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AI will create more jobs than it eliminates by 2028, so robust internal talent pipelines will be critical to meet talent demand, according to the latest report from Gartner.
“AI is ultimately going to result in more job gains than losses, but in the process it’s going to break down millions of careers,” said Kaelyn Lowmaster, Director Analyst in the Gartner HR practice. “As AI changes how work gets done, organizations must rethink how employees gain expertise and experience, or they will find themselves without ready talent for the jobs AI helps create.”
As organizations rapidly adopt AI and redesign work around it, they are already reshaping roles and structures. A December 2025 Gartner survey of 110 HR leaders revealed that 40% of organizations have eliminated outdated roles to better align with evolving business needs and nearly half have redesigned team structures to be more cross functional or agile.
As career paths narrow or disappear, many employees lack clear routes to advancement. AI is now accelerating that shift by reducing development opportunities and automating traditional entry-level roles, leaving junior talent with fewer chances to build judgment and foundational expertise.
To successfully leverage AI to its fullest, organizations must shift from experience-based progression to skills-based advancement systems, the report recommends. The focus must move to building capability faster and advancing talent differently. To maintain a resilient internal talent supply, Gartner has identified two strategies CHROs can prioritize.
Accelerate development of new key capabilities
As AI automates or augments many core tasks, CHROs should instead take a more deliberate approach to building critical skills, Gartner says.
CHROs first need to identify the skills that are most critical for next-level success and deprioritize those that are becoming obsolete. Organizations must then create the infrastructure to support accelerated development, including incentives that reward building capabilities and scalable learning mechanisms, such as simulations and guided practice environments.
“Performance at one level is no longer a proxy for readiness for more senior roles,” said Lowmaster. “With AI support, employees can meet or exceed their current goals without developing the depth of expertise required for more complex roles.”
Create skills-based opportunities
CHROs can prioritize skills promise by identifying employees with the foundational capabilities, learning agility and adaptability required to succeed in higher-level roles, even if they lack a perfect match to historical role criteria.
As AI continues to reshape roles and ways of working, employees, and most notably leaders, must be able to navigate ambiguity, guide teams through continuous transformation and succeed without relying on past experience alone. The most successful change leaders take deliberate action to make change routine, empowering employees to pursue their own learning opportunities as AI reshapes work.
“Organizations that invest now in rebuilding career advancement pathways based on skills and adaptability will be best positioned to meet future talent demand, whereas those that don’t risk creating deep capability gaps just as AI-driven growth accelerates,” said Lowmaster.
