Skillsoft’s Workforce Readiness Report: Execution Gap Edition identifies a disconnect between organizations’ awareness of workforce skills gaps and their ability to prevent those gaps from disrupting business operations. The report found that 77% of managers recognize skills gaps in their workplaces, yet 54% say employees are frequently or always assigned work requiring skills they do not have. The findings highlight potential consequences for AI adoption, quality assurance, customer satisfaction, employee well-being and revenue performance.
Skills Gaps Are Becoming an Execution Problem
Organizations investing in artificial intelligence, digital transformation and workforce development face a challenge that extends beyond identifying which skills employees lack. They must also determine whether workers are equipped to perform the tasks assigned to them and whether development support arrives before capability gaps affect business outcomes.
Skillsoft’s latest Workforce Readiness Report examines this disconnect between skills awareness and operational execution. According to the findings, 77% of managers and 60% of individual contributors say skills gaps exist in their workplaces. However, 54% of managers and 37% of individual contributors report that employees are frequently or always assigned work requiring skills they do not possess.
The figures suggest that identifying capability shortages is not enough if workforce planning, task allocation and learning programs remain disconnected. When employees encounter unfamiliar requirements only after work begins, organizations may face delays, quality problems and additional demands on managers.
Skillsoft Chief People Officer Ciara Harrington described the issue as a business execution challenge rather than simply a learning problem. In her assessment, unresolved skills gaps can force managers to provide extra oversight while employees expend additional effort compensating for missing capabilities.
The report does not establish that skills gaps alone cause every operational problem identified. However, its findings highlight the need to connect workforce development more directly to the work organizations expect employees to deliver.
AI Adoption Adds to Workforce Readiness Pressures
AI adoption is one area where capability gaps can have practical consequences. Managers identified quality assurance issues as the most frequently reported impact of skills gaps, at 31%. Other concerns included increased workload and burnout at 26%, delayed or unsuccessful AI adoption at 23%, slower product or service delivery at 22%, and lost revenue or missed targets at 20%.
The additional oversight required to review AI-generated work creates another management challenge. Thirty-eight percent of managers said they were spending more time reviewing or verifying such work.
These findings point to a distinction between deploying AI tools and establishing the workforce capabilities needed to use them effectively. Employees may need training in tool operation, output evaluation, workflow integration and the identification of errors or unsupported results. Managers may also need clear standards for determining when AI-generated work requires human review.
Without those capabilities and processes, AI adoption can introduce additional work rather than consistently reducing it. Organizations may need to evaluate readiness at the task level, identifying which activities can be automated, which require human judgment and what level of proficiency is necessary for reliable delivery.
Managers and Employees See Readiness Differently
Skillsoft’s report also highlights a gap in perceptions of organizational capability. Sixty-two percent of managers said they were very confident their organization could identify the skills needed to deliver business priorities, compared with 35% of individual contributors.
That 27-percentage-point difference suggests that leadership confidence may not always reflect employees’ experiences of workforce readiness.
The timing of skills-gap identification is another concern. Individual contributors most commonly reported discovering missing skills after struggling with a task or during a performance review, each cited by 25% of respondents.
Development support can also arrive late. Thirty percent of individual contributors said they waited between three and 12 months for help building a needed skill, while one in 10 received no support.
For HR and learning leaders, these findings raise questions about whether existing skills inventories and learning management systems provide timely, actionable information. A list of courses completed or credentials earned may not reveal whether an employee can apply a skill effectively in a particular business context.
More useful workforce intelligence would connect job requirements, demonstrated proficiency, relevant experience and development opportunities to upcoming business needs. Such systems still require accurate data and regular validation; skills profiles can become outdated if employees’ capabilities and responsibilities change.
Execution Gaps Affect Employees and Customers
The reported consequences differ between managers and individual contributors. While managers most often identified quality assurance problems, employees most frequently pointed to increased workload and burnout, cited by 31%.
Individual contributors also reported lower engagement or retention at 24%, customer dissatisfaction at 21%, and slower product or service delivery at 20%.
This distribution suggests that capability gaps can create pressure at multiple levels. Employees may have to compensate for missing skills, managers may spend more time checking work, and customers may experience inconsistent quality or delays.
The challenge is particularly relevant when organizations introduce new technologies or redesign roles faster than employees can develop the necessary capabilities. Training remains important, but it may not resolve every mismatch if work is assigned without considering proficiency, available support or the complexity of the task.
Skills Management Connects Development to Business Outcomes
Skillsoft advocates a connected approach to Skills Management: identifying, measuring, developing and deploying workforce capabilities in line with business demand. Its Skills Supply Chain framework is intended to connect desired business outcomes with the work, skills and readiness required to achieve them across human and AI-supported workflows.
The broader implication for employers is that workforce planning should begin with the work itself. Leaders need to understand the outcomes they expect, the tasks required to deliver them, the capabilities available internally and the gaps that must be closed.
That approach can inform training priorities, project staffing, internal mobility and decisions about where AI can be deployed responsibly. It can also help organizations identify risks earlier, rather than relying on performance reviews or delivery failures to reveal missing skills.
Skillsoft’s report reinforces a central workforce technology challenge: knowing that skills gaps exist is different from knowing where they will affect execution. Organizations that connect skills data to operational decisions may be better positioned to direct development resources where they are most needed. Whether that produces measurable improvements will depend on implementation, workforce adoption and the quality of the underlying skills assessments.
Market Landscape
Skills intelligence, workforce planning and learning technology are increasingly intersecting with enterprise AI adoption. Employers need to identify not only which skills are missing but also whether employees can apply those skills to specific tasks and business outcomes. Skillsoft’s findings suggest a gap between organizational confidence and employees’ experiences of readiness. The report supports the case for better integration between skills data, learning programs and work allocation, although it does not independently prove that any single platform or framework will eliminate execution problems.
Top Insights
- Skills gaps remain widespread: 77% of managers and 60% of individual contributors say gaps exist in their workplaces.
- Work still exceeds capabilities: 54% of managers say employees are frequently or always assigned tasks requiring skills they lack.
- AI requires additional oversight: 38% of managers report spending more time reviewing or verifying AI-generated work.
- Development can arrive too late: 30% of individual contributors waited three to 12 months for help building a needed skill.
- Workforce readiness affects delivery: Respondents identified quality issues, burnout, customer dissatisfaction and slower service delivery among the consequences of skills gaps.
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