Why AI readiness starts with people, not platforms

By Kim Basile, Chief Information Officer 

The global workforce is undergoing a profound shift.

More than three-quarters of business executives anticipate that artificial intelligence will completely transform roles and responsibilities at their organizations within the next year, according to the most recent Kyndryl Readiness Report. At the same time, leaders feel mounting pressure to scale innovation and deliver returns on AI investments. 

But here’s a critical snag: only 29% of those same leaders say their workforces are ready to leverage the technology. Closing that gap — between adoption and ability — will be critical to getting this great workforce transition right.

While leaders are right to be cautious amid the AI hype, the opportunities to increase productivity, boost efficiency, and future-proof operations are no longer hypothetical. Realizing those benefits depends on people. Workforce trust will be the cornerstone that determines which organizations thrive and which fall behind as AI redefines the workplace.

At this tipping point, many leaders are taking a new approach to building trust — first and foremost by involving their workforce more directly in AI implementation. Some 44% of leaders in the space say they’re involving employees in implementation. This shift reflects a deeper understanding of what drives successful transformation: when people are empowered to play a greater role in how technology is deployed, they are more likely to trust in its use.

It’s also what many employees want. A recent study from Stanford University found that while workers welcome AI’s ability to automate repetitive tasks, they strongly favor a collaborative approach with AI — one that resembles an equal partnership. Treating employees as partners in transformation offers autonomy, ownership, and genuine influence over impactful decisions. 

As leaders work to transform resistance into readiness, they have multiple paths to foster a greater sense of workforce agency — from equipping teams with the right skills and encouraging co-creation to giving employees greater input in setting AI guardrails.

Given that nearly half of leaders report concern about having the right skills to make the most of AI, the first step is skills investment. Organizations must provide diverse, continuous, and personalized learning opportunities to help workers fully engage with — and benefit from — AI technologies.

One practical way to accelerate readiness is through early exposure to AI tools. The chance to experiment ahead of broader implementation offers hands-on training, encourages feedback, and makes employees active participants in AI adoption.

Leaders can also empower employees as co-creators by inviting them to propose potential AI use cases. The best AI problem-solving often comes from frontline workers who understand business challenges most intimately. 

Agentic AI is further expanding opportunities for participation by democratizing access to capabilities once limited to technical experts. Thanks to low- and no-code tools, employees without coding experience are now building their own AI agents to automate tasks, surface customer insights, and identify real-time trends.

Even in governance, organizations can involve employees more directly. Because AI lacks empathy, ethics, and the ability to evaluate complex trade-offs, people will always be essential to minimizing risk and cultivating trust. Creating ethical guidelines is one key action many organizations are taking to build workforce confidence in AI, according to the Kyndryl Readiness Report. 

However, researchers behind a recent survey inspired by an MIT course on AI rules found that businesses may be overlooking a critical dimension of governance by keeping it fully centralized. Giving teams a voice in writing AI rules, they argue, will be crucial to achieving ROI. This approach not only strengthens buy-in but also leaves room for experimentation — allowing employees to fail fast and course-correct in the year ahead.

As leaders continue to foster this sense of agency, they must also communicate with transparency. Employees are three times as likely to feel prepared to work with AI when they believe leadership has communicated a clear plan for AI integration, according to Gallup. Clear, consistent, two-way communication builds trust — but it must be backed by visible action. 

At this tipping point, the organizations that thrive will be those that put employees at the center of change — turning AI from a perceived threat into a trusted collaborator. Success will be clear when the conversation shifts from what AI may eliminate to what value it adds, with people understood as indispensable to progress.