AI Now: September 17, 2025

Findem’s weekly lens into the latest developments around enterprise AI — what’s real, what’s risky, and what’s reshaping work.

This week’s headlines highlight the widening AI skills gap, uneven adoption patterns across industries, and a new wave of AI-driven layoffs. For talent and business leaders, the signals are clear: the AI transformation is accelerating, but its impacts are hitting workforces unevenly. Closing the readiness gap — with the right data, planning, and upskilling — is the defining challenge.

78% of ICT roles now require AI technical skills

What happened

A new report from the AI Workforce Consortium reveals that 78% of Information and Communication Technology roles now list AI technical skills as requirements. Alongside technical fluency, the study emphasizes the rising priority of “human skills” — leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration — as foundations for responsible AI adoption. The consortium has committed to upskilling 95 million people globally over the next decade.

Why it matters

AI is becoming a baseline competency across digital roles, shifting the definition of employability. But the parallel focus on human skills highlights an important truth: technical know-how alone won’t sustain responsible or effective adoption. Enterprises must balance hard skill readiness with culture and trust-building — or risk creating lopsided teams that can implement but not integrate AI into business value.

The signal for talent

HR and talent leaders face a dual mandate: expand AI literacy while doubling down on human-centered capabilities. The winners will be those who map real-time skills data to workforce planning, ensuring technical and human skills evolve together.

For recruiters, this means reframing job requirements around verified attributes and competencies, not just resumes — an area where Findem’s 3D data can provide a sharper lens.

How do you know if your workforce is ready for an AI-first future, and what skills matter most for your unique organizational DNA?

Uneven enterprise AI adoption patterns across industries

What happened

Anthropic’s new economic index shows enterprise AI adoption has more than doubled since 2024 (from 3.7% to 9.7%), but adoption remains highly uneven. The Information sector is adopting at 10x the rate of industries like Accommodation and Food Services. Early enterprise use of Claude is concentrated in knowledge work typical of tech and media organizations.

Why it matters

This uneven distribution underscores the emergence of AI haves and have-nots. Companies in knowledge-heavy industries are rapidly embedding AI into workflows, while labor-intensive sectors lag behind. The disparity risks widening competitive gaps across industries — and it highlights the limits of a one-size-fits-all approach to AI adoption.

The signal for talent

Talent leaders must recognize that AI adoption patterns follow sector-specific dynamics. The implication: your competitors may be scaling talent transformation faster than you realize. Workforce strategy should incorporate market intelligence and benchmarks to anticipate where adoption accelerates next.

For talent acquisition, that means preparing recruiters to pivot — sourcing from industries where adoption is high and skills are transferable, and redeploying talent where automation risks are rising.

Are your recruiting strategies keeping pace with how fast (or slow) your industry is adopting AI?

Over 10,000 job cuts directly linked to automation

What happened

New data shows that over 10,000 U.S. jobs were cut in the first seven months of 2025 due to AI-driven automation, with entry-level roles hit hardest. Companies including Shopify, McKinsey, and Duolingo cite AI efficiency as a driver of workforce reductions. Increasingly, “AI fluency” is also being used as a hiring and promotion filter — reshaping who advances and who gets left behind.

Why it matters

This marks a transition from theoretical disruption to lived workforce impact. AI isn’t just augmenting jobs, but actively reshaping labor markets, flattening entry-level opportunities, and re-weighting advancement criteria. The ripple effects extend beyond cost savings; they alter how future leaders are developed and how equitable access to career paths is maintained.

The signal for talent

For HR and TA leaders, the imperative is twofold:

• Track where roles are being displaced and proactively build redeployment and reskilling strategies.
• Identify and validate AI fluency to ensure that skills assessments are evidence-based, not keyword-driven.

Findem’s approach — verifying candidate attributes across 100,000+ sources and mapping organizational DNA — equips leaders to redeploy, reskill, and recruit with confidence as job structures shift.

What’s your plan to ensure that automation becomes a driver of workforce agility and not a talent crisis?

Keep track of all the signals with Findem

Enterprise AI is no longer a distant vision. It’s remaking the talent landscape now, with new skill requirements, uneven adoption patterns, and live workforce shifts reshaping entire career ladders.

Strategic talent leaders must double down on dynamic skills management, data-driven decisions, and forward-looking workforce strategies.

Ready to navigate AI disruption with confidence? Request a demo of Findem to learn how you can turn data into a talent advantage.