The Future of Learning Is Now: Inside IBM’s AI-powered Upskilling Model

As AI and automation reshape the workplace, it’s more important than ever for companies to future-proof their workforces through continuous learning and skill development. According to a 2025 global survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value, CEOs say 31% of the workforce will require retraining or reskilling within three years. Yet, despite this urgency, many organizations struggle to deploy effective upskilling strategies at scale.

At IBM, we’ve learned that the same AI tools that are rapidly revising how we work can be leveraged to help our employees keep their skills relevant. As the Chief Leadership, Culture, and Inclusion Officer at IBM, it’s my job to ensure we maintain our time-honored culture of curiosity and continuous learning. AI has been a force multiplier, empowering our employees to stay ahead of a quickly shifting technology landscape.   

The Skills Shift: Why AI Upskilling Is Urgent

From the telephone to the personal computer, innovation has always made it essential to learn new skills, but I personally believe upskilling has never been more important than it is today. The rise of AI is already changing how we conduct research, write emails, and prepare presentations, and its applications will only expand as it becomes more sophisticated. McKinsey research estimates that up to 30% of percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated by 2030, and 60% of jobs could be significantly altered by AI tools. Here at IBM, we believe that AI augments human work—and we are already seeing how it can boost productivity, innovation, and deliver exponential business value.

Skills are the currency of tomorrow, since the skills a person has today could be obsolete in a few years. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value 2025 CEO study, 54% of CEOs say they’re hiring for roles related to AI that didn’t exist a year ago. Companies that don’t adapt to this shift risk falling behind, while leaders who invest in upskilling will enjoy the ROI that comes with preparing their employees for the future of work. 

IBM’S AI Learning Ecosystem

Maintaining IBM’s high-performance culture requires that our people keep their skills sharp. All employees must take at least 40 hours of learning per year on our in-house digital learning platform, Your Learning. (I’m proud to share that the average employee completes 85 hours.) Since its adoption in 2016, Your Learning has become the one-stop shop for IBMers to find, consume, and track learning. Employees are able to see all the options available in one place, find the best learning for their needs, and track all of their completions. The platform offers thousands of courses on everything from prompt engineering to growth behaviors, making it easy for employees to find relevant learning opportunities.

Since 2018, the platform has been using AI to provide personalized learning recommendations, taking into account each user’s current skills, job history, and personal preferences. Rather than a manager or employee randomly selecting courses, Your Learning’s AI-powered platform is able to tap into its knowledge of what’s worked for IBM’s hundreds of thousands of employees, providing a custom, proven growth plan for each learner. Employees who complete a course earn badges for acquiring new knowledge or new skills (when they demonstrate a hands‐on application of concepts and theory). The platform also offers credentials from strategic third parties, allowing IBMers to find the recognized credentials that our clients value.  

How AI-driven Upskilling Can Boost Inclusion

Study after study reveals that AI can perpetuate human failings like bias, which is why it’s critical that organizations approach these tools with intention and inclusivity. At IBM, we’ve built this into our structure: I sit on the IBM AI Ethics Board, a group of around 30 professionals from across the company who are responsible for upholding the principles of responsible AI. My role is to make sure that our tools cater to our global workforce.

At IBM, we believe that technology should benefit everyone, not just a privileged few. That belief shapes how we build and deploy AI, and how we apply it across our work, as well as learning and advancement. By embedding inclusion throughout the process, we’re expanding access to opportunity.

When applied thoughtfully, AI can be a powerful equalizer, especially in upskilling. 

The Real-world Impact of AI-Powered Upskilling

One of my team members has been looking for her next opportunity at IBM. In our one-on-one, she shared a list of the jobs from our employee marketplace that our platform recommended for her. Before AI, she would have asked me what to do next. Instead, we had an informed conversation about the positions that our AI picked based on her preferences and the learning that she’s chosen. It’s just one of the many benefits of an AI-powered upskilling platform. Here are some others:

More Meaningful Conversations Between Managers and Employees

My employee didn’t rely on me to determine what skills or opportunities to pursue. People at IBM can take a proactive role in plotting the course of their career, utilizing Your Learning’s personalized recommendations to drive conversations about how to grow at the company. AI-powered recommendations enable more meaningful conversations because both managers and employees have data they didn’t have before.

Higher Employee Engagement

People are more productive and satisfied when they know their input is being gleaned and leveraged to create a better career outcome. According to recent Gallup research, employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work.

Higher Employee Productivity

Research shows that employee development boosts productivity, but at IBM, we already know that firsthand. Skill development is so essential that it’s one of two dimensions of our performance management matrix, in addition to outcomes. That’s because we know skills are closely tied to outcomes. We’ve seen time and again across business units and roles—from engineering and consulting to HR and marketing—that deeper engagement correlates to stronger performance.

Higher Employee Retention

Today’s workers prioritize skill development, meaning employers who offer relevant opportunities to learn and grow are more likely to retain their talent. One caveat: Employees must be recognized for their upskilling efforts. We tap the AI technology to identify employees who have acquired skills and use it to inform our promotion, rewards, recognition, and compensation programs. 

Of course, using AI in such critical decisions comes with responsibility. If the models used aren’t trained on inclusive, representative data—or if they aren’t regularly audited for bias—organizations risk perpetuating inequities rather than solving them. That’s why inclusion is a safeguard built into our AI systems and oversight.

How to Get Buy-in on AI Tools

Many employees are understandably nervous about what the new age of AI means for their careers. A 2025 Pew Research Center report found that 52% of workers say they’re worried about the impact of AI in the workplace, while just 36% feel hopeful about it. This is why it’s crucial that leaders act deliberately before launching new AI tools. Here’s what’s imperative to get buy-in from your workforce:

Ensure Your AI Tools Align With Company Culture  

If you don’t have a culture of continuous learning, you may have to provide more prompts for employees to realize the benefits of AI and upskilling.

Identify Skills Gaps First 

You have to know where your employees are on the skills continuum and have the right training programs available to bridge the gaps, or you risk losing their trust.

Ensure Your Technology Is Trusted

Make sure the right people are at the table representing everyone's interests. This is why an inclusive approach is so important. Establish a board or governing body to create guidelines for using AI ethically. 

Be Transparent

The technology has to be transparent and explainable. People have to know how you are using it, and you have to be clear about what you’re going to do with the data gleaned from AI, so employees can opt out if they prefer. 

Put Humans First

Be clear that the purpose of AI is to augment human intelligence, not to replace it. 

The Future of Skill Development

Gone are the days of the annual one-size-fits-all employee training. In the era of AI, employees need continuous, data-driven, and personalized upskilling opportunities that will prepare them for the future of work. Soft skills such as adaptability and collaboration are increasingly important, too, given that the hard skills are ever changing. According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends, 69% of US executives say this year they plan to prioritize hiring candidates with soft skills that allow them to move nimbly across roles.

This is where HR and L&D leaders have an enormous opportunity, not just to equip their people with the skills of tomorrow, but to prove to anxious workers that AI can improve their careers. Companies that embrace a culture of continuous learning and create AI-powered systems to nurture it will be better prepared to navigate the rapid changes ahead, because their employees will see new technologies as opportunities to learn and advance.