The pilot also showed that it would only take six months for people to be reskilled for new roles in completely different functions. An IT manager at Walmart, for example, already had a 50% match on the skill sets required to be a product manager.

Not only is it possible to retrain for other roles, these kinds of transitions to emerging roles are ones workers probably would not have identified for themselves, which shows upskilling is as much about training as it is about helping people spot opportunities.

“Based on people’s own interest and learning preferences, you can help bridge the skills gap in a very customized way,” says Mayuri Ghosh, Strategy & Public-Private Partnerships, Future of Consumption Platform at the World Economic Forum.

“It’s no longer just about your degree or your qualifications, it’s a culture and mindset shift.”

“Every individual conversation needs to be had,” says Leena Nair, Chief Human Resources Officer at Unilever.

“That opens the aperture of possibilities for people. They have more chance of seeing something that’s in line with their passions, rather than just, ‘You’re in manufacturing, so here’s this set of roles you can do’. We’ve been working for a number of years on how we transition people into other jobs, but with pilots like this, we’re learning how we can do it even better.”

While the pilot answered all three of its questions, there were five key lessons that emerged.

1. Skilling is just smart business

Skilling people for new roles, even externally, is one of the smartest things a business can do, because of the impact organizations have on communities. Patrick Hull, VP of the Future of Work, Unilever says: “No longer will we look at someone in manufacturing as only able to fulfill a manufacturing job. Now we can look at how to match their purpose, passions and skills with roles in a variety of sectors, from healthcare to R&D to clean energy.”

2. The HR function must enable individual talent mobility

Data- and AI-driven insights empower people to make personal choices about their careers based on strengths, interests and other individual criteria. The HR function can support that decision-making process by providing career path options and learning opportunities.

3. AI is essential for eliminating bias

AI opens possibilities that people can’t see due to inherent biases. There is widespread evidence that women and people of colour under-represent their skills. It’s likely that responsible AI will help people shed more biases, create more equitable processes and more job pathways.

4. A culture change is required

A mindset shift among management is needed to foster a culture that recognizes the relationship between growing career opportunities for people and growing business. Amy Goldfinger, SVP, Global Talent at Walmart says: “You have to structure yourself as a company and as an enterprise to think about upskilling as a competitive advantage or as a business imperative, [rather than] doing it later when you have time to get to it.”

5. Cross-industry collaboration is an accelerator

Only so much can be accomplished if companies go it alone, rather than collaborating with other organizations to prepare people in their communities for the future of work. “Only jobs should be made redundant,” says Hull. “Not people.”

The Forum’s Ingilizian and Ghosh hope to scale up the pilot and bring other organizations on board.

“Together over the last years, we have defined our vision as an industry which puts people first and supports a culture of lifelong learning and personal growth to ensure workers remain productive and employable,” says Ingilizian. “We need to do it urgently and at scale.”

“We now have a proof of concept that our approach works,” says Ghosh. “The ambition is to scale the AI-driven pilot within Consumer Industries as well as cross-industry to create an ecosystem for both retention and redeployment in adjacent emerging jobs.”