Every HR team in 2026 has the same line buried in its goals: make the workforce "AI-ready." Ask ten leaders what that phrase means and you'll get ten different answers, and most stop at a one-hour e-learning module and a completion certificate. Real readiness looks nothing alike for a recruiter, a finance analyst, and a sales lead. It shows up in how people work, not in who finished the course.

The pressure is coming from every side. Half of employers now say AI skills gaps are the single biggest thing slowing their AI adoption (WEF, 2025). The EU AI Act requires AI literacy across the workforce under Article 4. CEOs want "AI-first" by the next board meeting. HR is the function expected to make all of it real.

Marily Nika, Ph.D, has spent her career on both sides of the gap most HR teams are trying to close. She works on Gen AI products at Google, and she's taught AI product skills to thousands of professionals who never trained as engineers, the exact capability HR is now being asked to build as AI proficiency becomes a hard skill. George Kalyvas sits her down to work through the questions HR leaders keep circling: what "AI-ready" looks like role by role, whether off-the-shelf programs change how anyone works or just print certificates, and how to prove the spend to a leadership team that's done signing blank checks.

This is the latest episode of The Talent Shift, Bryq's live series for senior HR and TA leaders. No vendor pitch. No slide deck. Just the people dealing with this challenge, talking honestly about what is and is not working.