PwC is tackling the AI skills gap with an innovative approach called “prompting parties” - group training sessions designed to help employees become comfortable using generative AI tools in their daily work. The Big Four professional services firm, which announced a $1 billion investment over three years to expand its AI capabilities in 2023, has discovered that traditional training alone isn’t enough to get employees actually using AI tools.
Leah Houde, PwC’s chief learning officer, told Business Insider that despite launching My AI, an upskilling initiative for responsible AI use, there remained a significant gap between training and practical application. The demand for AI knowledge has skyrocketed internally - AI jumped from outside the top 100 searched terms in 2022 to the top 15 in 2023, and into the top five in 2024 on PwC’s internal learning platform.
The challenge, Houde explained, is that “the cognitive load that it takes to just try something new in the course of doing what you’re normally doing is hard.” Many employees simply didn’t know where to start with AI prompts - the written instructions that guide AI tools to produce useful responses. The prompting parties provide a safe, low-stakes environment where employees can experiment without the pressure of client deliverables or important communications.
These collaborative sessions can be run by teams independently or led by company AI leaders, focusing on real-world use cases specific to each team’s work. Employees experiment with tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatPwC (the company’s internal version of ChatGPT) to solve actual problems they face. The group setting allows participants to learn from each other’s prompts and discover new AI capabilities together.
The initiative has proven remarkably popular - since launching in March 2024, PwC has hosted nearly 500 prompting parties with over 880 more requested, prompting the company to scale up the program. Houde noted this training is particularly crucial for PwC employees since clients frequently turn to them for AI guidance.
The need is urgent across industries. A Slack survey from November found that AI adoption among desk workers has plateaued despite heavy corporate investment, highlighting the importance of hands-on training approaches like PwC’s. Looking ahead, Houde is excited about using AI to create personalized learning and development plans that match individual employees’ current skills with their career aspirations, moving beyond generic one-size-fits-all training recommendations.
Key Quotes
The cognitive load that it takes to just try something new in the course of doing what you’re normally doing is hard.
Leah Houde, PwC’s chief learning officer, explained why employees struggle to adopt AI tools despite receiving training. This insight reveals the psychological barrier preventing AI adoption - it’s not lack of knowledge but the mental effort required to integrate new tools into existing workflows.
The thing that it says to me is that the human interaction is always going to matter.
Houde reflected on employees’ continued interest in training on topics like “inclusion” and “inclusive mindset” alongside AI skills. This observation emphasizes that even as AI transforms work, interpersonal skills remain critically important, suggesting a balanced approach to workforce development.
AI is now enabling us to understand the skills our people have and make connections between the skills that they have and the skills that they’re going to need to progress.
Houde described the future potential of AI in personalizing employee development. This represents a meta-application of AI - using the technology not just for client work but to optimize how employees learn about and adopt AI itself, creating a virtuous cycle of skill development.
Our Take
PwC’s prompting parties reveal a fundamental truth about workplace AI adoption: technology alone doesn’t drive transformation - people do. The company’s $1 billion AI investment would be wasted without effective change management strategies that address the human side of implementation. What’s particularly clever about this approach is recognizing that peer learning and psychological safety are as important as technical knowledge. By creating “playground” environments, PwC removes the fear of failure that paralyzes many employees when facing new technology. The scaling demand (880+ requests) validates this model and suggests other enterprises should consider similar collaborative, experiential training methods. The irony is delicious: a company using AI to personalize learning about AI itself demonstrates the technology’s versatility beyond its obvious applications. This story also underscores that the AI skills gap is an organizational challenge, not just an individual one - requiring systematic, creative solutions from leadership.
Why This Matters
This story highlights a critical challenge in the AI revolution: the gap between AI investment and actual employee adoption. Despite companies pouring billions into AI technology, many workers remain uncertain about how to use these tools effectively. PwC’s “prompting parties” represent an innovative solution to this widespread problem, demonstrating that technical training alone isn’t sufficient - employees need hands-on, collaborative, low-pressure environments to build confidence.
The explosive growth in AI interest at PwC (from outside the top 100 to top 5 in just two years) reflects broader workforce trends as employees recognize AI literacy is becoming essential for career advancement. The plateau in AI adoption rates identified by Slack’s survey suggests many organizations are struggling with the same implementation challenges.
This matters because effective AI adoption could determine competitive advantage in professional services and beyond. Companies that successfully bridge the training-to-usage gap will likely see greater returns on their AI investments. PwC’s approach also signals a shift toward experiential, social learning methods for emerging technologies, which could become the new standard for corporate AI training programs across industries.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/pwc-prompting-parties-teach-employees-how-to-use-ai-2024-12