The 2025/2026 Skills Snapshot Survey report  

What sets high-performing organizations apart is their ability to unleash talent at scale, enabling their workforce to respond to change and opportunity with agility. Skills-powered organizations achieve this by identifying, developing, and deploying talent based on skills, rather than just roles, thereby enabling workforce flexibility and productivity.

As part of the skills-powered journey, employers are progressing with leveraging skills in their talent and rewards strategies. This improves employee retention, enhances workforce agility and allows greater flexibility in responding to evolving market demands.

The 2025/2026 Skills Snapshot Survey report delves into the strategic importance of building a skills-powered organization, highlighting how this evolving approach unlocks greater workforce agility, drives innovation, and positions businesses for sustainable growth in an increasingly dynamic and technology-enabled market.

AI plays a central role in both shaping and enabling this journey, rapidly reshaping skill requirements and premiums and enabling skills development and deployment.

91% of companies see AI transforming their workforce and are planning how to respond. They’re using skills strategically to attract talent, connect the right people to the right work and stay ahead of shifting work demands.

They’re using skills strategically to attract talent, connect the right people to the right work and stay ahead of shifting work demands.

The 2025/2026 Skills Snapshot Survey reveals continued momentum in embedding skills into talent management practices. Organizations are steadily advancing foundational capabilities that enable a skills-powered workforce.

38% of organizations now maintain a single, enterprise-wide skills library, up from 30% in 2023.

55% map skills directly to jobs, a significant increase from 47% in 2023.

The mean percentage of jobs with skills mapped has grown to 72%, up from 69% in 2023.

These gains demonstrate a rising maturity in skills adoption, laying the groundwork for more effective talent strategies and workforce agility.