In the race to deploy AI, leaders must prioritize human capabilities, report warns

Dive Brief:

• Organizations are implementing AI faster than building the skills, structure and human support needed to sustain it in the long run, according to Aon’s 2026 Human Capital Trends Study, released April 28.
• A recent survey of more than 2,300 senior business and people leaders worldwide found that 88% of employers agree AI will require their workforce to develop new skills, and they rank employee adaptability, leadership and change management as the most critical to lead to success in the next three years, the professional services firm said in a media release.
• Eighty-four percent of respondents said human strengths will become more important as automation grows, and more than a third cited future skills gaps as their top concern over the next five to 10 years. Yet 4 in 5 organizations still prioritize automating routine tasks as their primary objective for AI, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

The findings point to “a clear misalignment” — organizations are pushing automation while underinvesting in the people required to align AI use with business goals, Aon said.

“That disconnect is where opportunity is lost,” Bryon Beebe, Aon’s CEO of human capital, stated in the release.

To close the gap, organizations must take a coordinated approach, “building skills and confidence, setting clear governance, and enabling leaders to guide change, so technology investments translate into sustainable performance and resilience,” Beebe added.

As a start, businesses might consider developing targeted training for employees on how they can work with AI as a “thinking” partner instead of as a short-term productivity tool, a recently released joint study from KPMG LLP and the University of Texas at Austin suggested. This includes helping employees learn how to iterate and frame problems clearly, and how to guide outputs over time, the report explained.

Still, efforts at AI readiness may come up short if companies ignore potential missteps, learning platform Docebo revealed in its 2026 AI Readiness Gap report.

For example, 56% of employees told Docebo they’re so overwhelmed by “pre-AI” manual tasks, they don’t have time to learn the AI tools intended to save them time. More than three-quarters said learning takes place outside the tools they usually use, making AI training a distraction instead of a driver of ROI, Docebo found.

Employees also reported that AI tools have increased their workload, likely driving key indicators of employee experience downward, recent research from experience platform Culture Amp indicated.

Although C-suite executives face increasing pressure to realize a return on their AI investment, it’s a mistake for leaders to treat organizational performance and workplace culture, including employee engagement, as an either-or decision, Culture Amp’s CEO said. Organizations with a dual focus on culture and performance experienced a 47% increase in share price, according to the platform.