New Delhi: The global talent landscape is changing rapidly. Disruptive technologies and shifting market dynamics are redefining ways of working across
sectors. To stay competitive and relevant, organisations must be equipped to meet the growing global demand for technological skills, mainly related to AI, automation, and digitalisation.
There is a significant shift in organisational roles and responsibilities, with some being AI-augmented, and some being new AI-led job profiles. This requires a workforce with future-ready skills to meet ever-evolving work profiles. To achieve this, internal mobility, reskilling, and upskilling are becoming core to the talent strategy.
Why Reskilling Matters: What’s changing
Scaling capacity through AI-led potential: Technology and AI tools are becoming enablers across work streams. They offer on-demand scalability with intelligent AI agents that can reason, plan, and act as digital colleagues. In our recent study, 86% of the CHROs we surveyed believe that AI will boost operational efficiency and productivity. With reskilling, employees can effectively manage AI agents and mindfully leverage them as productivity enablers.
AI will go beyond assistance in the next phase: AI will evolve from being a digital agent that handles specific tasks and boosts employee capabilities to managing the entire business processes, with humans supervising and guiding the results. Organisations will likely experience all these stages at once as AI continues to influence workflows. Therefore, skill development has become paramount to keep up with this rapid change.
Higher AI Adoption: Companies are rapidly transitioning from proof-of-concept to full-scale AI adoption. In our study, nearly 8 in 10 CHROs reported their organisation is in an advanced, intermediate, or pilot phase, i.e., they have already implemented or are testing AI in limited environments.
Investment in reskilling is non-negotiable at this stage as it helps bridge the skills gap and make all employees future-ready.
Democratising AI: Employees do not need to have a technical background to understand the basics of AI. By bringing AI to more people, businesses can explore innovative pathways and utilize AI to develop new products, services, and business models. This change allows cross-functional teams to innovate quickly, collaborate better, and adapt more nimbly to market transitions. The more these employees are being reskilled, the more they can contribute to this remarkable change.
Demand for AI-led job roles: Leaders are starting to understand the shift from upskilling to reskilling due to the growing demand for new job roles. Moreover, there’s a high demand for skills like machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, and digital applications, which are skyrocketing, leading to unprecedented opportunities. In this regard, across industries, the majority of CHROs (61%) expect around 5% to 25% of roles to change or get replaced due to AI in the next three years, and more than half of the CHROs surveyed (57%) favour reskilling and internal mobility as the preferred AI transition strategy.
The future depends on both upskilling and reskilling, with the approach to developing existing employees rather than hiring new talent. To maximise the benefits of reskilling, companies must rethink their approach to developing internal career paths, making it easier for employees to grow and adapt within the organisation.
This is where internal mobility plays a crucial role as an impactful enabler.
Internal Mobility: A Talent Strategy From the Inside Out
Would you rather lose your talent to the outside world or assist them in exploring new opportunities within your organisation?
One of the interesting aspects of internal mobility is that it is evolving into a core strategy for agility and retention. In fact, when employees move laterally within functions or roles, they are advancing their careers while providing organisations with full retention of talent and reducing overall hiring costs.
For internal mobility to be successful, organisations must ensure they have built systems and culture that promote lateral movement and are committed to investing in reskilling to help prepare talent when those opportunities arise.
Investment in Skill Development:
AI-enabled learning platforms and reskilling programs can advance employee engagement while preparing them for a future in an AI-powered workforce. Our study shows that 44% of organisations subsidise non-work-related courses for employees, and 85% of organisations have individual employee development plans drawn up for all levels of employees. There’s a need for higher numbers to continue evolving through learning and development, and the pathways that leaders offer to them.
Closing Thoughts
Reskilling and internal mobility have transitioned from “nice-to-introduce” learning and development objectives to critical leadership priorities that will ultimately determine business performance, innovation, and workforce readiness in the future. In a climate of continuous change in work, the focus should be on whether your organisation can reskill consistently, inclusively, and strategically. The question is no longer whether your employees are ready for the future; it’s whether your organisation is prepared to get them there.
