What if the biggest barrier to AI adoption is not the technology itself, but our ability to learn, adapt and reskill? That question is at the heart of my conversation with Sagar Goel, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group, who leads the firm’s global work on digital workforce development and reskilling.
From Singapore, Sagar brings a rare combination of data, strategy and humanity to the discussion about how AI is reshaping the global workforce, and why the frontlines are struggling to keep up.
Based on BCG’s latest ‘AI at Work’ research, Sagar reveals a surprising trend: AI use on the front lines has stalled for the first time at around 50 percent. He explains why many companies still approach AI as a tool rollout rather than a behavioral and cultural change. According to him, employees often do not know where and how to use AI effectively, there is a lack of support from leadership and the training programs are too superficial to achieve real adoption. The result is a productivity paradox: AI potential without real impact.
Sagar also offers another counterintuitive finding: Leaders are more concerned than their teams about losing their jobs to automation. He attributes this to leaders’ increased awareness of structural disruption and their own vulnerability in mid-career adjustment. Meanwhile, countries in the Global South are surpassing the US in AI adoption, driven by a young population, economic necessity and a hunger for differentiation in tight labor markets.
Throughout the discussion, Sagar draws a clear line between upskilling and reskilling – two terms that are often used interchangeably, but represent different needs. Upskilling, he explains, must embed AI fluidity into the CEO’s daily workflows, while upskilling must redeploy people into new, more valuable roles as automation accelerates. He cites IKEA’s decision to retrain 8,000 call center employees as design consultants as a model example of turning disruption into opportunity.
We conclude with a candid reflection on the responsibility of leadership in the age of AI. For Sagar, the message is simple yet profound: If skills don’t show up on your balance sheet, they won’t show up in your business performance. As the half-life of skills shrinks to five years, he urges CEOs to integrate workforce readiness directly into strategy or risk being outpaced by those who do.
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