Investing in Part of the Workforce Creates an AI Skills Gap, Finds Report

Why It Matters

The skills gap curtails AI‑driven productivity and ROI while amplifying workforce anxiety, threatening firms’ competitive edge. Addressing the gap is now a strategic imperative for sustainable growth.

Key Takeaways

• Only 51% of firms train non‑technical staff on AI (2025)
• Prompt‑engineering training rose to just 23%, a 4% gain
• 43% fear AI will cause job loss within five years
• Employers view AI training as a box‑checking task, not strategic priority
• Continuous, hands‑on learning linked to higher AI productivity gains

Pulse Analysis

Forrester’s latest AIQ 2.0: Employees (Still) Aren’t Ready To Succeed With Workforce AI report underscores how rapidly AI tools are permeating the enterprise, yet the human side of adoption lags dramatically. While roughly 70% of AI decision‑makers now run generative AI in production, only about half of organisations extend formal AI education beyond technical teams. The modest four‑point rise in internal training and prompt‑engineering programs signals a systemic reluctance to invest in broad‑based AI literacy, even as employee anxiety about automation spikes to unprecedented levels.

The consequences of this disconnect are tangible. Companies that roll out AI solutions without equipping staff with the necessary skills and ethical grounding risk low utilization rates, stalled productivity gains, and heightened turnover concerns. Fear of job loss—expressed by 43% of workers as a general threat and 25% as a personal risk—creates a climate of mistrust that hampers experimentation and slows ROI. Moreover, treating AI education as a compliance checkbox rather than a strategic capability erodes the very competitive advantage that AI promises.

Industry leaders are beginning to pivot toward continuous, hands‑on learning models that blend formal instruction with peer‑driven, real‑world practice. Such programs demystify AI, address employee concerns, and build genuine capability, turning AI from a perceived threat into an empowerment tool. Firms that embed AI literacy into their talent development roadmap are poised to capture higher productivity gains, improve employee engagement, and secure a sustainable edge in an increasingly AI‑centric market.