Gartner Survey Shows 85% of Business Leaders Agree There Will Be a Surge in Skills Development Needs Due to AI and Digital Trends in Next 3 Years

As digital and AI trends continue to disrupt work, 85% of business leaders agreed that the need for skills development will dramatically increase, according to Gartner, Inc. This research was showcased today during the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference, taking place here through Wednesday.

According to a June 2024 Gartner survey of 330 business leaders, 93% agreed that their role is to ensure their workforce has the time and resources to continuously learn.

“In the context of today’s AI fueled accelerated disruption, many business leaders feel learning is too slow to respond to the volume, variety and velocity of skills needs,” said Chantal Steen, Senior Director, Global Advisory, in the Gartner HR practice. “L&D must become more agile to respond to changes faster and deliver learning more rapidly and more cost effectively.” 

To help champion a new era of learning, Gartner has created the AI-Era Learning Manifesto (see Figure 1). The Manifesto includes a set of values that will help unite all stakeholders and a set of principles to guide learning delivery.

According to the June 2024 Gartner Survey, enterprises that deliver the best business outcomes from their learning use a set of agile learning practices at least 1.5 times more than other enterprises. 

L&D leaders should follow these three recommendations to create a more agile learning environment:

Outcome-driven learning benefits both the enterprise and its employees by connecting the learning activities with realizing target outcomes. 

“For organizations, learning produces the skills critical for adapting to change and executing a competitive strategy, which in turn maximizes earning outcomes,” explained Steen. “The benefit of learning for employees is growing their skills to perform well amid change and advance their value, career and earning potential.” 

Leaders can co-create narratives with their teams to help shift their view of learning, so they see learning as a vital part of their work that achieves tangible results, rather than time away from work that drains productivity.

Leaders can unite their teams’ mindsets around effective learning practices by adopting the five values in Gartner’s AI-Era Learning Manifesto: 

1. Business outcomes over knowledge gained
2. Growth mindset over current skill set
3. Skills-based agility over role-based stability
4. Embedded learning over “off-the-job” training
5. Community compounding over individual learning

By embracing learning values, employees will become more energized and learning will be more effective, driving key business outcomes.

L&D leaders can revitalize learning programs by combining emerging capabilities with proven methods – such as experiential and social learning – that provide learners the opportunity to apply their new skills on the job. 

The delivery of skills development programs is critical. Utilizing the AI-Era Learning Manifesto as a guide, leaders can maximize learning efficacy when designing and delivering new training. By leveraging these principles, organizations will see more employee-led growth, which will better drive outcomes at speed and scale in this AI era. 

About the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference

The Gartner ReimagineHR Conference is the premier event for CHROs and HR leaders to learn from the latest research and Gartner experts covering talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, total rewards, talent analytics, and HR technology. Gartner ReimagineHR is taking place October 28-30 in Florida and December 4-5 in Sydney. Follow news and updates from these events on X using #GartnerHR.