New Study Examines Whether Workforce Training Is Keeping Pace With AI Adoption

Colorado research firm is seeking participants from U.S. organizations at every stage of AI maturity to inform the study.

FRUITA, CO, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new national study from JANSON Research & Strategy proposes to quantify whether workforce training is keeping pace with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across U.S. organizations.

For the study, titled "Ready or Not: A national study of how organizations are — and aren’t — training their people for AI. Every sector, every size, every level of AI maturity," JANSON researchers are recruiting leaders from organizations of every sector, size, and level of AI maturity, including those with mature AI programs, informal employee use, AI tools but no formal training, deliberate non-adoption, or no AI activity at all.

AI is increasingly embedded in the systems employees already use to do their jobs, from CRM and e-commerce platforms to productivity, analytics, and customer-service tools. The need for AI literacy is therefore no longer limited to organizations pursuing a formal AI strategy. Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise reported that worker access to AI increased 50% during 2025, while organizations identified the AI skills gap as their largest barrier to integration. Deloitte also reported that only 21% of surveyed organizations had mature governance models for agentic AI.

Agentic AI raises the stakes further. Monte Carlo found that 64% of enterprise technology leaders and practitioners said their organizations had deployed AI agents faster than their teams felt prepared to support them. Among the developers and engineers closest to those systems, the figure rose to 75%—suggesting that deployment is outpacing readiness even among the people most directly responsible for making the technology work.

“AI literacy is no longer a discretionary workforce competency,” said Dr. Elisa Janson Jones, principal investigator and founder of JANSON Research & Strategy. “AI capabilities are already embedded across the systems employees use every day. The challenge is whether organizations have developed the contextual judgment, procedural fluency, governance alignment, and role-specific training necessary to translate access into competent practice. It is this gap between technological integration and workforce capability that we aim to measure.”

Existing AI readiness research has produced extensive evidence about adoption, infrastructure, governance, investment, and technical deployment. To supplement contemporary research, JANSON intends to focus on a different layer: the training architecture between access to AI and an organization’s ability to use it consistently and responsibly.

A central objective of the study is to include organizations frequently absent from AI-readiness research: those with little or no AI activity.

“Organizations that have not yet formalized AI training are not lagging data points; they are part of the condition we are trying to understand,” Jones said. “If a benchmark disproportionately reflects early adopters, it risks describing the leading edge rather than the field. We want a more faithful picture of organizational readiness, including where training has not yet begun.”

Eligible respondents include executives and leaders in learning and development, human resources, operations, and comparable roles at U.S.-based organizations who have visibility into their organization’s AI tools, policies, or training. Multiple leaders from the same organization may participate, allowing the study to capture differences in how AI adoption, governance, and training are understood across organizational functions.

“Recent agentic AI incidents have made the gap between technical access and organizational readiness impossible to ignore,” Jones said. “Once AI can act through connected systems, workforce capability and governance become inseparable. Employees need more than tool familiarity; they need clear authority boundaries, verification practices, escalation protocols, and role-specific judgment. Ready or Not is designed to examine whether organizations are actually building that capability.”

The core questionnaire is designed to be completed within five minutes. Respondents who wish to provide additional context may answer four optional open-ended questions afterward. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. Participants who elect to opt in separately may receive the national benchmark report before its public release.

Ready or Not follows JANSON Research & Strategy’s 2026 study, The Currency of Credentials, which examined quality, assessment, relevance, AI practice, and value across professional credential and certification programs.

Participation in Ready or Not is open through November 30, 2026.

U.S.-based organizational leaders may learn more and participate at jansonresearchstrategy.com/ready-or-not.

About JANSON Research & Strategy

JANSON Research & Strategy is a Colorado-based research and strategy firm that designs and executes mixed-methods research for professional and organizational audiences. The firm combines original research with strategic analysis, diagnostics, and implementation planning to help organizations make evidence-informed decisions. JANSON Research & Strategy is a brand of Sovereign+, LLC, and is based in Fruita, Colorado.

Elisa Jones
Sovereign+
+1 801-884-3534
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn