Upskilling employees to use AI within organizations is far behind what it should be, according to McDonald’s Chief Data & Analytics Officer Michelle Gansle. To reverse that trend, leaders must personalize the learning experience, take both a top-down and bottom-up approach to training, and put humans at the center of it.
“What we don’t need is an AI strategy. What we do need is to understand how to use AI to drive ourselves and our businesses,” said Gansle during a keynote at the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) earlier this month. “The most critical thing that’s going to set the difference between whether we as individuals, in our careers and in our businesses, are successful or not … is the importance of upskilling and empowering ourselves and our teams.”
For marketers tasked with implementing AI usage at their companies, it’s important to progress from AI use cases to AI usage. “We spent a ton of time at McDonald’s talking about use cases, AI platforms, and technology and architecture and risk,” she said. “We spent very little time talking about, but how are we actually making sure that everyone’s using it optimally?”
Gansle cited statistics from a study to support her claims, including that 87% of employees say they have not gotten adequate AI training, and 59% of IT leaders share that same view.
As to why this gap in training is occurring, despite the potential for massive efficiency gains for U.S. businesses, Gansle theorized that companies of all sizes struggle to train people on something that is both new and constantly changing. But rather than an excuse, she said, this roadblock should be the impetus for leaders to push forward and provide adequate tools and resources on the topic. “If it’s not the number one priority in your business, I would really argue that you look at that,” she said.
Education + Future-Proofing
AI upskilling is not just about education, she argued. It’s also about the future of work. At McDonald’s, for instance, future org charts will feature AI employees alongside humans responsible for managing teams of AI agents, she said. “Future org charts will look hybrid … It’s not about laying off people. It’s about having humans do more productive, creative, important, innovative work, using AI to help be a co-planner and support,” she said.
The critical component is the human at the center of it, Gansle said. “We’re not doing enough about it to upskill ourselves and empower ourselves and our teams, and we’re mostly not putting humans at the center of AI capabilities, at work, in the office or in our own lives.”
Gansle shared practical tips for companies to get started on upskilling their teams.
Personalize the Learning Experience
Successful upskilling requires buy-in, and it should be personalized to each employee. Regular AI usage is much higher when employees receive five or more hours of training and in-person coaching, according to Boston Consulting Group data.
“What we are setting up in our companies is finding a way for everyone in your organization, yourself included, the CEO included, to be able to have a personalized experience that learns from you, that adapts to you, that helps you to learn and grow while things constantly evolve and change,” Gansle said.
Take Both a Top-Down and Down-Up Approach
Support for AI training from leadership is important for two reasons. First, when CEOs are personally involved with the AI journey, companies are far more successful, Gansle said. Second, AI-powered learning still requires governance and guidance, so that the efficiencies gained don’t lead to burnout and employees also don’t inadvertently hurt the brand. “We need to be teaching them how they should apply AI and how they shouldn’t apply AI,” she said.
Equally important, however, is a bottom-up approach, which means “giving employees tools and the freedom to explore within a safe zone, so that they can explore and experiment, and then, even better, create a community of practice where they can share and learn from each other,” she said.
McDonald’s, as an example, gave all corporate employees access to Microsoft Copilot. But they were required to complete a few tasks first: sign up on a form, complete a one-hour training video on responsible AI, and a one-hour training video on how to use Copilot. “Within three months, 94% of the employees that signed up, which was like 3,000, were all using it on a weekly basis, and we had zero safety instances,” Gansle said. “And now, we’ve gone from a pull to a push where we are moving towards mandating everybody to have the tool and asking, how are you using it?”
Incorporate AI into Team Meetings
For those who lead teams, Gansle recommends having a recurring conversation — during weekly meetings, perhaps — about employees’ AI usage. “Every week I have my team come and say one new thing they did with AI that week. We all learn every week from each other, but also it makes them accountable,” she said. “Imagine everyone on their teams did the same thing — you would very quickly have everyone in your company using AI without making it feel forced.”
Build AI into Performance Evaluations
Though McDonald’s isn’t using the tactic at this time, Gansle explained that consultancies such as Boston Consulting Group are building AI usage into performance evaluations as a core competency. But she warns against asking the wrong questions. Rather than inquiring whether employees use AI and how, managers should ask how they are demonstrating critical thinking, curiosity and innovative thinking using the technology.
