Organisations are fearful that they will be unable to complete in the market if workers fail to develop their technical skills in response to advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies, according to The Learnovate Centre's annual survey.

More than 140 people involved in various industries were polled by the Trinity-based global research and innovation centre in learning technologies and the future of work.

The survey found that the number of respondents planning to prioritise the development of their technical skills has increased 41% from 33% 12 months ago. Learnovate believes the increase is due to the growing role of AI in the market.

The survey also found that growing scrutiny over budgets for training and upskilling is putting organisations under increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of their investments in learning.

Some 36% of respondents plan to prioritise demonstrating the impact of learning on business metrics in the next year, while 30% rated "budget restraints" among their top three challenges.

Information and data literacy is among the top three digital skills challenges for 24% of respondents, an increase of nine percentage points in the past 12 months.

Almost all learning professionals are interested in exploring the use of AI, an increase of eight percentage points since 2023, while interest in micro learning and big data has increased by 11 and eight points, respectively, in the same period.

Among the changes to technology that those surveyed would most like to see in the next 12 months, 21% of respondents said they wanted improved learner engagement or experience.

This was followed by technology optimisation and AI integration (19%) and demonstrating impact (16%).

A shortage of staff skilled in data analysis has also left organisations unable to develop actionable insights from the volumes of information produced by AI.

Of the 141 respondents, a third (32%) are involved in learning and development or human resources, and a quarter (23%) are employed as educators, lecturers or trainers.

The remaining respondents were employees in learning software or content development (16%), company founders (14%), self-employed (8%), or involved in research or academia (7%). Some 86% of the respondents were based in Ireland.

“The findings of the Learnovate Learning Signals Survey 2024 show that the rapid development of AI is making workers more aware of the shortfall between their existing technical skills and the skills required to fully utilise these new technologies," said Nessa McEniff, director of Learnovate.

"It also reveals a need to shift towards improving data literacy, a development which we believe is down to the growth of data volumes and AI technology, with ‘data overload’ leading to stagnation in decision-making and business development.

“Measuring impact of learning is something that has been on Learnovate’s agenda for some time.

"That the survey reveals growing concerns around budget restraints and demonstrating impact of learning only further highlights the direction that research and development will be heading in this area.”

Photo: Nessa McEniff. (Pic: Paul Sharp/SHARPPIX)