Skills Density is Important when Downsizing
A recent article in a leading newspaper suggested that accounting firms will be one of the groups most affected by downsizing because of AI. The expectation is that AI will replace a lot of those jobs.
If your business does anticipate significant layoffs, irrespective of whether caused by AI or not, having skills density metrics could be really helpful in deciding who you most need to stay.
As firms and even Government departments become more skills focused, and you have invested the effort into skills tracking and skills analysis, your skills data can provide valuable insight into who you really need to keep, labour laws permitting.
Suppose, for example, that you have a 40 person call centre to support your e-commerce operation and the advent of AI agents means that you can replace half of them with AI agents, saving a good share of the payroll. Your skills data should tell you how many skills each person has and how many each person could potentially have if you enrol them in your talent development initiative. Those with the least skills and the least skills potential will be the first candidates on the list.
As you build a list of people you could most afford to lose, how will your skills density for that department drop? Could you then recover your skills density with the remaining people who have more potential? How long will that take?
Your skills analysis might tell you that you should make your candidate list smaller because you are losing too many skills. Conversely, it could tell you to make your list bigger, perhaps over a longer period of time, because you can see how you can maintain enough skills and employee flexibility, by careful management.
Your skills data is just as important when you consider taking on new ventures. Your data could tell you how easy it might be to reskill some employees so they can be re-deployed rather than let go.
This is one example of why talent development and upskilling is so important in the coming age of AI.-
Posted by Brian Hume
24th June 2026
