Futureproof your workforce: mastering Gen AI to close your skill gaps

On Wednesday 11th October, Hive Learning and a group of L&D leaders came together to discuss all things Gen AI and Skill Gaps in Scale Space, White City. We covered a breadth of topics, including: 

• The inevitability of AI advancement and how to keep pace 

• The challenges and opportunities AI presents for L&D  
• The immediate steps L&D professionals should take with AI  

Read further to uncover key takeaways and statistics to help you on your AI journey through the L&D landscape.

AI usage amongst teams is as inevitable as Google Search usage 

In 1996, the birth of Google revolutionized the way we all utilize the internet, making it infinitely more accessible. From the year 1999 onwards, the number of search queries on Google increased by 10% year on year.  

In contrast, since the inception of publicly accessible AI-models in late 2022, ChatGPT has experienced an 80% increase in users in only 8 months, with 180.5million users in only a year.  

What does this mean in the workplace? According to Salesforce, 61% of workers currently use Gen AI, however, many of these workers still do not confidently know how to use Gen AI. 

Gen AI is more disruptive than all previous technological advancements, so it’s absolutely vital that organizations don’t get left behind.  

Therefore, to fully embrace the opportunities Gen AI can present for L&D, leaders need to focus first and foremost on Gen AI skill development itself.  

The key to tackling this gap and keeping up? It’s all in the mindset

Hive Learning’s CEO, Laura Keith, shared her thoughts on the importance of mindset when approaching AI in your organization: 

“As a business leader, I’ve watched my teams start to discover how they can use Gen AI in their own roles. Rather than lead with fear, their open-minded approach and curiosity has been an absolute game changer in unlocking the power of AI. The key is to test, learn and iterate.” 

While our guest speaker, Eva Adam, Design & Innovation Lead at Marks & Spencer outlined that Gen AI is a tool and not a solution, so you can’t go far wrong. 

The first barrier to keeping pace with this technological advancement is mindset and with the right one you’ll move infinitely quicker. 

You can find out more about how you can test the power of AI for L&D and upskill yourself easily at the end of this paper. 

Seizing opportunities and tackling challenges

We unpacked many of the opportunities and challenges of the introduction of Gen AI in the L&D space. The main opportunity being the enablement of L&D teams to deliver at scale contextualized learning in a way that has never been possible before.  

As well as report on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data sets to understand not just what their people have learnt but how they’ve learnt and what skill gaps remain helping shape roadmaps for development. 

Of course, some felt that not only did they not feel confident using Gen AI, but also had concerns about the security risks that this technology could pose.  

After some discussion, it became clear that having a ‘sandbox’ of sorts is a great way to become more comfortable with AI technology and introduce your teams to it in a secure environment. 

We gave all event attendees access to the Hive Learning platform as a sandbox for L&D teams where they can: 

• Upskill themselves on Gen AI quickly and easily 
• Become more confident using AI technology 
• Engage, share and network with other L&D professionals  

Your business can control the narrative around Gen AI and its applications 

In contrast to open-source AI models such as ChatGPT, the Hive Learning platform is hosted on a closed-source model and so can securely store all sensitive information, operating in an entirely closed environment.  

When surveyed, the following proportions of respondents outlined the four key elements to successfully using Gen AI in their role both in L&D and beyond: 

This is where Hive Learning comes in: 

• With our guiding philosophy, the AHAH principle – AI Assisted, Human Led, AI Resourced, Human checked – humans take the lead to ensure use is ethical at every step 
• The Hive Learning platform provides an enhanced secure environment for yours and your customer’s data 

Want to give it a try? You can sign up here for exclusive access to the Innovator’s Sprint on the platform. 

Recommended listening:

Something to listen to – Podcast recommended by panellist Eva Adams, Design & Innovation Lead, Marks & Spencer