Reskill or rust. Image generated with gpt4o
The choice is stark. Reskill or rust. The World Economic Forum projects a net gain of 78 million jobs by 2030, but there’s a critical caveat as World Economic Forum notes. This future belongs only to companies that aggressively reskill their people. The old learning and development (L&D) playbook? Obsolete. A dusty relic in an age of exponential change. Survival requires a new operating model—an engine for continuous reinvention. We call it the AI Talent Flywheel—a system designed to generate skill liquidity and forge a decisive competitive advantage. The era of passive learning is over. The era of the talent flywheel has begun.
The End of an Era: Why Traditional L&D is Failing
For decades, corporate learning has functioned like a library—a quiet, passive repository of knowledge. But in today’s dynamic landscape, it needs to become a power plant: a dynamic generator of energy and capability, wired directly into the business. The old model is broken. It’s slow, disconnected from strategic objectives, and its engagement is abysmal. Reports consistently show low employee engagement with workplace learning; how can employees be engaged in training that feels irrelevant or out of sync with their daily work?
Skills now have an increasingly short half-life—less than five years, and for tech skills, often closer to two. Yet, many companies still deploy monolithic, multi-year training programs. They treat learning as a compliance checkbox, a “just-in-case” insurance policy that rarely pays out. Employees click through modules, retain little, and apply even less. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s a critical business vulnerability. While your learning platform gathers digital dust, your competitor’s workforce is getting smarter, faster, and more adaptable. The library is closed. The power plant is coming online.
Learning and Development (L&D)
It’s the function within an organization responsible for building the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of employees so they can perform effectively in their current roles and adapt to future business needs. L&D covers a broad range of activities, including onboarding, technical skills training, leadership development, compliance training, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Traditionally, L&D has focused on structured, formal programs (e.g., classroom courses, e-learning modules), but modern approaches emphasize continuous, personalized, and business-aligned learning that is integrated into daily work and directly tied to strategic objectives.
The AI Talent Flywheel: A Virtuous Cycle for Skill Generation
The solution isn’t a better library. It’s a self-perpetuating engine. The AI Talent Flywheel is a virtuous cycle that continuously turns potential into performance. It’s not a program; it’s an ecosystem designed to build and deploy skills at the speed of business. Here’s how it works:
The Engine: Internal Talent Marketplaces
This is the heart of the flywheel. An internal talent marketplace is an AI-powered platform that dynamically connects employee skills and aspirations to the company’s real-time needs—think projects, gigs, mentorships, and new roles. It’s the ultimate matchmaker, moving beyond traditional hierarchies. Instead of managers hoarding talent, the marketplace creates a liquid workforce. Schneider Electric, for instance, uses a marketplace to deploy experts to critical projects globally, unlocking thousands of hours of productivity. According to Deloitte, these platforms are a core component of the future of work, transforming the workforce from a static hierarchy into a dynamic, skills-based team oai_citation:1‡Deloitte Insights.
The Fuel: LLM-Powered Learning
How do employees acquire the skills for these new gigs? Through AI. Large Language Model (LLM)-powered tutors—like Khan Academy’s Khanmigo—provide personalized, on-demand coaching. Learning shifts from “just-in-case” to “just-in-time.” An employee sees a project requiring data analysis skills; the AI tutor instantly builds a micro-learning path. They learn precisely what they need, right when they need it. The content is contextual, scalable, and tailored to their specific knowledge gaps. This is high-octane, personalized, and efficient fuel for the engine.
The Motion: Micro-Roles & Applied Experience
Learning without application is waste. The flywheel generates motion by immediately channeling newly acquired skills into practice. Employees take on “micro-roles”—short-term, project-based assignments. Imagine a marketing specialist spending 10% of their time on a three-week gig helping the sales team analyze customer data using their newly acquired analytical skills. Companies like Google and Amazon have long leveraged internal gigs to foster innovation and cross-functional expertise. This isn’t just about learning; it’s about doing. Each micro-role solidifies a new skill and delivers immediate business value. The learning sticks, and the business benefits.
The Output: Skill Liquidity & Internal Mobility
The flywheel’s constant motion produces two critical outputs. First, skill liquidity—a workforce with fluid, current, and readily deployable skills. Second, internal mobility becomes the norm, not a bureaucratic nightmare. When employees see a clear, tangible path to growth inside the company, they are more likely to stay and thrive. The flywheel doesn’t just build skills; it builds careers. It transforms the organization into a talent-generating machine.
From Perk to Product: Managing Reskilling as a Core Business Function
This flywheel doesn’t run itself. It requires a fundamental mindset shift: Stop treating reskilling as a perk. Start managing it like a core business product. What does that mean in practice?
It means the CHRO or Head of Talent functions as the Product Manager for the talent pipeline. Their job is to own the talent pipeline from end to end. Their customer? The entire workforce and the business units that need their skills.
It means constant user research. You must continuously survey employee aspirations and map them against the company’s strategic skill gaps. Where is the business going? What skills will get it there? Data, not assumptions, must drive every decision.
It means agile development. Forget launching rigid, multi-year learning plans. Think in sprints. Launch a pilot program. Test an LLM tutor with one team. Iterate based on feedback, just as you would with a product. This agile approach ensures your talent strategy evolves as quickly as your business strategy.
And it means new metrics. Ditch vanity metrics like “course completion rates.” Start measuring what truly matters. Track “skill velocity”—the rate at which your workforce acquires and applies new, critical skills. Measure your internal fill rate for open roles. Most importantly, tie these metrics directly to business KPIs. Did the reskilled sales team increase revenue? Did the upskilled engineering team shorten the product development cycle? That’s the true ROI.
The Flywheel in Action: Lessons from the Early Adopters
This isn’t theory. It’s happening now. Forward-thinking organizations are already reaping the rewards.
The Tech Giant: Amazon pledged $1.2 billion for its “Upskilling 2025” initiative. The key isn’t merely the investment; it’s the model. They directly connect learning programs to the most in-demand roles within the company, such as data science and machine learning. Problem: A massive, ongoing need for high-tech skills. Flywheel Component: Tightly integrated learning and internal mobility paths. Result: A predictable pipeline of internal talent for mission-critical jobs.
The Industrial Leader: Unilever uses an internal talent marketplace to break down silos. A brand manager in Brazil can lend their expertise to a product launch in Indonesia for a few weeks, fostering global collaboration. Problem: Trapped knowledge and siloed expertise. Flywheel Component: An internal talent marketplace creating a liquid workforce. Result: Faster problem-solving, enhanced global collaboration, and reduced reliance on external consultants.
The IT Pioneer: IBM implemented a talent marketplace and saw a significant 40% increase in internal job fills, alongside a notable boost in employee retention. At Sun Life, the rollout of their marketplace involved breaking down large opportunities into smaller gigs, making it easier for employees to participate and build skills incrementally. The flywheel works. The data is clear.
Your First 90 Days: An Action Plan for Leaders
Ready to build your flywheel? Don’t attempt to “boil the ocean.” Start small. Start now. Here is your actionable 90-day plan:
For Human Resources Leaders:
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Build the Business Case. Don’t talk about learning as a cost. Talk about risk and opportunity. Quantify the cost of inaction—turnover costs, external recruiting fees, lost productivity from skill gaps. Frame it as a strategic imperative for the executive team.
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Secure an Executive Sponsor. Find a champion in the C-suite, ideally a business-line leader who acutely feels the pain of the talent shortage. Their active support is your political and strategic leverage.
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Launch a Pilot Program. Choose one strategic business unit or department. Identify their single most critical skill gap and build a micro-flywheel around it. Prove the model’s effectiveness and ROI before scaling it across the organization.
For L&D/LX Leaders:
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Audit Your Tech Stack. What do you currently have? What do you need? Can your existing Learning Management System (LMS) support personalized learning paths? Do you have the data infrastructure for a talent marketplace? Understand your starting point and identify gaps.
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Experiment with GenAI. Pick one critical skill area. Use a generative AI tool to create a simple, “just-in-time” micro-learning module. Test it with a small, receptive group. Gather feedback and iterate rapidly.
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Define a Micro-Role. Partner with one forward-thinking manager. Identify a high-potential employee and carve out 10% of their time for a short, project-based gig that specifically stretches their skills in a needed area. This provides immediate application and value.
For Public Sector Planners:
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Convene a Roundtable. Get the CHROs of your region’s largest employers in a room. You can’t solve this alone. Map the collective challenges and identify common skill needs.
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Identify Critical Skills. Based on roundtable discussions and economic forecasts, determine the top 3-5 AI-related skills your regional economy needs to thrive. Focus your workforce development efforts strategically.
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Co-Develop a Pilot. Partner with a community college or vocational school and a key local employer. Build a shared program that directly links public education and training initiatives to a private-sector talent flywheel, creating a pipeline of skilled talent for the region.
The Future of Work is Fluid
The AI revolution demands more than just new technology adoption. It demands a fundamentally new talent strategy—one that is fluid, dynamic, and relentlessly adaptive. The old, static models of hiring and training are breaking under the immense pressure of exponential change. The AI Talent Flywheel is the new operating system for work—a system that builds skills, empowers people, and drives business growth in a continuous, virtuous cycle. The choice is no longer about simply installing AI; it’s about organizational evolution. Don’t just implement AI tools—build the flywheel that will truly power your company for the next decade.