Most UK organisations have spent the past two years experimenting with AI. Yet according to ServiceNow’s recent AI Maturity Index, while investment grew 110% in a single year, the global average AI maturity score was just 51 out of 100, suggesting that many organisations are still struggling to translate their AI ambition into operational capability.
The report found UK organisations are grappling with workforce readiness, skills development and organisational change. Leaders are increasingly focused on how to equip employees for AI-enabled ways of working, while ensuring technology investments deliver real value. Concern about job loss also runs deep, creating tension between the urgency to move forward and the need to bring people along.
As part of ServiceNow's UK&I Executive Circle podcast series, we've spoken with leaders responsible for driving transformation inside some of the world's largest organisations, including Davis Aguilar, Global HR & GBS Leader at Diageo, and Nick Pearson, CIO at Ricoh Europe. Despite operating in very different industries, they shared a common perspective: successful AI adoption depends as much on workforce readiness and organisational change as it does on the technology itself.
The most successful organisations are also investing in the foundations needed to support AI at scale, including processes, data and ways of working.
Here, we share some of the perspectives Aguilar and Pearson discussed in our podcast series, alongside some broader insights from Jayney Howson, Chief Learning Officer at ServiceNow.
Technology can support change, but an organisation’s culture and strategic direction often determines whether transformation succeeds.
ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index found that when it comes to AI, organisations are making their greatest advances in AI vision, strategy, leadership, management and culture, reinforcing the importance of executive sponsorship and organisational support in turning AI ambition into lasting business change.
Aguilar believes technology, leadership and culture are inseparable. Yet culture remains the factor that can ultimately "end up really derailing or making a transformation successful."
For organisations introducing AI into daily operations, success depends on more than deploying new tools. Employees need confidence in how AI will support their roles, managers need clarity on how work will change, and leaders need to create an environment where experimentation and learning are encouraged.
At Diageo, that means recognising that transformation often requires people to leave behind established behaviours and familiar processes. Progress comes from helping employees understand the purpose behind change, giving them opportunities to build new capabilities, and building the trust needed for new ways of working to take hold across the organisation.
Pearson believes organisations are entering a period where technology becomes part of almost every role.
As he puts it: "Our roles will be technified, collectively, technified." That shift is influencing everything from workforce planning to leadership development. Ricoh's apprentice board and reverse mentoring initiatives are designed to bring new perspectives into the business while helping leaders understand how working practices are changing.
That doesn't mean every employee needs to become a technologist. It does mean digital confidence, technology literacy and the ability to work alongside intelligent systems will become increasingly important across the organisation.
The Enterprise AI Maturity Index projects that AI will account for more than 20% of organisational IT budgets by 2027, reflecting the growing role AI is expected to play across business operations and workforce productivity.
Leaders across the UK are increasingly recognising that AI adoption is as much a workforce challenge as a technology challenge.
Aguilar believes "The human skills will remain at the heart of the things that we do."
Howson makes a similar observation. While organisations carefully track technology investment, they often pay less attention to how they invest in people. Yet she believes: "It's the human skills, I truly believe, that are going to set the organisations apart."
Howson suggests there is growing demand for both technical skills and what she describes as "power skills", including stakeholder management, communication and systems thinking.
Despite this, many organisations are still developing a clear view of the skills they will need. The Enterprise AI Maturity Index found that only 21% of organisations have assessed AI skills across the enterprise, highlighting the scale of the upskilling challenge still ahead.
- Culture remains a transformation challenge
Technology alone rarely changes how work gets done. Leaders need to create the conditions for adoption by building trust, communicating the purpose behind change, offering training, and giving employees a voice in how and where new technologies are introduced. - Skills strategies need to evolve
Preparing for an AI-enabled future is not just about hiring technical talent. Organisations need a clear understanding of the skills they have today, the capabilities they need tomorrow, and how they will help employees develop both AI literacy and human-centered skills such as communication, collaboration and critical thinking, - AI is part of a broader toolkit
As Pearson notes, "AI is part of that toolkit." Organisations seeing results are combining technology with organisational change while also investing in the processes, data and operating foundations needed to support AI at scale.
