Dive Brief:

• Fewer than half of U.S. employees consistently use new ways of working after being trained to use them, according to a recent TalentLMS survey, indicating an adoption gap that may also affect how organizations transition in the era of artificial intelligence.
• Among the 1,500 employees surveyed who were to use AI at work, more than a third said they sometimes return to old work methods. The shift is often not entirely straightforward as 73% of employees mixed both old and new ways of working, and 60% said getting results was more important to their organizations than using a new method.
• The results speak to a phenomenon TalentLMS dubbed “habit hugging,” in which employees hold onto familiar processes amid rapid change. But employers also broadly struggle to prepare employees for the influx of tools and processes brought about by AI adoption, other research suggests.

Dive Insight:

Habit hugging may be a hurdle for employers, but it’s far from the only barrier to organizational transformation. For instance, many training programs have not kept pace with AI, a Randstad Digital report found earlier this year. The company said organizations may build new platforms faster than employees can learn to use them, and it noted that 1 in 4 workers globally had left their jobs over a lack of upskilling opportunities.

Part of the problem may lay with management: only 3% of decision-makers surveyed by ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions said their leaders were “highly prepared” to lead AI adoption at work, according to a July report. In addition, half of the CHROs in Gallup’s Global CHRO Roundtable in August said they lacked confidence in managers to guide workers in using AI.

Those data points speak to a key finding from TalentLMS, which noted that 49% of employees consistently adopted new ways of working when their managers also did so — compared to 22% of those whose managers did not.

“The real opportunity with AI is to free up human time and brainpower for higher-value work, like judgment, leadership, and problem-solving,” Dimitris Tsingos, CEO of TalentLMS’ parent company Epignosis, said in a press release. “But achieving that potential depends on making new ways of working an integral part of everyday work."

The role of learning and development leaders has changed dramatically thanks to AI. The technology necessitates upskilling and reskilling, one executive previously told HR Dive, both of which must be job- and person-specific. The technology also opens opportunities for more immersive learning sessions that replace older training forms.

And though tech-focused skills are a point of emphasis, L&D teams also must ensure that they are investing in human skills such as emotional intelligence, communication and collaboration, sources previously told HR Dive.