Continuous rollouts of new tools without sufficient time to adapt is leading to change fatigue, fragmented adoption, and disengagement. When employees are overwhelmed or feel unsupported, productivity drops and performance stalls.

Yet, your business still needs the adoption to stay relevant, see the ROI, and grow your business.

As a leader, you can make it easier.

In moments like these, you need a united front and a confident workforce more than ever. Organizations where CHROs and CIOs align on AI upskilling, cross-functional collaboration, and ethical governance, companies are three times more likely to develop a Gen AI-ready workforce. 

To get there, key members of the C-suite have to band together and give employees the leadership and guidance they need to grow. 

Why CHROs, CLOs, and CIOs for AI Adoption?

As you start to see this large-scale workforce transformation for what it is—people who need to learn a new technology—it’s obvious why the key stakeholders here are Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs), Chief Learning Officers (CLOs), Chief Talent Officers (CTOs), and Chief Information Officers (CIOs). 

Framing it this way also showcases why these teams have to come together to be effective at readying their workforce for AI.

The Art of AI Alignment

Employees aren’t resisting AI, they’re resisting the confusion that comes with it. 

They’re tired of unclear expectations, shifting tools, and too few answers. To drive meaningful adoption, align HR, L&D, and IT around a common goal: delivering clarity and direction that ties directly to business outcomes. When people understand the “why” and the “how,” adoption becomes progress instead of pressure.

Once you’ve got buy-in from all the leaders, here’s what you have to work together to do:

1. Establish a framework with clear AI guidance.

Above all else, people need to know what they can do with AI and what they can’t. No employee wants to be the one putting the company at risk, but without a clear strategy and framework, they’re left to guess. Whether it’s what platforms they use, how they use them, or what they can use them for, people need the guardrails. 

Here are some questions you can consider when creating AI guidance:

• What is safe AI use? 
• What does it mean to use AI responsibly at your company? 
• Are there any AI regulations your company is subject to? (e.g., the EU AI Act)
• Which platforms can they use? Which can’t they? Why?
• What work can be done by AI and what can’t? (This one may require a little experimentation.)
• What are the expectations for employees?
  

2. Establish a plan of action.

As the leaders in the midst of a full-scale workforce transformation, you need clear delineation for which departments will handle which aspects of adoption. For example, there may be some portions of the transformation that are best-served by certain teams and other components that could be owned by any function. Clarity is key.

Here are some questions to consider as you make your plan:

• Who will be responsible for AI tool governance?
• Who will communicate AI guidance, news, and information with the workforce?
• Who will create the learning and upskilling opportunities in AI?
• How will your employees learn to use AI appropriately?
• How will you all work together on a daily, weekly, or monthly cadence to stay in sync?

Boost AI Adoption with a United Front

Why are organizations with aligned leaders so much more likely to have a team that’s ready for AI? Because that alignment gives employees two key components of successful Gen AI learning: Support and infrastructure.

Once aligned, you can empower your employees to develop the confidence needed to easily adopt AI through learning experiences—both hands-on AI practice and self-guided learning resources.

As part of that learning, they can also experiment with AI within the new guardrails. Experiential learning is one of the best ways to develop skills and in the process of trial and error, your employees will also be able to suss out the value of different AI tools for different use cases across your organization.

That confidence they’ll develop is the key to beating AI fatigue. Compared to others, Very Confident Gen AI users are:

• Nearly twice as likely to use Gen AI daily
• 4x more likely to apply it to real problems
• 32% more likely to learn on the job
• 38% more likely to get support from peers and mentors
• 77x more likely to engage with and become proficient using Gen AI

With confidence, your employees are no longer wasting brain power trying to figure it all out. Instead, they have the resources, the limitations, and the expectations. They approach AI refreshed. They can experiment and grow with renewed energy.

The post Align Your CHROs, CLOs, and CIOs to Grow AI Adoption appeared first on Degreed.

AI has arrived—not as a back-office tool, but as a front-line collaborator reshaping how we work, think, and create. Business cycles are accelerating. Knowledge work is evolving. The biggest question for today’s leaders: Is your workforce ready?

The old playbook—static training, one-size-fits-all programs, disconnected learning—can’t keep pace. To stay ahead, organizations must move beyond content delivery to strategic skill development at scale.

As Siya Raj Purohit, Education Go-To-Market at OpenAI, said at LENS 2025, “When people could start talking to AI, when the interface became language, something fundamental shifted.” Communicating with AI in everyday language makes it accessible to your entire workforce.

This shift has cracked open an entirely new way of learning where people and AI co-create value in real time. The challenge now isn’t just technological, it’s talent-based.

The Shift Has Already Begun

We’re not approaching an AI moment—we’re in it. As language becomes the interface, AI becomes more than a tool. It becomes a partner that enhances human thinking, creativity, and decision-making. “AI isn’t just a tool,” Purohit said. “It’s a thinking partner that can help employees at all levels.”

And it’s already having real-world impact. According to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 60% of jobs will be reshaped by AI. And by 2030, 50-67% of workers will need reskilling, depending on their location.

And yet, there’s a gap between expectation and readiness. Our 2025 How the Workforce Learns GenAI report shows that 48% of professionals expect their responsibilities to change due to Gen AI, but only 22% feel very confident using it.

The confident few aren’t waiting. They’re automating tasks, generating insights, and making better decisions today.

So, while AI may be disruptive, the real challenge—and opportunity—is human. This is a talent problem, not a technology problem.

From Disruption to Opportunity

Despite the magnitude of AI-driven change, forward-looking organizations aren’t bracing for impact, they’re moving from reaction to transformation.

Purohit outlines four stages of AI transformation:

1. AI Literacy. Build foundational understanding for individual employees by encouraging everyday use. You should see boosts in efficiency, work quality, creativity, and innovation.
2. Custom Workflows. Equip teams with AI that fits their roles and supports team-level problems. Focus on automation, extensibility, and collaboration.
3. AI-Enhanced Operations. Create repeatable processes across the organization to drive productivity. Gain operational efficiency and cost savings.
4. AI-Infused Offerings. Innovate with AI at the core of your business to deliver AI-powered products and services. You’ll enhance your product value and customer engagement.

“Each of these steps builds momentum and maintenance impact,” Purohit said. “And as learning leaders, I think you all are in the best position to lead this transformation.”

The New Learning Playbook: From Literacy to Innovation

“What changed wasn’t just how advanced these models became, but how they could be used… to explore ideas, build skills, unlock creativity,” said Purohit. But to build an AI-ready workforce, you need more than AI tools. You need an AI-powered learning partner. Degreed Maestro helps you move from AI ambition into real outcomes, like everyday AI mastery, personalized learning at scale, learning aligned to business goals, and a workforce built for innovation.

1. AI Literacy from Daily AI-Powered Learning

When your workforce understands how to use AI, it can help them do their jobs better. Building AI fluency starts by embedding AI into daily development. Degreed Maestro makes this easy with:

• Personalized, curated learning pathways adapted to roles and goals.
• AI-powered coaching in the flow of work.

2. Custom AI Workflows Create Adaptive Workforce Learning Experiences at Scale

Once individual employees are using AI every day, Degreed Maestro can equip entire teams with AI tailored to their function and skill needs. That includes:

• Role-plays help sales teams and other functions practice relevant conversations.
• Coaching at scale for all leaders, not just senior leaders.

3. AI-Enhanced Operations Drive Smarter Skill Management

To scale transformation across your entire workforce, you need smarter processes, not just more content. Degreed Maestro turns L&D into a strategic engine for performance, agility, and growth by supporting:

• Skill reviews that replace time-consuming manager evaluations with AI-guided assessments.
• Data-driven insights that connect learning to skill gains and performance outcomes.

4. AI-Infused Offerings Come from Innovating With a Smarter Workforce

AI can support your organization in a multitude of ways, but to fully leverage its benefits, bake it into your products and services. Degreed Maestro can prepare your entire workforce to lead the change by:

• Aligning learning with your business and talent strategies.
• Accelerating readiness for new roles and setups through adaptive learning journeys.

Now’s the Time to Lead

“It’s on us as learning leaders to make sure our workplaces are ready,” Purohit said. “This is not about tools. It’s about building environments where people can grow, experiment, and hopefully do their life’s best work.”

The age of AI demands more than digital transformation. It calls for a workforce learning transformation that puts people at the center and empowers them to adapt, grow, and lead.

Reimagine learning not as a support function, but as a strategic enabler of workforce resilience and innovation. Learn more about how AI is changing learning in How the Workforce Learns Gen AI.

The post AI Makes Workforce Learning Unstoppable appeared first on Degreed.

Degreed Maestro is purpose-built to close this gap—delivering intelligent, personalized, and scalable learning experiences that convert Gen AI potential into productivity gains, innovation, and competitive advantage. Think of it as AI that can be used to build AI skills.

Here’s how:

Maestro Drives Precision at Scale.

• Automatically generates personalized learning pathways aligned to job roles, skills, and business needs.
• Maps Gen AI proficiency goals to learning moments—supporting roles like AI Trainers, Prompt Engineers, and Analysts.

Maestro Delivers Personalized Coaching for Confidence.

• Delivers AI-powered coaching prompts and role-specific simulations to build Gen AI fluency.
• Reinforces confidence through contextual support and feedback—key to sustained behavior change.

Maestro Embeds Learning in the Flow of Work.

• Orchestrates learning moments based on individual user actions, roles, and preferences.
• Promotes continuous learning habits by embedding recommendations and nudges into everyday workflows.

Maestro Has Measurable Impact on Skills & Business Outcomes.

• Tracks confidence growth, skill proficiency, and learning behavior over time.
• Integrates with Degreed Skills+ to provide real-time analytics and link Gen AI learning to business strategy.

Strategic Outcomes

• Accelerated Gen AI proficiency across the workforce
• Increased engagement, retention, and internal mobility
• Reduced time-to-impact for Gen AI use cases
• Alignment of learning investments to workforce transformation goals and business performance metrics

Your Next Move

Let’s explore how your organization can build Gen AI learning strategies—for faster innovation, smarter operations, and lasting business impact.

Schedule a personalized, one-on-one call with a Degreed expert today.

The post AI for AI Skills: How Degreed Maestro Accelerates Gen AI Fluency appeared first on Degreed.

Any organization with a significant EU presence will be concerned, and any organization using AI to screen, train, or manage talent may fall under the high-risk rules, meaning that compliance could be complex if you don’t choose the right partner or provider. But despite the challenges, there’s an opportunity— and that is to leverage regulatory pressure to increase workforce confidence and fluency in using Gen AI and develop a competitive advantage.

It’s an opportunity to enable your people to work with AI—ethically, fluently, and effectively—so your organization doesn’t just comply with regulations, but leads in the AI era. It’s a strategic inflection point for CHROs, CLOs, and CIOs to embed ethical, structured, and scalable AI learning into their organizations’ DNA.

Why the EU AI Act Changes the Game

The EU AI Act introduces sweeping rules on the development and use of AI, with some of the most stringent requirements impacting systems designed to automate workforce management.

Article 4 of the EU AI Act is clear:

“Providers and deployers of AI systems shall take measures to ensure, to the best extent possible, a sufficient level of AI literacy of their staff and other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf.”

Organizations are responsible for ensuring that people who interact with AI systems are properly trained—technically, ethically, and contextually. For HR and Learning Professionals, that means rethinking how AI is introduced, adopted, and governed across your workforce.

If you’re using AI to hire, upskill, manage, or evaluate employees, you’ll also need to ensure that your AI provider has performed their due diligence and built their AI solution in a way in which your company can comply with the AI Act requirements.

Our global research with Harvard Business Publishing shows that:

• 68% of employees use Gen AI tools at least weekly, indicating widespread, decentralized adoption
• Yet 78% of employees lack the confidence to use those tools effectively
• Only 7% are fluent enough to build or customize Gen AI tools
• And 74% of executives have received no formal training in Gen AI themselves

Despite high usage, most organizations are flying blind—with employees using AI tools without the training, oversight, or infrastructure required by law. This is a serious compliance risk, but more critically, it’s a missed opportunity to turn AI adoption into measurable performance and innovation gains.

Understanding the EU AI Act

The EU AI Act is designed to regulate AI applications based on their risk levels, categorising them into different tiers: unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and minimal risk. This risk-based approach ensures that the higher the risk an AI system poses, the stricter the compliance requirements it must meet. Some AI applications might be strictly illegal under the EU AI Act, while others, classified as high risk, might need to be developed in specific ways, in line with the AI Act’s requirements. 

Compliance with the EU AI Act is not just about adhering to regulations; it’s about ensuring that AI systems are trustworthy and beneficial for all users. For HR, Learning & Talent Management professionals, this means:

The 3 Levers of a Gen AI-Fluent Workforce

Our research shows that successful AI strategies converge around three critical enablers. These are the levers that bridge the gap between legal compliance and enterprise advantage:

1. Tools & Infrastructure

You can’t build Gen AI confidence without giving people hands-on access to AI tools—and embedding them into real workflows. This includes secure, explainable systems that:

• Align with ethical standards and enterprise risk frameworks
• Provide visibility into how AI outputs are generated
• Integrate into performance, development, and decision-making systems

2. Organizational Support & Training

AI learning must be structured, strategic, and consistent. What high-performing organizations are doing:

• Deploying AI academies, certifications, and on-the-job simulations
• Offering role-specific training for AI-enabled positions like Prompt Engineers and AI Analysts
• Making Gen AI literacy mandatory for managers and decision-makers

3. A Motivated Workforce

Motivation accelerates learning. Our study shows employees who perceive a personal benefit—such as productivity or creativity—are 77x more likely to engage deeply with Gen AI. This means:

• Clear communication of AI’s value
• Use of AI for self-directed learning
• Leadership that models responsible experimentation

When these three levers are deployed together, organizations unlock a confident, capable, and compliant workforce.

From Compliance to Confidence: Building Gen AI Fluency Across the Enterprise

As Gen AI reshapes work, compliance is only the starting point. Today’s CHROs, CLOs, and CIOs face a dual mandate: ensure governance and empower their people to use AI confidently and ethically. Meeting that challenge means moving beyond policy into practice.

Here’s how leading organizations are doing it:

• Evaluate your current AI literacy levels across employees and leadership
• Embed Gen AI into learning workflows and daily routines.
• Provide hands-on practice through simulations and real-world application.
• Develop fluency at every level—from frontline to executive leadership.
• Define new roles and responsibilities to scale AI capabilities.

By building a Gen AI-fluent workforce, organizations reduce risk, accelerate innovation, and position themselves to lead—ethically and effectively.

How Degreed Supports You Getting There

Compliance is at the core of our development process at Degreed. We build our platform to comply with the AI Act by leveraging:

• AI-powered platforms that prioritize human oversight, explainability, and data protection
• Structured Gen AI learning tools via academies, coaching, and personalized pathways
• Compliance-by-design architecture and logging to ensure transparency and auditability

We help you transform regulatory pressure into a competitive advantage—by building AI literacy where it matters most: in your people.

The post What the EU AI Act Means for HR Leaders in 2025 appeared first on Degreed.

Yet the reality uncovered in our Degreed report How the Workforce Learns Gen AI in 2025 is stark: 68% of professionals say their organizations offer little or no structured support for learning generative AI—forcing most employees to “go it alone” and putting enterprise-scale adoption at risk.

This comes as 66% of employees are still at the most foundational levels of AI readiness. For CLOs, Talent Leaders, and HR strategists, this gap presents a strategic opportunity to reimagine workforce learning as a lever for competitive advantage.

The Self-Directed Shift

In partnership with Harvard Business Publishing, we collected more than 2,700 responses among senior and mid-level leaders globally across various regions and sectors. The goal? Find out how employees develop AI skills—and what organizations can do to create an AI-fluent workforce, unlocking generative AI’s full potential.

“AI impacts the entire organization,” said Lisa Tenorio, Senior Vice President for Product & Innovation at Harvard Business Publishing, who previewed the study at Degreed LENS 2025. “It’s not just one functional area of the business. Everyone at every level of the company needs some fluency with AI. And they need to be continuously learning to keep pace with the rapid evolution of technology. So that means both learners and learning programs need to adapt and keep pace.”

We found employees aren’t waiting for permission to get smarter. Many are actively exploring AI and other emerging tools on their own time. Through hands-on experimentation with Gen AI and other emerging tools, today’s workforce is signaling a strong demand for agile, personalized learning.

But self-motivation alone isn’t enough. Without clear guidance and structure, the risk of misinformation, wasted time, and disengagement grows. In fact, 40% of employees exploring AI on their own report feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about how to apply it, according to the report.

Enablers of AI Fluency

To support meaningful transformation, forward-thinking organizations prioritize key enablers, among them:

• Support from Leadership: Transformation efforts don’t succeed without executive sponsorship. Learning initiatives thrive when leaders visibly support and participate in them—not just through words, but through action. Modeling learning behaviors, allocating time and budget, and directly linking learning to business goals are key. Yet respondents indicated only 13% of organizations currently support all three enablers of AI fluency—leadership, tools, and environment—in tandem.
  
• Tools and Technology: Modern platforms must do more than distribute content. They need to make learning discoverable, personal, and actionable. That means delivering AI-powered nudges, integrating with day-to-day workflows, and supporting experimentation through coaching, simulations, and role-based guidance. Technology should reduce friction and bring learning into the flow of work—at scale and with precision.
  
• The Learning Environment: A strong learning environment builds psychological safety, encourages experimentation, and treats skill development as a continuous priority. It thrives on peer learning and feedback. Organizations that foster this kind of environment see greater confidence among employees using Gen AI. Without it, even the best tools and intentions fall short.

These enablers are interdependent. When all are in place, organizations accelerate adoption, reduce fear, and turn learning into a strategic growth engine.

“AI fluency isn’t just about individual learning,” Tenorio said. “It’s higher when there is the support, infrastructure, and readiness.”

Barriers Stifling Progress

Right now, 73% of executive and board leaders receive zero formal Gen AI training. When the C-suite is flying blind on Gen AI, investment stalls and risk appetite shrinks. Similarly, only one in ten companies fund AI learning at the level a true transformation demands.

Even with strategic intent, many companies hit roadblocks. A lack of direction, limited resources, and fear of change continue to stifle progress.

For HR and L&D leaders, these are cues to lead, a mandate to close the leadership confidence gap and build the learning infrastructure that unlocks Gen AI productivity and innovation.

AI Fluency: Why Now

AI is moving fast. Waiting to build fluency isn’t just risky. It could be a missed opportunity to engage top talent, accelerate productivity, and create business agility.

Learning must be reframed as a core business function—a tool for enabling transformation, not reacting to it. For leaders managing constant change, fluency isn’t just a capability. It’s a relief.

In our study, one-third of respondents report using Gen AI makes a significant positive impact on their team’s performance. Nearly 8-in-10 say it allows them to focus on higher-level strategic work. And 53% feel better positioned to solve business problems.

In addition, internal mobility is emerging as a powerful incentive. Workers who feel they can grow in their role are significantly more likely to stay. By supporting upskilling, AI readiness, and personalized development, organizations can reduce attrition, boost morale, and maximize their existing talent investments.

How Leading Organizations Are Scaling AI Fluency

Companies making meaningful progress share a common thread: They start with crystal-clear leadership alignment then scale with purpose.

Take, for example, one Europe-based food and beverage manufacturing powerhouse with hundreds of factories and thousands of consumer brands. It launched its Gen AI journey in the boardroom, running hands-on “bootcamp” workshops for senior executives to develop product prototypes using eight different AI tools. That top level experience unlocked cross-functional academies that shortened a product prototyping decision cycle from nearly six months to only two days, proving the ROI of a test-and-learn approach that fuels Gen AI confidence.

Clients across industries are using Degreed to scale learning fast.

Consider Ericsson: Five years ago, the telecom giant began upskilling a relatively small group of 300 scientists to use artificial intelligence. Now, more than 30,000 of the company’s 100,000-plus employees are considered very proficient in AI.

Capgemini faced a dual challenge: Build a workforce that’s ready to help clients put Gen AI to work and integrate AI into internal operations. Built and deployed in only 10 weeks, the company’s Generative AI Campus powered by Degreed made AI learning available to 340,000 global Capgemini employees, giving them what they needed to be AI-ready for internal and client-facing initiatives. A whopping 91,000 employees trained on AI tools in just six months.

Making Learning a Strategic Asset

Too often, learning is treated as an isolated function. But when embedded across the employee lifecycle—from onboarding to leadership development—it becomes a growth engine. Tools like Degreed help HR and L&D teams turn insight into action by surfacing skill gaps, personalizing pathways, and tracking progress in real time.

Moving Forward

Workforce transformation doesn’t begin with a platform. It begins with purpose.

What does success look like for your workforce, and what capabilities will it take to get there? For organizations prioritizing agility, engagement, and resilience, the answer starts with learning.

Degreed is uniquely positioned to turn learning into your organization’s competitive advantage.

Degreed empowers you to:

• Pinpoint needs using data and AI to identify skills gaps and priorities
• Personalize development through automated, curated learning experiences
• Measure change with clear, credible metrics that show impact

In a world of constant change, learning isn’t just how people grow. It’s how companies win.

Go deeper.

Be the first to get access to our How the Workforce Learns Gen AI in 2025 report, packed with data-backed insights to help you lead with confidence in an AI-driven world.

Ready to find out even more? Let’s discuss building AI fluency at scale across your organization.

The post How the Workforce Learns Gen AI: See What 2,700 Leaders Say appeared first on Degreed.