92% of staff can reskill for AI, HR says – but half of companies still hire outside

ZDNET’s key takeaways

- HR sees AI reskilling potential, but outside hiring outpaces internal moves.

- Limited visibility into AI skills makes reskilling opportunities hard to spot.

- Hiring externally often costs more and takes longer than reskilling.

HR leaders are confident that current employees can be trained for jobs created by artificial intelligence. Organizations are hiring externally instead.

That’s the finding in new research from Careerminds, a global provider of workforce solutions. The study, published in Careerminds’ white paper, The AI Redeployment Gap: What Companies Lose by Hiring over Reskilling, reveals that 92% of HR professionals and 88% of people managers believe employees within their organizations could be reskilled for AI-related roles.

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Yet 51% of HR professionals and 47% of people managers report that their organizations are hiring externally for new AI-related positions, compared with just 42% in each group who report redeploying existing employees.

The research was conducted in partnership with Censuswide and surveyed 595 US HR professionals and 547 US people managers, ages 25–65, working at organizations with 500-10,000 or more employees. The research was conducted May 15–26, 2026.

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“Companies are investing in AI while potentially overlooking one of their most valuable resources: the people they already employ,” said Mark Saddic, senior partner at Careerminds, in a press release.

Why companies struggle to identify employees for AI reskilling

Reskilling, especially for AI, isn’t easy to track. Limited visibility into individual skill sets and which employees should be reskilled was cited as a potential barrier by 43% of HR professionals and 34% of managers.

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It’s not the first time that the management of skills development has come up regarding AI. In September, educational giant Pearson agreed to acquire Workera, the AI-native skills platform used by organizations such as ServiceNow, Accenture, and the US Space Force.

Careermind’s data revealed that 87% of HR pros and 84% of managers believe their organizations are adequately considering reskilling employees for future roles. However, the findings suggest that these organizations may believe they are prioritizing internal talent development, even though their hiring practices reveal otherwise.

How AI hiring and reskilling differ by industry

Response to AI-related workforce needs isn’t equal across the board. The findings reveal significant differences in how industries are responding to these needs.

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For example, in the technology and telecom industries, external hiring outpaces redeployment by 15%. At the same time, media and entertainment is the only sector surveyed in which both groups report redeployment at least as frequently as external hiring. Among HR professionals in that industry, 56% report redeploying employees, compared with just 25% who hire externally.

And this divide is costly, too.

External hiring cost more than filling roles internally

Separate research from The Josh Bersin Company, cited in the Careerminds white paper, reveals that external hiring can cost three to five times more than filling comparable roles internally — and on average takes up to 20 days longer.