Get AI ready: What we’ve learned building AI competency at Microsoft
Like many organizations around the world, at Microsoft we’re constantly exploring ways to put AI to work—discovering how it can benefit our customers and partners, our workforce, and our business. One of our key findings is that AI skills and fluency are critical for making the most of this powerful technology. So organizations that provide their team members (technical and non-technical alike) with opportunities to cultivate and practice AI skills and fluency are building a solid foundation for the future, setting themselves up to lead in the AI era, and laying the groundwork to deliver incredible value for their customers. Microsoft Worldwide Learning Corporate Vice President Jeana Jorgensen understands this. She’s dedicated to inspiring and encouraging learners everywhere to build their digital skills so they can thrive in the era of AI. With her depth of knowledge and experience in this field, she recognizes that it can be challenging to plan modern and effective AI skill-building programs, that every organization’s path is unique, and that blueprints for successful AI training initiatives are scarce. Yet she has also witnessed firsthand that when new AI skills become daily habits, learners are more confident and empowered to achieve remarkable results—for themselves and for the business—and that this begins with training. In her blog post, Accelerate employee AI skilling: Insights from Microsoft, Jeana shares her insights about our internal employee skill-building initiatives. She offers practical ideas for skilling up your organization as you capitalize on the benefits of AI to support your employees and customers, create business value and growth, and foster innovation. For actionable approaches to AI learning, Jeana recommends our new e-book, 10 Best Practices to Accelerate Your Employees’ AI Skills. This e-book offers detailed guidance to support you in implementing innovative and effective AI skill-building programs for the many roles and proficiency levels at your organization. It explores helpful perspectives, best practices, and key takeaways from our experience as the first users of Microsoft’s AI apps and services and as creators and implementers of our own learning programs. The e-book points out that “those who effectively prepare their teams will be well-positioned to lead with AI,” and it shines a light on some of the best ways that we’ve found to develop and carry out crucial AI training initiatives. From establishing the foundations and making learning fun to setting guidelines for responsible use and working with existing resources, the e-book provides practical tips and principles for setting up your internal training programs to help launch your organization’s AI transformation. Discover more useful guidance in 10 Best Practices to Accelerate Your Employees’ AI Skills.Overcoming fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the era of AI transformation
Resistance to adopting AI in the workplace is real. For many, it’s not due to an unwillingness to change but rather from a genuine sense of “FUD”—that is, fear, uncertainty, and doubt—around AI. Constructively addressing FUD is essential to fostering a supportive learning culture that empowers people to thrive in the era of AI transformation so that you and your entire organization can thrive, too. At Microsoft, we’re the first to use and test our own AI technologies internally before releasing them to customers, so we recognize the need to understand the underlying causes of FUD, find positive ways to address them, and provide helpful solutions. We’ve also found that skilling up on AI and learning how it can streamline our workloads, improve our decision-making, and increase our productivity can reduce concerns and boost enthusiasm around this cutting-edge technology. Transforming fear into opportunity Probably the biggest fear in the workplace is that AI adoption might lead to job loss, but the reality is that a number of experts are optimistic. In Generative AI likely to augment rather than destroy jobs, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) predicts that AI “is more likely to augment than destroy jobs by automating some tasks rather than taking over a role entirely.” Many job roles will likely evolve to become hybrid—using AI to complement human work. Given this evolution of work, AI skills are in high demand, and this presents an opportunity for employees in nearly every discipline, field, industry, and role. Proactively building AI skills equips workers to adapt to the transforming workplace. And skilling up provides a meaningful way for them to overcome their fears and develop confidence in their capabilities and in the technology. Organizations that provide skill-building opportunities thus help not only their workers but also the organizations themselves. For details on resources, opportunities, and solutions for acquiring AI skills and competencies, read Get AI ready: Build skills with Microsoft Learn. Dispelling AI uncertainty with a learning culture The AI transformation is happening so fast that uncertainty is sometimes seen as the baseline, not the outlier. We’re all learning right now, in real time. As we test Microsoft AI apps and services, we’re actively figuring out what AI can do. Practically speaking, everyone in the workforce needs to put AI to work and see what it can do. An organizational learning culture can support these efforts and help dispel uncertainty. Ethan Mollick, Professor of Management at the Wharton School and a noted authority on AI and entrepreneurship, has found that the biggest gains come in organizations that encourage cooperative learning. In the Beyond the Prompt podcast episode titled What everybody’s missing about AI in business, he points out, “It starts with culture.” The episode also encourages listeners with this key takeaway: “Use AI for everything you can: The only way to truly understand AI's capabilities is to use it for as many tasks as possible.” Empowering your teams with AI training on Microsoft Learn for Organizations The consensus on overcoming AI FUD in organizations is that skills training and a learning culture are key, and a team training environment can greatly support this growth. Microsoft Learn for Organizations curates Microsoft Learn training for teams and organizations, including offerings to help build AI skills and confidence: Microsoft Learn for Organizations Playbook: A guide to skill up your team for AI and beyond. The playbook helps you to develop an AI skill-building plan, with resources to maximize your impact at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Links to AI skill-building for your organization, live webinars, and insights and strategies on building a learning culture. Links to the Copilot learning hub on Microsoft Learn, the AI learning hub on Microsoft Learn, and the Security hub on Microsoft Learn. Official Plans that cover the latest Microsoft AI apps and services, including “Build, test, and deploy applications securely with GitHub and Microsoft Azure,” “Implementing data integration and model grounding with Azure AI Studio and Microsoft Fabric,” and “Accelerate app development by using GitHub Copilot.” The latest Microsoft Credentials. These industry-trusted and Microsoft-verified credentials give learners the flexibility to grow the AI and cloud skills needed for critical roles or projects. Microsoft Certifications validate a wide range of skills required to be successful in a job role. Learners earn a Certification by passing an exam. AI-focused Certifications include “Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals” and “Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate,” among others. Microsoft Applied Skills validate skill sets specific to real-world technical scenarios. Learners earn them by passing interactive lab-based assessments on Microsoft Learn. More than half of the Applied Skills portfolio is focused on AI, including “Build a natural language processing solution with Azure AI Language,” “Create an intelligent document processing solution with Azure AI Document Intelligence,” and many more. Get started on your AI journey at Microsoft Learn for Organizations, and make the most of the many team training opportunities available there. As you and your teams begin to put newly acquired AI skills to use streamlining workloads, increasing collaboration, adding productivity, and more, we hope that the fear, uncertainty, and doubt around AI begin to fade and are replaced by enthusiasm for the many possibilities that the future of AI in the workplace presents. Learn Microsoft AI with our blog series: Get AI ready Check out other articles from our AI-focused series of blog posts exploring perspectives and opportunities to acquire critical AI skills. Get AI ready: Build skills with Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Community Hub Get AI ready: Inside the Copilot Learning Hub | Microsoft Community Hub Discover AI skill building with Microsoft Training Services Partners | Microsoft Community Hub Get AI ready: Empowering developers in the era of AI | Microsoft Community Hub
