Kyndryl warns AI adoption is outpacing workforce readiness

Kyndryl has published its 2026 People Readiness Report on AI adoption, finding that only 23% of organisations say their workforce is fully ready for AI.

The global survey of 1,100 senior business and technology leaders across eight countries points to a widening gap between the pace of AI deployment and companies' ability to adapt their staff, governance and operating models.

More than half of respondents, 57%, said AI is embedded in core business processes or deployed broadly across the enterprise. Yet only 32% said they had achieved at least one of their top two AI goals, and 11% said they had achieved both.

The findings suggest broader AI use has not translated into equivalent progress in organisational readiness. Workforce readiness fell six percentage points from the previous year even as adoption accelerated.

That tension is also visible in management concerns: 79% of leaders said the speed of AI would outpace their organisations' workforce, governance and operating models.

Readiness gap

The report argues that the main obstacle to returns from AI is no longer access to the technology, but whether companies are changing roles, workflows and oversight structures quickly enough.

Among surveyed organisations, 61% said they had already redesigned roles for an AI-led workplace. Another 24% said they were creating new roles focused on AI management.

Skills remain a persistent constraint. Just over half of respondents, 52%, said it had become harder to find employees with the right expertise to advance their AI strategy. Only a third said they had fully implemented training programmes to help staff work effectively with AI tools.

Trust also emerged as a central issue. Although 81% of organisations expect AI agents to make impactful decisions within the next year, only 25% said they completely trust AI systems operating without human oversight.

Governance frameworks remain uneven. A third of organisations said they had clear policies on which decisions AI can and cannot make, while 27% said they use a registry and monitoring system for all their AI systems.

Pacesetters group

Kyndryl identified a small group of organisations it called Pacesetters, representing 9% of respondents. These companies shared three traits: redesigning roles around AI, using change management so employees understand the new operating model and guardrails, and building workforce readiness.

According to the study, these organisations were more likely to produce measurable business results. They were 1.5 times more likely to achieve AI-related revenue growth and 1.6 times more likely to report stronger innovation in products and services.

The report also found this group was roughly twice as likely to have fully implemented every governance dimension measured. That link between oversight and business results is likely to draw attention as companies expand the use of autonomous systems.

AI spending remains strong across the market. Kyndryl cited a Gartner forecast that worldwide AI spending will reach USD $2.52 trillion in 2026, up 44% year on year.

Against that backdrop, the survey points to a mismatch between investment and internal preparedness. The figures suggest many businesses are deploying AI tools faster than they are reshaping decision-making, accountability and employee support.

Kim Basile, Chief Information Officer at Kyndryl, said the challenge now extends beyond technical rollout. "This is a critical moment for global enterprises as they race to adopt AI, redesign workflows and pursue innovation, yet they're finding that their greatest assets - their people - need more attention," Basile said.

She added that organisations changing jobs and training were seeing a clearer payoff. "The data shows that the organizations investing in people - whether it's rethinking roles and workflows, dedicating resources for upskilling and retraining, or guiding employees through change - are experiencing positive outcomes at a much higher rate," Basile said.

Mark Paulek, Chief Human Resources Officer at Kyndryl, said the pace of workplace change is forcing companies to rethink how they organise labour and authority. "AI's ability to reshape work is challenging organizations to reshape their workforce more rapidly than ever before," Paulek said.

He said the strongest performers were adjusting skills and decision structures to fit new forms of work. "The leaders pulling ahead are aligning skills, roles and decision-making with how work is actually changing. When people understand their role in that system, trust and performance scale together," Paulek said.