Another AI tool won’t solve your problems. But AI training might

Every company wants to have an AI strategy: A bold vision to do more with less. But there’s a growing problem—one that few executives want to say out loud. AI initiatives aren’t delivering the returns they were hoping for.

In fact, many leaders now say they haven’t seen meaningful returns at all. IBM recently found that only 1 in 4 AI projects hit the expected ROI. And BCG’s research goes further still: 75% of businesses have seen no tangible value from their AI investments.

Stop buying tools your team doesn’t know how to use

The fix? Increase your investment in AI training to support your business transformation. The data tells a simple story. An Akkodis survey suggested only 55% of CTOs believe their executive teams have the AI fluency needed to grasp the risks and opportunities of the tech.

Yet, it is these same executives who are trying to reengineer entire workflows, teams, and business models around tools that their people barely understand. And when performance disappoints, the knee-jerk reaction is to buy even more tech. More platforms. More licenses. More dashboards.

But that only makes the problem worse. The teams that were struggling to learn one tool are now juggling five. Everyone’s overwhelmed. No one’s effective. And adoption flatlines. Even if you have the most advanced tech in the world, if your team doesn’t know how to use it effectively, it’s worthless.

Expand your training budget

But, equally, throwing money indiscriminately at AI education alone isn’t going to fix the problem. The training investment must be smart. And that means implementing training programs that are truly pan-company and aligned with the business objectives.

Too many businesses funnel their AI training into a tiny corner of their workforce—usually just their IT, engineering, or data teams. And while these teams do need support, they’re not the ones who are going to deliver the productivity gains that you are trying to realize.

That job falls to the rest of your company: the 90% working in frontline roles and business functions where the AI transformation will be felt most. Whether that’s operations, strategy, product development, sales, finance, marketing, HR, legal, or customer service.

These are the people who run your business. And if they don’t know how to apply AI to their day-to-day work, your transformation will stall. If the goal is to modernize the business end to end, your training needs to reach end to end.

Teach Data and AI literacy before you teach tools

At the same time, surface-level AI training that focuses only on tools—such as how to write a prompt, where to click, and how to navigate an interface—will also fall short. Effective AI training needs to build capability and not breed dependency.

The best results come when your people understand what’s happening under the hood. Don’t get me wrong, your team members don’t all need a PhD in computer science. But they do need solid data literacy. They need to know how to interrogate, interpret, and act on data.

The real value of data comes from understanding what it can actually do—seeing its potential and seizing it with both hands. Without even the most basic data skills, AI will create beautiful spreadsheets that can’t be acted on. And that’s not the revolution anyone had in mind.

Train your managers just as much—if not more

Equally, when it comes to AI training, there’s a myth I sometimes hear: Managers don’t need AI training because they’re not “doing the work.” Their job is to manage the team or set the vision, not run the tools. But that logic falls apart quickly.

Firstly, I can think of countless ways that AI can make managers more effective: being able to synthesise and extract lessons from performance data, providing their team with hands-on guidance on how to use AI, and spotting opportunities to reengineer workflows.

But, more importantly, it is the bad message that not training your managers sends to your wider team. It runs the risk of your wider company writing off your transformation as “hot air” and “warm words” rather than concrete, in-the-trenches implementation.

Wide-scale transformation needs managers who can lead by example. If you train the team but skip the managers, don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Build a culture that lets people use what they learn

Finally, even the best training program will fall flat if your workplace punishes people for using it. 

In many businesses, employees are quietly, and perhaps unconsciously, discouraged from using AI. There’s a genuine fear that if they’re seen to be using AI, they will be criticised for “cutting corners” or cheating. The result? Team members keep their heads down and go back to old habits.

In other companies, colleagues are afraid to give AI a go in the first place. They’re hamstrung by a fear that they’ll make a mistake or get something wrong. In both cases, your training budget goes to waste.

So, if you want this to work, you need to create a culture of experimentation and entrepreneurship, where trying something new is actively encouraged—and not seen as a risk—and where teams share learnings, trade prompts, and build real know-how together.

Too many companies are pinning their hopes on the next big AI tool. But no tool, no matter how powerful, will move the needle if your people don’t know how to use it.

The smart move right now isn’t just buying more software. It’s training your people to work smarter with the tech you already have. That’s how you make AI worth the investment. That’s how you turn strategy into results. And that’s what will, ultimately, stop your AI vision from dying on paper.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91380462/another-ai-tool-wont-solve-your-problems-but-ai-training-might-ai-training?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss