Give employees time and space to become AI fluent, or be left behind

There is a growing, and possibly concerning, trend emerging in the workplace: Reports and surveys consistently show that recent graduates are entering the workforce with a higher degree of Generative AI fluency than many seasoned professionals. A July 2025 survey from Nexford University found that over a quarter of hiring managers now consider AI fluency a baseline, must-have requirement for applicants.

The easy conclusion is that universities have cracked the code on AI education. I believe the reality is far more insightful, and a critical lesson for every business leader.

The Myth of Formal Training

While some universities are integrating AI into their coursework, this isn’t the primary reason for this fluency gap. The advantage new graduates have isn’t access to better formal training; it’s access to a better informal learning environment.

Their secret weapon is unstructured time. They have the space to experiment, read, and trial different AI tools and prompting techniques without the pressure of an immediate project deadline. They are sharing their findings in study groups, discussing what works, and learning from each other in a collaborative, low-stakes community.

This is the very environment that is often absent in the professional world, where every hour is expected to be billable or directly tied to a deliverable.

The Cost of “No Time to Learn”

By not creating this space, businesses are inadvertently throttling their own potential. A 2025 PwC Global AI Jobs Barometer shows that industries most exposed to AI are seeing productivity growth nearly quadruple. And the demand for AI skills is skyrocketing.

We expect our teams to adopt these revolutionary tools, and we are often frustrated when the promised productivity gains fail to materialise, or that our team members aren’t coming up with proposals for AI-enabled optimisations. We assume the technology is not quite there yet, or that our people are resistant to change.

We are asking them to learn to fly while they are sprinting on a treadmill.

Without dedicated time to learn, experiment, and fail safely, genuine adoption will remain superficial.

A Strategy for Closing the Gap: Replicate the University Environment

If we want our teams to achieve the fluency our newest members possess, we must intentionally replicate the conditions that foster it. This is not about sending everyone on a one-day training course. It requires a cultural shift built on four pillars:

1. Mandate Learning Time: This is the most critical step. Leaders must formally sanction and protect time for AI experimentation. Block out “AI Exploration Hours” in calendars. Frame it not as “downtime,” but as a core part of professional development essential for the future of the business.

2. Provide the Tools and a Safe Space: Equip your team with access to various AI tools. And, crucially, create a dedicated space: a Teams channel, a Slack group, an internal forum. Somewhere they can share prompts, post their interesting or failed outputs, and ask questions without fear of judgement.

3. Foster a Community of Practice: Encourage early adopters to run informal “show and tell” sessions. Create opportunities for peer-to-peer learning where a marketing specialist can show a finance colleague a new technique they have discovered. This organic sharing builds confidence and accelerates learning across the organisation far more effectively than any top-down training programme.

4. AI leadership: The above 3 pillars cannot be achieved without an approachable, engaged and open leader coordinating efforts, creating introductions, leading explorations and helping mentor and shape proposals and pilots. This shouldn’t be someone technical and it shouldn’t be someone too senior to be in-approachable. They should be given the autority and remit to develop AI fluency within the organisation from the top down. Think Product Manger/Change Manager/Business Process Analyst level (although you’ll probably need to recruit/promote to “Head of” or Director level).

Investing in this learning culture is not a cost; it is the foundational work required to unlock the immense value of Generative AI. We cannot expect our teams to lead the charge into an AI-driven future if we do not give them the time to learn how to march.

How are you creating the space for your teams to learn and experiment with AI?

Hashtags: #GenerativeAI #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Upskilling #LearningAndDevelopment #AIStrategy #Productivity