Substantial skills gap follows rise in tech priorities

• Analysis of 1,000 UK and US company reports finds skills and training are missing from the boardroom's top priorities in the face of technology growth
• AI doubles in mentions but its importance is not reflected in training initiatives
• Yet technical reskilling and upskilling are on the rise in the wider workforce

Many of the largest listed companies in the UK and US are underprioritizing skills development in relation to technology, according to Multiverse analysis of FTSE 100 and S&P 100 company reports spanning the last 10 years.

Around seven in ten companies in the UK (69%) and US (76%) mention a strategic priority relating to technology in their latest reports. Yet only 7% (UK) and 8% (US) describe skills and training as a strategic priority.

This proportion has not improved since 2013, while technology has shot up in importance, suggesting that boardrooms are not yet recognizing its sweeping impact on workforce skills requirements. With Goldman Sachs predicting that AI investment will rocket to $200bn this year, companies who do not act are putting record levels of investment at risk.

To uncover this data, Multiverse's data science team worked with expert data analyst David Abelman, to build a Large Language Model (LLM) system to analyze structured information from over 100,000 pages of company documents. The resulting Boardroom Skills Agenda report provides empirical evidence on how people and skills are missing from the boardroom's top priority list based on findings from UK annual reports and US 10-K reports.

The missing skills piece

According to the report, companies are also not targeting skills development relating to the most consequential technologies that will shape the future of work.

• While nearly half (49%) of the UK FTSE 100 mention AI as part of their strategy, only 34% of companies referenced Artificial Intelligence (AI) training.
• In S&P 100 10-K reports 48% reference AI in their strategy, while 18% mention AI training.

These findings follow the UK's Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reporting, which confirms that the average number of days of workplace training received each year has fallen over the last decade. Employer spending on training has decreased over the same period, and there has been a fall in both public and private investment in training. The US' Training Industry report also reflects a fall in training expenditure among US companies in 2024 compared to years prior.

Euan Blair, CEO of Multiverse, said:

"Annual reports are a weathervane for the issues that are capturing the boardroom's attention. What we can see in the data is that investment in technology is skyrocketing but skills and training has stagnated.

"Technology tools are only as powerful as the people who use them. Without prioritizing people, companies will be left with tech strategies that are missing a key piece of the puzzle. The tech revolution will not arrive until companies connect the dots between tools and talent."

Further headline findings include:

Technology is impacting global workforce skills, despite absence from boardroom top priority list 
The growing impact of technology on the workforce is starting to be signalled in some reports, with discussion of "reskilling" and technical "upskilling" on the rise. Yet overall the incidence and prioritisation of technical skills initiatives is still notably low.

• The proportion of FTSE 100 companies mentioning reskilling has nearly tripled in the last 10 years from 7% to 20%, while technical upskilling has more than doubled (23% to 51%)
• Similarly, in US 10-K reports, mentions of reskilling rose from 1% in 2013 to 13% in latest reports, while upskilling mentions grew nearly sixfold (5% to 29%).
• Yet in the most recent set of annual reports, only 10% of FTSE 100 companies and 4% of S&P 100 provided a sum for how much they were investing in training.
• When referenced, the average (median) spend was £600 per employee in the UK, and $1700 in the US.

Apprenticeships more prominent than graduate programs
The analysis also found that companies are delivering training via a number of different methods, and referencing these programs more than they were 10 years ago:

• 59% of FTSE 100 companies referenced an apprenticeship program (vs 48% 10 years ago), while 48% have a graduate program (vs 39% 10 years ago). Meanwhile, 32% said they had an internship program (vs 19% 10 years ago).
• US 10-K reports discuss training programs less overall, but mentions are still on the rise. 14% of latest reports mention apprenticeship programs (vs 1% a decade ago), while 3% reference graduate programs (vs. 0%) and 8% internship programs (vs 3%).

David Abelman, Data Science Consultant, added:

"When implemented carefully, LLMs provide a fantastic way to extract quantitative information from textual documents at scale. We were able to craft a workflow to make sense of over 100,000 pages of annual reports, giving us a unique understanding of how companies discuss their people development in relation to their increasingly strategic prioritisation of technology.

“It was clear that whilst technological focus has ramped up, strategic skill development is generally lagging behind. But it's also promising to see signals of change in the tactical implementation of learning and development initiatives. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out in the coming years as the increasing impact of AI is felt.”