Learnovate survey shows employees across Ireland fear missing out on benefits of AI
Organisations are increasingly concerned that a failure to develop workers’ technical skills in response to advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies will leave them unable to compete in the market, according to The Learnovate Learning Signals Survey 2024.
The survey of more than 140 individuals across various industry sectors and found that the number of respondents who planned to prioritise the development of their technical skills increased from 33% in 2023 to 41% in 2024.
The survey revealed that growing scrutiny over budgets for training and upskilling put organisations under increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of their investments in learning, while a shortage of staff skilled in data analysis left organisations unable to develop actionable insights from the volumes of information produced by AI.
The survey also found that 41% of respondents planned to develop their technical skills in 2025; 36% planned 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 was among the top three digital skills challenges for 24% of respondents. Almost all learning professionals are interested in exploring the use of AI, while interest in micro learning and Big Data has increased by 11% and 8% respectively in the same period.
Among the changes to technology that respondents would most like to see in the next 12 months, 21% cited improved learner engagement or experience, followed by technology optimisation and AI integration (19%) and demonstrating impact (16%).
The respondents came from a variety of backgrounds, with more than one in three (32%) involved in learning and development or human resources and almost one in four (23%) 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 respondents were based in Ireland.
Learnovate director Nessa McEniff (pictured) said: “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. 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.”
The Learnovate Centre is a global future of work and learning research hub funded by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland and based at Trinity College Dublin.
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers