Phillips Consulting, Skillsoft and LRMG Convene Senior Executives on Workforce Readiness in the Age of AI

Phillips Consulting (pcl.), in collaboration with Skillsoft, a global leader in technology and leadership learning, and its Pan-African partner, LRMG, hosted an exclusive executive forum focused on the future of workforce transformation in the age of artificial intelligence.The executive-only session, themed “Workforce Readiness in the Age of AI: Rethinking Skills, Roles, and Leadership for the Future,” was held on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The event was officially opened by Paul Ayim, Partner at Phillips Consulting, who delivered the opening remarks and set the tone for the day’s discussions. In his remarks, he highlighted the profound impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work and challenged business leaders to rethink how organisations prepare for emerging skills requirements, evolving roles, and new leadership expectations.

The forum convened CEOs, CHROs, Chief Learning Officers, and senior business leaders to explore how organisations can strategically prepare their workforce for the realities of AI-driven transformation. Discussions focused on practical approaches to rethinking talent, leadership, skills development, organisational agility, and long-term workforce competitiveness.

Keynote Speakers

Sally Acton – Chief Experience and Innovation Officer, LRMG

Sally Acton challenged organisations to confront an uncomfortable truth that AI and disruption are not creating new problems but exposing gaps in how work has always been designed. She pointed out that most organisations have been built by accident rather than by intention

She introduced a four-gap workforce readiness framework spanning skills, inspiration, visibility and agility, urging leaders to close these gaps through culture, career architecture and real-time intelligence before reaching for technology.

She left delegates with a question worth sitting with:“Are we designed to learn, or designed to lose?”

Temi Dalley – Group Executive, Human Capital and Corporate Services, Sterling Financial Holdings Co.

Temi Dalley opened with a question that has stayed with her for some time:“Are we truly prepared for roles that do not yet exist?“She was unequivocal that workforce readiness is not an HR agenda but an enterprise survival agenda.

She reminded delegates that AI is replacing tasks, not people, and that the 97 million new roles projected to emerge by 2030 will be filled only through deliberate, strategic leadership. She urged organisations to stop measuring performance on metrics that are becoming obsolete and to invest in skillsintelligence, talent mobility and psychological safety that real transformation demands.

Our Learning Journey with Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG)

Setting the tone ahead of the panel session, John Opata, Senior Manager, Learning & Development at Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), shared the bank’s six-year workforce capability transformation journey and the pivotal role digital learning has played in building a culture of continuous development.

Reflecting on the journey, Opata noted that continuous learning has become part of CBG’s culture and acknowledged pcl.’s partnership and support in the successful implementation of the Learning Management System (LMS), which has been instrumental in the bank’s pursuit of excellence in workforce development and capability building.

Panelist Session

The forum’s panellist session was moderated by Modupe Thomas-Owoseni, Partner at pcl., who guided this rich conversation on what Workforce readiness in the age of AI means for organisations across Africa today.

Ejemen Okojie -HR Director, IHS Towers

Ejemen Okojie shared her view on Workforce readiness in the Age of AI through practical experience and urged that the traditional approach of matching people to organisational charts based on skills, experience, and qualifications is becoming obsolete. Organisations now exist in a state of perpetual readiness gap where the shelf life of skills is measured in months, not years, making point-in-time assessments of readiness no longer sufficient.

The future workforce, in her view, will require a strong integration of analytical and creative thinking, resilience, emotional intelligence and sound human judgment alongside technical capability. The rapid introduction of AI-driven digital colleagues and agents is already reshaping organisational structures and redefining how teams are formed and how work gets done.

She placed a strong premium on cognitive skillsand domain expertise, cautioning that AI without context produces noise rather than insight. What matters now, she noted, is not what employees had done before but what they are capable of doing now. She stressed that leadership must ensure the right conversations happen early and across the right levels of the organisation to align people, processes, and technology. Without this, even strong technological investments may fail to translate into effective execution.

Dr. Joshua Ademuwagun – Human Resources Director, Pernod Ricard Nigeria

Joshua brought a practical perspective to the question of job design in the age of AI, noting that organisations must be deliberate and intentional rather than reactive. He emphasised that AI should be viewed as an enabler, requiring organisations to invest in upskilling and reskilling so employees can transition from execution-focused tasks to higher-value work centred on judgement, leadership, creativity, and collaboration.

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He further stressed that humans must increasingly master the skills of orchestration rather than execution. In this context, he outlined a clear approach starting with task decomposition to identify repetitive activities that can be automated, thereby freeing employees to move up the value chain and enabling genuine human-AI collaboration.He also emphasised the importance of redesigning roles to reflect changing workforce realities, supported by strong governance frameworks and ethical guardrails for responsible AI adoption.

Joshua concluded by highlighting change management as a critical success factor, urging leaders to focus not only on implementing AI tools but also on helping employees understand, adapt to, and embrace new ways of working.

Sally Acton, Chief Experience and Innovation Officer, LRMG

Sally Acton was unequivocal that organisations are not moving fast enough to keep pace with AI. However, she stressed that the challenge is not the technology itself. AI capabilities already exist and are advancing rapidly; the real constraint lies in organisational readiness.

She stated that many organisations have yet to redesign how work is structured or establish the data foundations required for meaningful AI adoption. Without accessible, connected, and trusted data, much of AI’s potential remains unrealised. Building on Joshua’s earlier point about orchestration, she noted that the future of work will require organisations to operate more like a coordinated system of human and digital colleagues rather than linear structures.

Sally encouraged leaders to focus less on chasing every emerging AI trend and more on identifying one or two high-impact use cases aligned to clear business objectives. By combining data readiness, thoughtful work redesign, and disciplined execution, organisations can accelerate their journey toward becoming truly AI-enabled enterprises.

Yemi Faseun – Chief Talent Officer, YF Talent Partners

Yemi Faseun made a strong case that leadership, creativity, emotional intelligence and critical thinking are the skills organisations must prioritise to stay competitive. These are the very areas being overlooked as organisations rush to adopt AI, and that gap, he noted, is where competitive advantage will ultimately be won or lost.

On the role of leaders, he was clear that leadership is not a concept confined to the executive level. It cascades across every layer of an organisation, from team leads to managers, and each layer carries a responsibility to bring people along through change. He pointed to the growing disconnect in workplace interactions, particularly among younger employees, and called for a return to intentional mentorship, both in-person and digital, to pass the baton to the next generation.

His closing thought was that the confidence leaders need to build in their people will not come from simply providing tools. It will come from collaborative, empathetic leadership that helps people understand that change has always required learning new skills and that the world has never collapsed because of it.

Industry Expert Session

Billy Gager, Account Executive, Skillsoft,opened by positioning AI adoption as an organisational design problem rather than a technology one. The real challenge is whether companies are structured, skilled and culturally ready to adapt. He made clear that disruption is now the new normal and that adaptability has replaced scale and cost as the primary competitive advantage.

He introduced the Adaptive Enterprise framework, built around four dimensions. People focus on continuous upskilling, Process on faster and data-driven decisions, Technology on real-time skills intelligence, and Culture on trust and leadership buy-in. Drawing on the World Economic Forum’s finding that 39% of skills will change by 2030, he noted that soft skills such as critical thinking and communication are becoming more important relative to technical skills.

Most organisations fall short because they lack visibility into their skills landscape, alignment between learning and business strategy, and the data to execute smart decisions. His solution was a four-stage cycle of Assess, Align, Activate and Amplify, designed to close skills gaps, personalise learning and measure impact continuously.

He closed with a clear message. The organisations that win will not be those with the best tools, but those with the fastest insight, the sharpest decisions and the agility to act on both.

Foluso Phillips,Chairman, Phillips Consulting (pcl.)grounded his closing remarks in a fundamental question about organisational readiness, asking whether companies truly have people leaders in the room or simply managers without a real grasp of what change demands. Drawing on his decades in consulting, he made the point that even the world’s top firms eventually learned that strategy design is only half the battle. The harder part is execution, and execution lives and dies with people. Change management, behaviour, training and culture are no longer background considerations but are now the primary drivers of organisational success.

The forum provided delegates with valuable insights into building AI-ready workforces, redefining workforce capabilities, and equipping leaders to navigate the rapidly evolving world of work. Through practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and implementation-focused discussions, attendees gained actionable strategies they can apply within their organisations to drive workforce transformation, strengthen organisational resilience, and unlock sustainable business value in the age of AI.