CIO OPINION
Workforce readiness: The next great AI hurdle
Across the continent, the lack of AI-proficient professionals is a persistent barrier to Digital Transformation. While initiatives such as the EU’ s AI Factories and Digital Innovation Hubs will expand access to AI tools, organisations must first focus inward and enable their existing staff to engage with these technologies meaningfully.
Rather than competing for a small pool of expensive data specialists, forward-looking firms are leveraging no-code platforms and embedded training to empower operations staff. Taking this approach enables more people, regardless of their technical background, to automate processes and workflows and unlock value themselves.
When left unaddressed, skills deficits have very real commercial consequences. Businesses that fail to bridge the gap are typically left with underutilised systems, inconsistent data handling and missed opportunities to reduce costs or improve customer outcomes. The issue is felt particularly keenly by midsized and regional companies, where challenges in talent acquisition make internal enablement strategies even more critical.
For such organisations, empowering non-technical staff with intuitive AI tools allows lean teams to move from manual processes, such as data entry, to more strategic, insight-driven work, ramping up productivity and the potential for growth.
AI, regulation and the risk of inaction
The implications of the AI skills gap extend beyond internal efficiencies and stray into the regulatory ecosystem. European businesses are now expected to operationalise AI in a way that is both explainable and accountable – a tall order without the right tools and talent.
Laying down expectations far beyond box-ticking, the EU AI Act introduces new compliance mandates, including that firms must demonstrate responsible AI use, supported by traceable decisions and robust auditability. For many organisations, this is impossible without a layer of automation tooling that empowers operations teams to respond quickly to regulatory change.
As such, no-code and low-code platforms are growing exponentially in popularity, equipping frontline teams with the tools to adjust workflows in line with changing requirements, without routing every change through IT.
Tax compliance serves as a concrete example. AIaligned automation platforms allow firms to mitigate the risks associated with failing to adapt to new digital reporting obligations, such as penalties, lost trust, or market exclusion-by embedding real-time regulatory checks directly into day-to-day operations.
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