Careerminds research
What companies lose by hiring over reskilling
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the roles that exist within organizations, forcing them to make a decision: hire someone new or invest in developing someone already there. Our latest report explores how belief in existing employees is high, but organizations are still more likely to hire—at a significant cost.
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Explore some of the report’s key themes
Belief doesn’t match action
- HR professionals
- 92%
- People managers
- 88%
Believe employees could be reskilled for the roles AI is creating
Belief in redeployment is nearly universal. Turning it into action isn’t.
But hiring externally still outpaces redeploying
- Hiring externally — HR
- 51%
- Redeploying — HR
- 42%
- HR professionals
- 43%
- People managers
- 34%
Report limited visibility about who should even be reskilled
Confidence doesn’t mean clarity
Just 18% of organizations use any centralized system to track the skills their people already have.² Believing reskilling is possible isn’t the same as knowing who it applies to.
² Skills Visibility Report, TalentLMS, 2026.
Nobody agrees who’s driving it
Who has primary responsibility for planning AI’s workforce impact?
- HR say: HR
- 63%
- Managers say: senior leadership
- 35%
- Managers who agree it’s HR
- 24%
0% of respondents in either survey said there’s no clear owner. Everyone assumes someone has it covered — they just don’t agree on who.
Hiring as a default: cost, time and retention¹
Hiring externally also takes longer and shows lower retention. Based on an analysis of roughly half a million hiring records.
- More expensive than filling the same role internally
- 3–5×
- Days longer to close a role externally
- 20
- Internally promoted employees who stay long-term
- 70%
- Long-term retention for lateral internal moves
- 62%
¹ The Josh Bersin Company, Internal Hiring Factbook
Unlock more insights
Download the full report to gain more insights into the redeployment gap and discover what organizations can do to make smarter people decisions in the face of AI-driven change.
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