Employee training is an issue of critical importance for enterprises. Challenged to find skilled employees, sapped by high turnover rates, mired in massive transformations, the need to upskill and cross-train employees is paramount — and almost too much for traditional approaches to training to handle.
Enter AI.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly being leaned on to aid in companies’ upskilling strategies, ascertaining skill sets, recommending learning paths, providing on-the-job training — even helping determine what to pay for acquired skills.
With more than 345,000 employees and an ever-present need to stay ahead of the technology curve, IBM is one such company putting AI to work in keeping its workforce sharp.
“The half-life of skills is now five years,” says Anshul Sheopuri, chief technology officer for data and AI at IBM HR. “Half of what you learn is either forgotten or becomes obsolete in five years.”
Demand for new and specialized skill sets from rapidly evolving domains such as cloud computing and AI is in large part fueling this compression of skills shelf lives. So finding a scalable way to continuously improve employee skills is “not a nice-to-have but a must-have,” he says.
