While over 90% of HR professionals believe current employees can be trained for AI roles, more than half of US companies continue to prioritize external hires over reskilling, highlighting a notable disconnect in workforce strategy amid growing AI adoption.
- 92% of HR leaders back reskilling for AI roles but 51% still hire externally
- Skills visibility and transition pathways cited as major challenges
- Industry response to AI talent needs differs widely, with tech favoring external hires
What happened
A survey conducted in May 2026 by Careerminds, involving nearly 1,150 US HR professionals and managers, found that while the vast majority believe employees can be reskilled for AI-related jobs, a majority of companies nonetheless prefer to hire new talent externally for these positions. Specifically, 92% of HR professionals expressed confidence in the capacity of current employees to learn AI skills, but 51% reported their organizations recruiting from outside rather than redeploying existing staff.
The research also revealed challenges hampering internal reskilling efforts, including limited insight into individual employee skill sets and unclear mechanisms for transitioning workforce roles to align with AI-driven changes. These hurdles contribute to the ongoing preference for recruiting externally despite apparent organizational support for reskilling initiatives.
Why it matters
This disconnect between HR’s belief in employee adaptability and actual hiring practices suggests companies may be underutilizing their current workforce while facing higher recruitment costs and longer timeframes for external hires. Other industry research indicates that hiring externally can be three to five times more expensive and take significantly longer compared to promoting or retraining internal talent.
With nearly 70% of workers already using AI regularly, companies have an immediate opportunity to capitalize on this familiarity through targeted upskilling, potentially boosting productivity and employee engagement. Failure to develop clear reskilling pathways risks talent gaps and inefficiencies, especially as AI continues to reshape business operations across sectors.
What to watch next
Industry responses to AI talent needs are not uniform. The technology and telecommunications sectors demonstrate a stronger preference for external hiring over internal redeployment, whereas media and entertainment lead in reskilling efforts, with more organizations redeploying employees than hiring externally. Tracking these sectoral trends can offer insights into effective workforce transformation strategies aligned with AI integration.
Future developments to monitor include how organizations improve visibility into employee skills and establish formal processes to facilitate transitions into AI-focused roles. Partnerships and acquisitions, like Pearson’s purchase of the AI skills platform Workera, exemplify moves towards embedding AI-native tools in workforce development that could help close the AI redeployment gap.