Artificial intelligence should enhance your skill set rather than replace you. According to the World Economic Forum's The Future of Jobs Report 2023, training employees to use AI and big data is the third-highest priority for skills training from 2023 to 2027, behind analytical thinking and creative thinking.

With change, however, comes uncertainty about the future. Of the 31,000 full-time employees and self-employed workers surveyed for Microsoft's annual Work Trend Index this year, 49 percent fear AI replacing their jobs. Seventy percent said they would happily delegate work to AI to lighten their workloads.

With that in mind, Microsoft has partnered with LinkedIn in the AI Skills Initiative to prepare the workforce for AI's increasing influence.

Microsoft's program aims to alleviate future-focused fears by keeping employees ahead of the AI curve. The AI Skills Initiative includes free coursework developed with LinkedIn, including the first Professional Certificate on Generative AI in the online learning market; greater access to free digital learning events and resources for everyone to improve their AI fluency; and an open global grant challenge—in coordination with GitHub and data.org, Microsoft's AI for Good Lab—to uncover new ways of training workers on generative AI.

The Generative AI Skills Grant Challenge explores how nonprofits, social enterprises, and research institutions can train the workforce to use generative AI. Awardees will receive access to a cohort experience, Microsoft events, cloud computing resources, as well as data training and technical guidance from Microsoft and GitHub experts.