75% of HR and L&D leaders say they're prepared to reskill their workforce, but 43% still review skills data only quarterly as AI reshapes roles

Docebo Inc. (NASDAQ:DCBO, TSX:DCBO), the enterprise platform for the AI-era workforce, unifying skills intelligence, learning, and knowledge in one closed loop, today announced the release of The 2027 Skills Intelligence Report, a study of what HR and L&D leaders believe about their skills strategy, and what the data shows is true.

HR and L&D leaders are confident in their skills strategies: 75% say they are prepared to reskill or upskill their workforce, and 96% say role-specific skill requirements are at least somewhat defined. But the systems behind that confidence tell a different story. Only 62% say those requirements are clearly defined, 43% review skills data only once a quarter, and conflicting priorities (45%) are the top-cited barrier to a functioning skills strategy, more than double any other answer.

Nowhere is the disconnect sharper than with AI. Leaders name AI literacy as their most critical skill gap (53%), yet closing AI-related skill gaps ranks fifth out of six in how closely learning and enablement investment is tied to organizational priorities, behind manager effectiveness, employee engagement, compliance, and internal mobility.

"L&D and HR leaders need to be having conversations not about efficiency but about what efficiency leads to," said Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, who was interviewed for the report. "The CEO doesn't care if you saved 10% of your time on this process or that. They do care if it affects profitability, customer lifetime value, or retention."

Alessio Artuffo, CEO of Docebo, said: "Companies are spending heavily on AI software. None of it matters if their people don't know how to work alongside it. The organizations that lead will be the ones that know what their workforce can actually do today, and Skills Intelligence gives them that picture. When you understand the skills you already have, you can move talent internally at a speed external hiring will never match. That's how you build a workforce that keeps pace with whatever comes next."

While 63% of leaders say HR owns the skills strategy, HR fully controls the learning budget in just 43% of organizations. And when leaders ask for headcount to close skill gaps, 47% say the biggest barrier to approval is budget being redirected to other priorities, such as AI tools.

Key findings from the report highlight the operational gap:

34% of enterprise teams still rely on static Excel spreadsheets to track employee capabilities.
Only 52% of HR and learning leaders say executive leadership has full visibility into their skills strategy.
Over a third of organizations (36%) report that AI software budgets actively outpaced or cut into their learning and enablement funds.

Organizations already using continuous skills intelligence are seeing results:

Alstom deployed skills intelligence to 55,000 employees across 60 countries in nine weeks, driving 4,000 internal mobility applications within nine months.
Veolia manages 15,800 skills dynamically across a 20,000-person workforce using automated AI taxonomies instead of quarterly reviews.
Infinite Campus identified 27 qualified internal candidates for director-level roles, significantly reducing reliance on external hiring.

The full 2027 Skills Intelligence Report is available here.

About the 2027 Skills Intelligence Report

Conducted by Centiment on behalf of Docebo and 365Talents, the research surveyed over 1,000 HR and L&D leaders across Europe and North America. Additional responses were collected through Brandon Hall Group's research community. The quantitative data is complemented by 11 in-depth interviews with industry analysts, academics, and practitioners.

About Docebo

Docebo is redefining the way enterprises leverage technology to create and manage content, deliver training, and measure the business impact of their learning programs. With Docebo’s end-to-end learning platform, organizations worldwide are equipped to deliver scaled, personalized learning across all their audiences and use cases, driving growth and powering their business.

Learn more about Docebo at https://www.docebo.com/.

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Joe Rosengarten

Director, Corporate Communications

joe.rosengarten@docebo.com

+1.416.455.6459

Mike McCarthy

Vice President – Investor Relations

mike.mccarthy@docebo.com

+1.214.830.0641