Almost every organisation now recognises that artificial intelligence will transform how people work. Yet new research suggests most businesses still lack a clear plan for preparing their workforce – leaving HR teams and business leaders under increasing pressure.
Research from Connect Yorkshire member The Coders Guild reveals that 95% of HR leaders report rising workloads, while 91% say their responsibilities have increased over the past year as organisations look to adopt AI. From redesigning recruitment processes and introducing AI governance to upskilling staff and driving productivity, HR and learning professionals are increasingly leading organisational change alongside their existing responsibilities.
Despite this, 78% of HR leaders expect AI to significantly change workforce skills requirements within the next three years, yet only 24% of organisations currently have a documented workforce strategy for AI. That leaves three quarters of organisations entering the AI era without a clear workforce plan.
The findings point to a growing misconception that AI adoption is primarily a technology challenge. Instead, workforce readiness is emerging as one of the biggest barriers to successful implementation.
Crispin Read, Founder of The Coders Guild, said:
“Most organisations have started with AI. Very few have gone far with it. The gap between those two groups is opening, and it’s opening fast. The good news is that closing it doesn’t take a technology programme. It takes a clear picture of where you stand and a plan for your people.”
He added:
“The people carrying this are already stretched. They’re being asked to prepare a whole workforce for the biggest change to working life in a generation, on top of recruitment, retention, compliance and everything else in a normal week.
“‘I’ll get to grips with AI when things calm down’ is the plan most people are running. Things don’t calm down. So this has to be learnable inside a busy job, in small pieces, applied to work you’re already doing. That’s how we’ve designed everything we deliver.”
“Leading this well doesn’t take a computer science degree. It takes enough understanding to make good calls, set sensible guardrails and back your people. People, process, tools, in that order. Get the first two right and the technology turns out to be the easy bit. And the whole point of handing routine work to AI is to get more human time back, not less.”
The research also found that more than seven in ten HR leaders expect AI to reshape recruitment within the next two years, while 55% of managers say they do not know how to effectively assess AI capability during recruitment. At the same time, 62% of HR professionals are concerned about AI governance and compliance risks, and 54% of organisations still have no formal policy governing employee use of AI tools.
For Yorkshire businesses, the challenge is particularly significant. The research highlights widening regional disparities in AI readiness, with Yorkshire and the Humber among the areas falling behind London, the South East and the East of England in structured AI training and workforce planning. Sectors including manufacturing, construction, hospitality and social care also remain among the least prepared despite facing growing pressure to improve productivity.
Crispin added:
“Yorkshire’s advantage is the shape of its businesses. A 30-person firm in Leeds or Bradford can redesign a process in a fortnight. The big nationals can’t move like that. The funding is there through the Growth and Skills Levy, the speed is there, what’s usually missing is the starting point: knowing where you actually stand.”
The findings also reinforce the growing importance of leadership capability. While 67% of HR leaders identify AI adoption as a strategic business priority, fewer than one-third feel fully prepared to lead the organisational changes needed to make AI successful. At the same time, only 23% of HR departments have received AI-specific training themselves.
Across many management and professional roles, employees with AI capability can command salaries between 20% and 25% higher than peers without those skills, with HR professionals seeing salary premiums of up to 25%.
Access to AI training is also becoming an increasingly important factor in attracting and retaining talent. Almost two-thirds of employees (64%) say AI training would make an employer more attractive, while 47% believe AI skills will be essential for career progression within the next two years. Employees receiving AI-related training are 35% less likely to actively seek employment elsewhere, and organisations investing in AI capability programmes report higher levels of employee engagement.
To help organisations build AI capability across both leadership and delivery teams, The Coders Guild offers a range of AI leadership training options.
For business leaders and decision-makers, the AI for Leaders six-week short course is designed around participants’ own organisations, enabling them to apply what they learn immediately to their own teams, workflows and business challenges. The programme focuses on helping leaders understand where AI can create value, make informed decisions about adoption, and leave with a practical 90-day plan for implementing AI within their organisation.
Alongside this, organisations can build practical AI capability through the Level 4 AI and Automation apprenticeship. Designed for one to three employees working on live business projects from week one, the programme develops hands-on AI and automation skills while supporting organisations to implement AI in real workplace settings. Developed by The Coders Guild alongside Skills England, it is the UK’s first Level 4 AI and Automation apprenticeship and is funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, meaning many employers pay only a small contribution or, in some cases, almost nothing.
For more information, visit: https://thecodersguild.org.uk/ai-leadership-training/
