Mercer Urges Companies to Prioritize Internal AI Reskilling

Consultants from Mercer argue that companies should prioritize reskilling and redeploying existing employees over external hiring and job cuts as they transition to AI-enabled operations. Ravin Jesuthasan and Tauseef Rahman contend that while technical skills can be acquired quickly, contextual intelligence—the institutional knowledge of a company's culture and systems—is difficult to replace and essential for maintaining operational stability.

To demonstrate the economic advantages of this approach, the authors cite Standard Chartered, which saved $49,000 by moving an employee from a declining role to an emerging one instead of hiring externally. They suggest that firms use skill adjacency mapping to identify internal talent capable of transitioning into new roles.

This strategy also functions as a retention tool. The authors note that 63% of employees would hypothetically trade a 10% pay raise for upskilling opportunities, suggesting that investing in current staff can stabilize the workforce during periods of technological disruption.