Nearly 40% of workers’ skills will become outdated or transformed over the next five years, according to The Future of Jobs Report 2025 from the World Economic Forum. The good news is that this number has been trending downward since 2020, and researchers believe this slowdown may be linked to more workers engaging in training, reskilling or upskilling.
This seems to indicate that workplace learning builds employee resilience, intensifying the pressure on HR leaders to upskill and reskill their workforce to stay competitive. According to Heather Jerrehian, vice president of product management for employee workflows at ServiceNow, organizations must fully commit to workforce planning based on employee skills development, leveraging AI at every step.
Jerrehian says companies that proactively invest in employee learning and development will gain a strategic edge. She highlights three key benefits of prioritizing L&D: A skilled workforce keeps businesses competitive, enhances efficiency and innovation, and boosts employee loyalty while reducing turnover.
AI’s role in workforce planning
Jerrehian emphasizes that AI can be a game-changer in workforce development, helping leaders embrace the momentum of upskilling strategies. The challenge, she notes, lies in the maturity curve of AI adoption.
While many organizations recognize AI’s potential, not all are fully engaged in leveraging it for workforce development. This is reflected in HR Executive’s What’s Keeping HR Up at Night? survey, which found that a scant 5% of HR leaders cited AI as a key technology, prioritizing HRIS, payroll and performance management tools. However, 34% identified AI—including generative and agentic AI—as a top future need.
To ramp up adoption, Jerrehian says, HR leaders must take on a change management role, guiding employees to understand how AI can augment their work and why literacy in data and analytics is essential.
Read more: Building an employee skills roadmap, from IBM and ServiceNow
Workforce visibility and strategic AI integration
According to Jerrehian, the impact of workplace AI use varies by country and industry, making it critical for HR leaders to have visibility into how AI augmentation will affect their workforce. This oversight is particularly crucial for industries facing workforce shortages due to aging populations. “AI has had us confront our humanness,” Jerrehian observes. Companies are now trying to figure out the core skills needed for the future.”
She says HR leaders must cultivate insight into aggregate skills across the workforce, individual employee aspirations and skills gaps that could hinder future team and leadership effectiveness. This understanding allows organizations to identify transferable skills and move employees from declining roles into high-demand positions, says Jerrehian.
Workforce planning in the AI era
“Every boardroom is talking about this,” Jerrehian states, referring to future-proofing their teams and leaders as AI applications grow. “They want to know how to face the future competitively—not just for today, but for the long term.”
She emphasizes that in an era of rapid technological change, “short term is long term.” The goal is to achieve workforce visibility that maximizes productivity from both AI and people. Jerrehian champions the “build, buy, borrow or bot” approach as a fundamental shift in workforce planning.
Rising to the challenge, the role of CHROs is evolving to merge business strategy with people strategy, says Jerrehian. By harnessing AI-driven skills development, HR leaders can future-proof their organizations, ensuring both their people and their businesses thrive in an ever-changing landscape.
“This is complex,” she acknowledges. “Just get started.”
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