TALKING POINT

The latest iCIMS workforce research suggests workers are not waiting for formal corporate programmes. Nearly half of US job seekers surveyed had developed their AI skills during the previous six months, while the proportion teaching themselves rose from 22 % to 30 % in a year. Employer-provided training, meanwhile, remained broadly static at around one in six workers.

This matters because AI capability is rapidly becoming a hiring requirement rather than an optional advantage. Lightcast data cited by iCIMS showed employers adding AI skills across industries, with finance demonstrating particularly high saturation and healthcare experiencing rapid change.

Yet there is an obvious mismatch between enthusiasm and expertise. Although 60 % of respondents felt prepared to adapt to AI at work, 61 % described their proficiency as limited to generalpurpose tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini. Far fewer possessed specialised capabilities such as prompt engineering, machine learning or model development.

Employers therefore face two connected problems. They must accelerate AI training internally while becoming considerably better at identifying genuine AI capability externally.

That requires investment in structured learning, clearer definitions of AI proficiency and recruitment processes designed to distinguish practical capability from fashionable terminology on applications alone.

That makes recruitment technology increasingly important, but it also creates a danger. As organisations deploy AI-powered screening to find AI-skilled candidates, they risk confusing keyword recognition with competence. Someone who lists generative AI on a CV is not necessarily capable of applying it effectively, safely or commercially.

The answer cannot simply be more automated filtering. AIpowered recruitment should help organisations identify relevant experience, reduce repetitive administration and move strong candidates through the process faster. But technology must support informed human judgement rather than become a shortcut around it.

Speed is increasingly significant. iCIMS reported that applicants per opening had fallen to 30, while time to fill had reached 40 days. In a thinner candidate market, companies cannot afford cumbersome processes that allow qualified people to disappear between screening, interviews and offers.

There is also a competitive lesson hidden inside the training figures. Some 42 % of job seekers said an employer offering AI training would be more attractive than a comparable organisation that did not, while 14 % would accept lower pay in exchange for that development.

Businesses frequently describe AI as a technology transformation. The bigger challenge may prove to be a workforce transformation. Buying platforms is relatively straightforward. Building employees who understand how to use AI intelligently is harder.

The organisations that win will not necessarily be those with the most aggressive AI recruitment filters. They will be those that can recognise transferable capability, validate real skills and continue developing people after they are hired.

Workers are already signalling their willingness to learn. Employers now need to catch up. If companies want an AI-ready workforce, they cannot outsource responsibility for creating one to employees, job candidates or algorithms. •

18

INTELLIGENT CIO NORTH AMERICA www. intelligentcio. com