InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell | January 2024

Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Tools and training for a future-ready business
Amy Loomis, Ph.D. Tom Mainelli
Research Vice President, Group Vice President,
Future of Work, IDC Device and Consumer Research, IDC
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Table of Contents
CLICK BELOW TO NAVIGATE TO EACH SECTION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

In This InfoBrief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Diverse GenAI Use Cases Will Require Skills

Development Across a Broad Set of Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Artificial Intelligence and GenAI Fundamentally
Change Work Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 GenAI Will Impact Many Business Areas Driving
Investment in Employee Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Evolution of Flexible Work Models Enabled
by GenAI Includes Familiar Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Intelligent Devices Are Vital Foundations for
Enabling Access to Key Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Without Deployment Planning, Automation
Can Be a Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Promise of GenAI Will Be Realized with
Investment in Human and Technical Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Skills Development and Automation Top the List
of Enduring Work Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Essential Guidance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

AI-Enabled Digital Skills Training Is a About the IDC Analysts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Top Investment for Business Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Message from the Sponsor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
2
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

In This InfoBrief
This InfoBrief draws upon primary survey research from IDC to explore key
challenges and requirements for companies as they better prepare their
workers to succeed in an era of AI-enabled businesses.

• As businesses face ongoing challenges to find top talent and rely

increasingly on AI and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to
augment their workforce, they must consider key areas of upskilling
and cross-skilling, and the technologies to fully equip employees
securely, simply and at scale. This approach enables organizations
achieve goals for productivity and growth.
• To broadly attract and keep employees, organizations need to offer
hardware, software and services that deliver a parity of experience for
workers across remote, field and on-site locations. This requires laptops
and other hardware devices to be purpose-built for secure support of
AI-enabled work practices.
• AI and GenAI solutions inform new approaches to drive productivity
and support employee upskilling and cross-skilling. They are also driving
deeper dependencies between hardware and software in a way that will
be foundational for defining transformational work practices.

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 3
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Artificial Intelligence and GenAI Fundamentally

Change Work Practices
These technologies are enabling employees to learn new more seamless and efficient ways of working.
Enterprises already find it difficult to keep pace with the speed and complexity of modern work requirements.
Now they must consider how AI and GenAI capabilities will evolve work and new skills development practices.

By 2027, 40% of Enterprises will leverage Organizations will Among global For 41% of
current job roles personalized technology spend $346 billion on organizations, 47% organizations,
will be redefined or skills development products and services say that investments IT training and skills
eliminated across to drive $1 trillion in to implement GenAI in skills and digital development is
G2000 organizations productivity gains from 2024 to 2027. training of employees the most important
accelerated by by 2026, enabled by will be their most investment for
GenAI adoption. GenAI and automation enduring technology improving employee
everywhere. investment through experience and
2024, followed productivity across their
by investments in workforces.
generative AI solutions
cited by 46%.

Sources: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Work 2024; IDC’s GenAI Implementation Market Outlook: Worldwide Core IT Spending for GenAI Forecast, 2023–2027; IDC Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, Wave 5, June 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 4
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

The Evolution of Flexible Work Models Enabled

by GenAI Includes Familiar Challenges
Organizations are experimenting with different flexible work policies which all require investment in
hardware and software to ensure an equity of experience for all workers across locations.

Top Technology Challenges for Organizations Deploying Flexible Work Models

Security across endpoints, networks, applications, cloud. . . . . . . . . . 44%

IT support for remote workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44%

Secure remote access to data, applications and content . . . . . . . . . . . 41%

Technology consistency across remote and on-site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41%

Visibility into IT assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34% Only 6%

of organizations report
Managing multiple devices and operating systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33% “no challenges.”

Internet connectivity issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31%

n = 1,107 (North America = 400); Source: IDC’s Global Future of Work Survey, April 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 5
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Without Deployment Planning,

Automation Can Be a Challenge
Lacking focus on employee communication, investment in IT support
and employee training, organizations are challenged to realize the benefits
of automation and they may even amplify organizational shortcomings.

Greatest Challenges to Deploying Automation Technologies

Employees are concerned that automation will

threaten their jobs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45%

Lack needed IT support for successful

automation deployment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43%

Lack of training for use of self-service automation

tools (low/no code apps). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39%

Challenge in making business case for automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36%

Difficulty keeping up with automation requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33%

None of the above. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%

n = 1,107 (North America = 400); Source: WW Future of Work (FoW) Survey, IDC, April 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 6
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Skills Development and Automation Top

the List of Enduring Work Investments
Business growth regulates technology investments and skill training to enable employees.
In this way employees are better able to meet client needs across locations and devices.

Top Enduring Work Practices and Tech Investments in North America

Top Desired Business Outcomes

Increased operational efficiency 47% 46% 42%

Improved employee productivity Investments in skills Investments in automation Investments in cloud-based

enhancement and digital including generative AI connectivity and collaborative
trainings for employees applications
Cost savings

Revenue growth
33% 28%
Improved customer satisfaction
Impact of employee experience Location and device-agnostic
on customer experience intelligent digital workspaces
n = 1,014; Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey, Wave 5, IDC, June 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 7
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

AI-Enabled Digital Skills Training Is a Top

Investment for Business Growth
Investments in automation, cloud, and new flexible work models require ongoing training
for employees, and the training itself is enhanced by AI, GenAI, and automation.

Which work practices and technology investments are most relevant to business growth?

41%
39% 38%
36%
33%

57% of organizations
say skills training on
codeless development
is a key requirement for
Skills enhancement Automation including Cloud-based connectivity Flexible work models Reimagined physical
employees to automate
and digital trainings generative AI and collaborative workplaces their own work.
for employees applications

n = 952; Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey, Wave 2, March 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 8
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Diverse GenAI Use Cases Will Require Skills

Development Across a Broad Set of Applications
What GenAI use cases do you anticipate having Business Outcomes
the most promise for your organization?

Workers can update their knowledge with real-time,

52% Knowledge management applications relevant, and accurate information.

42% Marketing applications Marketers can rapidly create written and visual marketing materials.

41% Code generation applications Developers can auto-generate code to automate routine tasks and workflows.

39% Design applications Designers can create customized content using natural language descriptors.

End users can rapidly access and summarize information across

37% Conversational applications LLMs using conversational prompts.

n = 952; Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey, Wave 2, March 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 9
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

GenAI Will Impact Many Business Areas,

Driving Investment in Employee Productivity
Automation, AI, and GenAI capabilities will drive speed to proficiency for new
and transferred employees — especially in key areas of the business.

Top 5 Investments to Improve Employee Productivity In which two business areas do you think generative AI could
Through 2024 make the most impact in the next 18 months?

Data analytics and project management tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37% Marketing/PR R&D

Supply Chain Sales

Manufacturing
HR Customer engagement Finance
AI assistants like Chat GPT, Bard, Copilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35%

Collaboration tools in support of flexible work models . . . . . . . . . . 31% 2

Product
Performance management tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30% 1 development/
Software design
Process automation software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30% development

n = 1,014; Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey, Wave 5, IDC, June 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 10
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Intelligent Devices Are Vital Foundations

for Enabling Access to Key Resources
AI capabilities will be a key factor in PC and peripheral purchase decision to enable organizations
to realize the full benefits of digital training, access to data, people and applications.

Technologies to Support Employee Engagement Importance of AI capabilities in Next PC Purchase Criteria

45% 80%
Investing in training and skills development

43% 34%
Intelligent digital workspace technology
29%
37%
Improved communication and collaboration tools 20%
36%
Automation technologies to simplify repetitive tasks 11% 11%
9%
6%
35%
Investment in hardware and peripheral devices
Top factor Critical Very important Somewhat Not important Too soon
to support on-site and remote work important at all to tell

n = 1,107 (North America = 400); Source: IDC’s Global Future of Work Survey, April 2023 n = 414; Source: IDC’s 2023 Commercial PCD Survey, August 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 11
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

The Promise of GenAI Will Be Realized with

Investment in Human and Technical Development
Training and a foundational ecosystem of intelligent software and devices will ensure
organizations realize the full potential of work transformation from GenAI.

Greatest Impact of GenAI on Work Transformation

32% 29% 27%

Saving employee time Enabling faster Integrating workflows — facilitate

and productivity gains decision-making and use of multiple applications,
execution of repetitive tasks more coordinated work

Only 4%
24% 21% 21% of organizations don’t
foresee GenAI having
any impact on our work
Generating operational and Improving employee Improving customer transformation.
personalized training programs experience engagement
(e.g., training/upskilling)

n = 1,014; Source: IDC’s Future of Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey, Wave 5, June 2023

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 12
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Essential Guidance

1 Examine your company’s current upskilling programs and map out

updates that factor in GenAI roadmap, policies, and future use cases.

Determine priority business outcomes: Conduct a Proof of Concept (POC) behind

2 the firewall to quickly launch GenAI for target use cases and determine necessary
skills training going forward.

3 Establish a COE or formal partnership between business and IT stakeholders to align on

use cases, necessary security, training needs and top business areas for deployment.

4 Ensure investments target hardware, software and services and calibrate processing,
latency and security requirements to hardware refresh cycles and budget planning.

Thoughtfully promote employee benefits, including improved professional proficiency, time

5 savings, and better decision making based on integrated workflows that will give workers
agency and drive engagement.

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 13
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

About the IDC Analysts

Amy Loomis, Ph.D. Tom Mainelli
Research Vice President, Group Vice President,
Future of Work, IDC Device and Consumer Research, IDC

Amy Loomis is Research Vice President for IDC’s worldwide Future of Work Tom manages the Device and Consumer Research Group, which covers a broad
market research service. In this role, Amy covers the growing influence of range of hardware categories, inclusive of both home and enterprise markets,
technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, augmented as well as IDC’s growing consumer research practice. The device research includes
and virtual reality, and intelligent process automation in changing the nature of PCs, tablets, smartphones, wearables, smart home products, thin clients, displays,
work. Her research looks at how these technologies influence workers’ skills and and virtual and augmented reality headsets. He also manages IDC’s supply-side
behaviors, organizational culture, worker experience, and how the workspace research team that tracks display and ODM production across a wide range of
itself is enabling the future enterprise. products. IDC’s consumer practice, built upon its Consumer Technology Strategy
Service, tracks numerous consumer-focused metrics utilizing frequent surveys
and IDC-branded indexes. The consumer research also includes in-depth services
More about Amy Loomis, Ph.D. focused on gaming and video. In his role as group vice president, he works closely
with company representatives, industry contacts, and other IDC analysts to
provide in-depth insight and analysis across a wide range of both commercial and
consumer topics. He also oversees the collection of historical shipment data and
the forecasting of shipment trends in cooperation with IDC’s Tracker organization.
A frequent public speaker, he travels often and enjoys the opportunity to work
with colleagues and clients all over the world.

More about Tom Mainelli

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 14
 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era

Message from the Sponsor

The move toward working everywhere has created new opportunities

to inspire ingenuity and unlock great ideas. Combine creativity
and technology to transform those ideas into innovations that lead
to meaningful work.
With Dell Technologies, you’ll seize the power of Gen-AI-ready devices
and empower everywhere work to accelerate new levels of productivity,
secure workspaces, and advance sustainability. Together, let’s transform
work and innovate everywhere.

For more information on Dell Generative AI Solutions please visit Dell.com/ai

InfoBrief, sponsored by Dell

January 2024 | IDC #US51331823
Table of Contents 15
IDC Custom Solutions produced this publication. The opinion, analysis, and research results presented
herein are drawn from more detailed research and analysis that IDC independently conducted and
published, unless specific vendor sponsorship is noted. IDC Custom Solutions makes IDC content
available in a wide range of formats for distribution by various companies. This IDC material is licensed
for external use and in no way does the use or publication of IDC research indicate IDC’s endorsement
of the sponsor’s or licensee’s products or strategies.

IDC Research, Inc.

140 Kendrick Street, Building B, Needham, MA 02494, USA
T +1 508 872 8200

@idc @idc idc.com

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services,
and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.
With more than 1,300 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and
industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC’s analysis and insight helps IT professionals,
business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve
their key business objectives.

©2024 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved. CCPA