Over the last year, there has been a recurring theme in my client requests.

  • Who makes the best AI upskilling content?
  • What should I buy to upskill my workforce?
  • What’s the fastest way to learn AI skills?

At first, I responded by saying that the content market was evolving quickly, and I couldn’t give anyone a “best” or even a “recommended” list of AI upskilling content. But now, two years into the most significant technology disruption of our lifetime, I really want to help. But my observation is that answering this question with a list isn’t solving the actual problem — because content is not the problem.

The problem is that your organization is not ready for the content, and much of the content that exists isn’t ready for you. To be ready for the content, you need some things in place, namely:

  1. A baseline for your organizational AIQ.
  2. A clear understanding of the skills you’re trying to build.
  3. Learning culture that supports active experimentation and growth.
  4. Governance and guardrails.

Many of you are working on these things; some of you may want to jump right over them and write a check to a vendor so you can move on. But the technology is evolving quickly, as are organizational use cases. This is what I mean when I say the content isn’t ready for you.

Skills development platform vendors, custom content development providers, universities, and many more solutions are leaping to fill the market with content that responds to this demand from potential customers. But the pace at which the technology is changing means that much of the technical content ages faster than your employees can engage with it. Layer that on top of the fact that each organization is approaching AI in their own ways and that content becomes an even weaker tool for trying to close the skills gap.

What is needed here are foundational skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and, more than anything, safe spaces to practice and build confidence. So I still can’t give you the list of content, but now you know why, and more importantly, you know what you can be doing to make the most of the content that you do acquire as well as content that hasn’t been developed yet.

We will continue to keep our eye on the content market, but in this moment, your best approach for upskilling your employees is to build a strong foundation of learning as an organizational practice rather than searching for an AI upskilling-content silver bullet. If you want help, we have a portfolio of resources to help you assess, design, and build your organizational learning capabilities to meet the challenge of AI adoption — just reach out.

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