On the 26th February, legal firm Mills & Reeve welcomed the Harvey Nash Leeds team to their offices as we screened our latest ‘Tech Flix’ documentary, ‘The AI Skills Paradox: AI is Scaling, Skills are Not’ for the first time.
The sixth edition of our documentary series explores a paradox at the heart of the tech sector, where, despite surging demand, we’re seeing relatively little evidence of organisations upskilling their own staff.
According to the latest edition of the Harvey Nash Digital Leadership Report, there has been an 83% year-on-year rise in the level of demand for professionals with AI skills. This is the single biggest rise in any skill set we’ve ever reported. At its core, the documentary examines what those skills actually are and the impact this pressure is having on the decisions made by organisations and their leaders.
From documentary to debate
The documentary has a run-time of 30-minutes, and whilst it gathers insights from the likes of Arm, Genio, Audacia, and the Tony Blair Institute, there is still a huge amount of room left for debate.
After screening the film, David Savage (Harvey Nash Group Technology Evangelist) was joined by Iain Murdoch (Mills & Reeve), Hannah Bruce (Lloyds Banking Group), and Jennifer Anderson (National Wealth Fund) to explore what strategies and actions are key to ensuring people harness AI and use it to a positive effect.
The debate was lively with regular questions and perspectives from the audience. Leadership was brought into sharp focus, primarily the role of leaders in being seen to embrace and use new AI tools themselves. Top-down sponsorship is not a new concept, but it does seem to carry significant importance where the successful adoption of AI tooling is concerned. The panel stressed the importance of creating real permission to experiment, making it clear where AI can be used, setting guardrails, and reassuring teams they’re supported to test and learn without fear of getting it wrong.
In a week where reports have emerged that Accenture is tying promotion to the use of AI, it was put to the panel that they might also consider a move to ensure AI is used across their organisation. Whilst Lloyds do have mandatory AI training for all employees, all three leaders stopped short of making AI part of the promotion process, calling the approach absolutist. Encouraging AI adoption is critical, but mandating it too rigidly was seen as potentially creating the wrong behaviours.
Risk, responsibility and cautious optimism
Whilst questions on the failure rates of AI and its inherent sexism also came from the floor, the panel sought to create a positive narrative. Whilst acknowledging the issues, there was recognition of the pace of change and the need to build flexibility into policies and systems. The industry’s response may not have been perfect, but leaders are adapting, and the opportunities are too significant to ignore.
Iain Murdoch cited the creation of new roles and the approach of Mills & Reeve to experiment with AI for good within its own organisation as reasons to remain optimistic.
With ‘Big Tech’ and ‘Tech Bros’ receiving criticism from the floor, Alex Newman (Partner at Mills & Reeve) used his closing remarks to remind the room that “the tool isn’t the problem” and that it was important to keep persevering with the implementation and use of AI.
There was also a note of caution for individuals, that if you don’t keep learning and adapting, someone else will. Whilst organisations have a responsibility to their employees, self-determined continuous learning was seen as crucial.
Although this is a challenging and frantic period to navigate, the overall feeling in the room was one of cautious optimism, balanced with a healthy dose of accountability.
Watch ‘The AI Skills Paradox: AI is Scaling, Skills are not’ from March 9th.
