Deloitte Finds That Organizations Must Upskill in AI and Partners with Schulich ExecEd to Deliver

Posted on May 20, 2020
Deloitte Finds That Organizations Must Upskill in AI and Partners with Schulich ExecEd to Deliver

Organizations in every sector are struggling to attract, recruit and retain people with the skills needed to help them succeed in a digitized, automated, AI-driven world.

The lack of AI talent and data literacy skills is creating a significant obstacle to organizations’ efforts to adopt and capitalize on AI and related technologies. Deloitte research has found that only 16 percent of organizations have adopted AI as of 2019. Other research shows that a mere 8 percent of organizations engage in core practices that could even support the widespread adoption of AI and analytics, and that that majority of firms’ AI efforts involve ad hoc pilot programs or are confined to a single business process. Upskilling these organizations’ workforces – from executives to managers to employees – can help organizations embed both a broad understanding of what AI and related technologies can do and the skills and capabilities to make it happen. Indeed, 63 percent of Canadian executives feel their organizations will face a skills gap in the next two years.

Now is the time for individuals and organizations to make deliberate, significant investments in learning to equip their people with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities needed to work effectively in a digitized, automated world – and to build and consume AI-powered insights.

To that end, Deloitte and the Schulich ExecEd (Schulich ExecEd) are co-launching The Data & Analytics Fundamentals Academy, a six-and-a-half-day unique educational opportunity designed to help Canadian executives and analytics practitioners in industry quickly close the knowledge gap at the operational level in an organization with a first cohort taking place in July.

To underscore the need for individuals and organizations to urgently invest in their data literacy, we have created a piece of thought leadership entitled The Upskilling Imperative: Building a future-ready workforce for the AI age. Having surveyed experts in AI and analytics as well as top business executives, we identify a massive gap in skill and investment in analytic capabilities that the labour market cannot meet. In essence, we’ve created a ‘how to’ guide to get our clients started, access and share this piece of thought leadership.

Join us on May 26 at 10am for a virtual Fireside Chat with our program founders Audrey Ancion (Deloitte) and Professor Murat Kristal (Schulich) to explore the Upskilling Imperative and why increasing your data literacy skills now is critical. Audrey and Murat will explore questions about market forces that are hastening the advent of digitization and analytics, shifts in traditional educational models, and the demand in the labour market for data literacy. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.