employees to do?”
Our workshops help organisations answer the following questions:
- Which tasks will reduce?
- Which capabilities will become more valuable?
- What new responsibilities will emerge?
- How should existing roles evolve? And what should employees be learning now to prepare for that change?
AI capability development should not simply help people perform today’s jobs faster.
It should prepare them for what those jobs are becoming.