Research from HiBob has found that while AI is rapidly becoming a workplace expectation across the UK, employers are taking different approaches to building the workforces needed to support it.
A study of UK business leaders responsible for hiring AI talent found more than three-quarters (77 per cent) expect AI proficiency to become a baseline requirement across most non-technical roles within the next two years. More than four in five (82 per cent) are investing in AI upskilling or reskilling, while 80 per cent say they have a defined strategy for sourcing strong AI-skilled candidates.
Yet there is no clear blueprint for how organisations are building that capability. When it comes to attracting AI talent, no single approach has emerged as the dominant model: 35 per cent build talent communities and nurture sequences featuring AI content, 31 per cent use applicant tracking system tagging and 29 per cent rely on referral campaigns.
The same pattern is reflected in learning and development. Around one in three organisations provide funded AI learning (33 per cent), protected time for employees to practise with AI (33 per cent) or prompt and workflow libraries (31 per cent). This suggests employers are experimenting with a range of approaches rather than following a common model.
This comes as AI capability starts to influence workforce decisions. Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of organisations use AI skills when making promotion decisions, 61 per cent factor them into performance reviews and 31 per cent consider them when determining pay. Meanwhile, 97 per cent say they would pay at least a 10 per cent salary premium for at least one AI capability, underlining growing competition for AI-ready talent.
To help organisations define, evaluate, and operationalise the skills needed for AI-enabled work, HiBob is launching an AI Skills Framework and AI Skills Assessment guide.
Believing the next wave of workforce transformation will not be driven by more tools, but by better organisational intelligence, HiBob’s AI Skills Framework gives leaders a practical way to define the AI capabilities needed for different roles, providing the language and evidence to shape job expectations, guide employee development, and align talent decisions with business needs.
HiBob’s AI Skills Assessment Guide builds on this framework with a structured approach to evaluating AI skills during hiring, helping organisations identify the candidates best equipped for the roles they need to fill.
“Too many organisations are still trying to manage a changing workforce with disconnected systems and fragmented skills data,” said Ronni Zehavi, CEO and Co-founder of HiBob. “That is the wrong model for the AI era. The winners in the AI era will be the organisations that can define a shared language of skills, identify where capability truly sits, and pivot talent to where it creates the most value. That is the system we are enabling today.”
Zehavi concludes: ”Skills are no longer just a people topic. They are central to how organisations adapt, grow, and compete. With the AI Skills Framework, the AI Skills Assessment Guide, and Bob’s Skills and Jobs Catalogues, we are helping organisations move from abstract AI ambition to a more connected, practical, and actionable view of workforce capability.”
Together, these thought leadership resources and platform capabilities help organisations move beyond fragmented AI experimentation toward a more structured approach to workforce transformation. HiBob sees skills as more than an HR process. It sees them as a strategic layer of organisational intelligence, one that connects data across hiring, performance, learning and planning, and turns that insight into action.
The launch reflects HiBob’s broader view that organisations cannot adapt what they cannot understand. In a business environment shaped by constant change, skills are becoming essential workforce infrastructure, helping leaders build resilience, improve decision-making, and create the organisational intelligence needed for sustained performance.
