[ITmedia Enterprise] 60% of large companies entrust work to AI What will happen to companies that do not invest in human resource development?

AI talent development and governance are two areas where IDC predicts that revenue growth will be 50% lower if companies fail to invest. "Leaders won't be able to solve everything this year, but by making decisions and committing to work now, they will be better prepared to take advantage of the AI-first transition in 2029," said Rick Villars, Group Vice President Worldwide Research at IDC, regarding the timeframe in which they can make this decision.

Billers first addressed off-the-bill costs for hardware. "It's more of a people issue, a talent issue, and the decisions people make about which models to use," he said of why leaders feel they're not getting value from their AI investments.

One of the costs of postponing is the cost of acquiring human resources. IDC predicts that this acquisition cost will double to triple for organizations that postpone investment in AI talent beyond 2027. This is because demand for AI talent exceeds supply regardless of industry. IDC says organizations that make investments before the end of 2027 will be exempt from this increase.

IDC also presents research-based comparisons. According to IDC's Future of Work Survey (Note 2), organizations not seeing returns from AI reported revenue growth of 18.5%, half the 37.0% growth rate for organizations with the highest returns. IDC distinguishes that this number is a comparison between research groups and that the 50% lower revenue growth figure is a prediction. Companies with a mature center of excellence (CoE), the specialized organization responsible for AI governance, were 63% more likely to give AI autonomy in complex tasks, nearly four times the 15% rate among companies with a less mature CoE.

IDC predicts that the nature of work will also change. By 2029, G2000 companies will move 30% of their entry-level and mid-level hands-on roles to oversee and manage AI agents. IDC expects that a shrinking and aging talent pool will result in a shortage of new hires to fill these supervisory and supervisory roles, leading companies to reskill existing employees to fill these roles.

IDC advises investing in AI talent and governance in three time periods:

IDC indicates that the CIO and CHRO will be responsible for this initiative, and the CFO (chief financial officer) will be responsible for modeling risk. The company cites metrics such as the percentage of AI agent deployments that include learning plans with skill goals and budgets.

The webinar discussed two other decisions that remain: the role of a "knowledge architect" who sets standards for the knowledge that AI agents rely on, and the use of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) that vendors station at customer companies. The FutureScape 2027 Top 10 Predictions report highlights Billers' words: “Organizations that postpone investments in governance, talent, and knowledge architecture through 2027 will find the costs of catching up rising faster than budget adjustments can cover.”