- Prompt engineering and Generative AI tools are the most added AI literacy skills by executives
- UK Leaders are nearly 20% more likely to add AI literacy skills compared to the rest of the workforce, but not all executives are comfortable using AI yet
- 89% of UK leaders say helping their business speed up AI adoption is a priority this year
- To help leaders upskill on AI, LinkedIn and Microsoft are unlocking free learning courses
AI is becoming the new must-have leadership skill. Today, over 3x more UK C-suite executives on LinkedIn are adding AI literacy skills like prompt engineering and Generative AI tools to their profiles compared to two years ago, according to new data from LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network. This comes as the majority (89%) of business leaders say helping their organisation speed up AI adoption is a priority this year, and 51% of companies that are integrating AI are seeing revenues increase by 10%.
But while leaders are nearly 20% more likely to add AI literacy skills than the rest of the workforce, not all executives are comfortable using AI yet. AI adoption remains uneven among companies with 4 in 10 (41%) C-suites globally pointing to their own leadership team as a barrier due to either not being trained on how to use AI, not yet convinced of AI’s ROI, or lacking a change management plan.
AI literacy is now one of the most in-demand skills employers seek across all jobs on LinkedIn, and leaders are taking note - C-suites in the UK rank AI skills as the #3 skillset executives need to steer their business through change. The growing demand for AI literacy is also influencing hiring preferences, with 8 in 10 leaders more likely to hire someone who is comfortable with AI tools than someone with more experience but less AI proficiency. Leaders are also prioritizing employee upskilling to accelerate AI adoption amongst their workforce in the coming year, with 37% investing in AI-oriented learning and development.
Janine Chamberlin, Head of LinkedIn UK, says: "Successfully adopting AI isn’t just a matter of having the right tools - it’s a leadership challenge at its core. Many businesses understand they need to evolve, but often underestimate how deeply they must embed AI into everyday workflows. Changing behaviour takes time, and leaders today must set the standard, not only using AI themselves but also fostering a culture where teams feel empowered and inspired to fully integrate AI into how they work."
Shishir Mehrotra, CEO, Grammarly: “What's powerful about AI isn't the technology itself, but how it empowers teams with the right tools at the right time as part of their everyday workflow. Personally, AI helps me scale my day-to-day work by handling tasks that would otherwise eat up hours of my time—capturing action items from customer conversations, drafting initial follow-up messages, and quickly locating buried information across docs. One of my favorite AI-driven workflows is getting to and staying at inbox zero, so I can be highly responsive and productive while preserving time for deep work. AI is the next transformative leap in enhancing how we work, create, and solve problems.”
Anahita Tafvizi, Chief Data Analytics Officer at Snowflake, says: “AI adoption isn’t just a tech initiative—it’s a leadership imperative. Before leaders can unlock business impact, they need to build foundational skills, earn team trust, and focus relentlessly on outcomes. My advice: first, start with a clear pain point—build something useful fast and scale from there. For any leader looking to create impact: automate the repetitive, invest in trusted data, and align every AI initiative to a clear business goal. Second, stay curious. The AI landscape is evolving fast, and leaders who continuously engage, experiment, and sharpen their own skills will be best positioned to guide their teams and drive results. The best AI strategies aren’t just about automation—they’re about cultivating a learning mindset that keeps your team and your business ahead of the curve.”
Carter Busse, Chief Information Officer at Workato, says: “My advice to CIOs in this Age of AI is they need to prepare for agentic AI to flip workplaces on its head. As businesses integrate AI into everyday processes, organizations must prioritize communication and reskilling their workforce now, and continue education throughout 2025. CIOs know technologies like AI agents are poised to change the workplace, but they need to get ahead of workers’ fears that it is coming in to replace them. AI’s role is to augment their jobs, not take them. Businesses that fail to proactively address employee concerns around introducing agentic AI especially risk resistance and inefficiency in implementing these technologies. We’ve seen the data and it’s clear: early adopters of GenAI are the current winners, their employees are the winners, and the early adopters of AI agents are sure to follow a similar course.”
LinkedIn and Microsoft unlock new learning courses to help leaders upskill on AI
In partnership with Microsoft, LinkedIn has unlocked a range of AI courses including two Professional Certificates designed to help leadership teams get started on AI upskilling. These courses are unlocked and free to access through December 31, 2025.
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AI for Organizational Leaders: A Professional Certificate with six curated courses on how to make informed decisions about AI adoption and application as an organizational leader, including evaluating the business implications of generative AI and driving business growth.
- Featured course: Generative AI for Business Leaders by LinkedIn's Chief Product Officer Tomer Cohen.
- AI for Managers: A Professional Certificate with six curated courses on practical ways managers can enhance their effectiveness with generative AI — from making team and one-on-one meetings more effective to giving feedback that gets results. Managers can also learn how to have meaningful career conversations with employees in an AI context, build a collaborative team culture with generative AI, and use AI responsibly.
To help leaders upskill their entire organizations, LinkedIn and Microsoft have also launched AI Skill Pathways with over 150+ AI Professional Certificates, Certification prep, and Learning Paths by role and level of the LinkedIn AI Upskilling Framework. Access 27 unlocked AI Skill Pathways through July 31, 2025 to help learners develop, practice, and validate AI skills.
