How to Get AI-Ready at Work

April 14, 2025

Photo of a woman working outside on a laptop and learning how to become AI-ready at work.

According to a recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, AI has the long-term potential to boost productivity growth in the corporate sector by a whopping $4.4 trillion. Yet despite this enormous opportunity, the same report reveals a striking disconnect: Only 1% of organizations have fully integrated AI into their workflows. This gap between potential and implementation represents both a challenge and an opportunity for forward-thinking professionals.

Bridging this gap doesn't require organizational overhaul — it can begin at the individual level. By understanding how to incorporate GAI into your day-to-day work, you can save yourself time, make your work more impactful, and perhaps most importantly, develop the skills you need to stand out as a GAI innovator at your workplace. Here's how you can get started, with some help from LinkedIn Learning:

1. Understand the basics

First things first: Getting to know what GAI is and how it works will help you develop a more practical and useful understanding of how to apply it to your own job.

Career Essentials in Generative AI by Microsoft and LinkedIn is a great place to start. This learning path will help you understand the basic technology behind GAI and give you the foundation you need to start using it effectively.

This path can also help highlight the transformative potential of this new technology. As GAI expert Pinar Seyhan Demirdag says in her course, What is Generative AI: “If the Industrial Revolution created jobs that were robotic for humans, the Generative AI Revolution will be our liberation and freedom from them. Each person will turn into their own creative studio and the barriers between your vision and its manifestation will disappear.”

To continue to round out your foundational knowledge and get a sense of what a future may look like with GAI, check out these additional resources:

2. Streamline your work

The most apparent use for GAI is to help you save time. It’s already making a difference: According to a recent U.S. survey of GAI adoption by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, generative AI users found an average time savings of 5.4% of their work hours. For someone working a 40-hour workweek, that translates to a time savings of just over two hours per week. And looking ahead, a report from Thomson Reuters estimates that AI tools could save workers up to 12 hours per week by 2029.

No matter your role, you probably have all kinds of busy work that you’d like to cut from your day. GAI can help make that happen: “This incredible technology can automate the groundwork, streamline your processes, and help you finally get ahead of your to-do list,” says workflow consultant Tamara Franklin in her course, Automate Your Workflows with Generative AI.

In addition to Franklin’s course, these courses can help you use GAI effectively to streamline your processes:

3. Craft better prompts

To get the most out of tools like ChatGPT or Copilot, it’s important to know how to structure an effective prompt. Instructors Ashley Kennedy, Noelle Silver Russell, and Brandie Nonnecke share excellent advice for becoming a skillful “prompt engineer” in their course, Generative AI: The Evolution of Thoughtful Online Search.

“There is this incredible skill set that you have to develop to be able to harness these tools,” Nonnecke says, “and it really is relying on the development of appropriate prompts. You will get out only as good of a prompt that you put in.”

GAI prompt engineering is an evolving art and science, and experts are exploring how to get better at it with what feels like every passing day. To get the latest, be sure to check out:

4. Get familiar with ethical AI considerations

As with the adoption of any new technology, there are some ethical and safety concerns that should be taken into consideration when using GAI at work. Even if you’re not going to be involved with building AI products or putting together your company’s AI policies, it’s helpful to develop an understanding of responsible AI principles before incorporating these tools into your work.

“[You should] make an intention in your daily work to become a steward of a human-centered future,” says Vilas Dhar, president and trustee of The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, in the course Ethics in the Age of Generative AI. “Working together, we can shift a conversation about building ethical AI into one about building an ethical society that's powered by AI, a future that inspires us to be our best human selves.”

For more about how to use GAI ethically and responsibly, be sure to check out the following courses:

Explore how to use AI in your role

Once you’ve got a good understanding of GAI basics, start thinking of ways you can use it in your day-to-day. LinkedIn Learning courses can help with this, as we offer a huge number of AI courses for specific roles — including supply chain managers, healthcare administrators, HR specialists, managers, and more.

No professional can afford to ignore GAI anymore. To keep up and get ahead in the future of work, understanding and incorporating this emerging technology into your workday is essential. Get started with the courses mentioned above and continue to explore the many AI offerings LinkedIn Learning has to offer.

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Topics: Top skills and courses Career success tips