How TCS Trained 570K Employees on AI — Plus 27 Unlocked AI Skill Pathways

Dan Brodnitz

Head of Global Content, LinkedIn Learning (he/him)

April 7, 2025

How TCS Trained 570k Employees on AI — Plus Unlocked AI Skills Pathways

As AI continues to transform the world of work, one thing is clear: AI skills are no longer a nice-to-have, they’re a must-have for employees and organizations aiming to succeed and grow. And according to a recent LinkedIn study, companies in the top quartile of AI literacy had 18% higher revenue than companies in the bottom quartile.

Employers are getting the message: Engagement with AI content from LinkedIn Learning has more than doubled compared with last year, a clear sign that more organizations are offering AI courses — and employees are signing on.

“To keep pace in this new era of work, every company, leader, and employee must embrace AI skills,” says Naria Santa Lucia, General Manager, Skills for Social Impact at Microsoft. “The best investment for success — both for organizations and individuals — is a culture of continuous upskilling, so we’re expanding AI learning opportunities in partnership with LinkedIn.”

Quote from Naria Santa Lucia, General Manager, Skills for Social Impact at Microsoft

Today, LinkedIn and Microsoft launched AI Skill Pathways, which includes over 150 pathways across 24 languages designed to help organizations build AI skills across roles — including learning paths and credentials to help learners develop, practice, and validate AI skills.

AI Skill Pathways are aligned to LinkedIn Learning’s AI Upskilling Framework to make it easy to recommend and disseminate learning throughout an organization no matter a learner’s level of AI expertise.

Dive in now with 27 of these pathways unlocked and free to access here through July 31, 2025.

Now, let’s explore how one company is leveraging LinkedIn Learning as part of a company-wide upskilling initiative.

Committed to AI upskilling

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services, consulting, and business solutions company headquartered in India, has a goal of creating one of the world’s largest AI-ready workforces. TCS teaches foundational generative AI skills to all its employees; curates role-specific AI upskilling via both LinkedIn Learning pathways and TCS’s own proprietary platforms; and rewards employees for investing in skill-building.

By the end of its fiscal year 2024, TCS had reskilled more than 300,000 employees in machine learning and AI, including generative AI. Today, more than 570,000 members of the 600,000 TCS workforce are considered AI-ready, including many who have achieved deep AI expertise with immersive and hands-on learning through TCS’s AI Experience Zone.

It's easy to see why TCS, which is at the forefront of providing advisory services to customers on AI adoption, is prioritizing AI upskilling. And TCS also wants to make sure that its entire workforce is poised to use AI in their day-to-day work.

We spoke to some of TCS’s HR and talent leaders to share best practices for upskilling employees in AI.

1. Help employees understand why AI upskilling matters

TCS clearly articulates to employees how AI is critical to their roles, client projects, and their personal success. Getting this message across is a necessary first step in motivating people to learn.

“If you can articulate the why behind AI upskilling in your organization you don’t need to invest so much energy in bringing employees along,” says Janardhan Santhanam, Global Head of Talent Development at TCS. “TCS leaders, including our CEO and CHRO, speak about the importance of learning AI in internal communications and in town halls. TCS employees have internalized that knowing AI is essential because it directly connects to their immediate and future career growth and success.”

As employers increasingly offer AI learning opportunities, they will likely encounter workers who believe AI upskilling is mostly relevant for tech-related jobs. TCS makes sure everyone knows they’ll be using AI in some fashion regardless of their role.

“We take an inclusive approach,” Janardhan says. “Everyone in any type of role needs to learn AI and know how to embed AI into their work.”

2. Offer a variety of AI learning content — and give employees a choice in which AI skills to learn

TCS employees have access to a robust proprietary learning platform that serves as their one-stop learning destination, which houses multiple learning pathways for AI with hyperscaler partners like Microsoft and partners like LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning’s foundational and intermediate level courses are tagged within the TCS learning platform as components of their AI literacy journey.

“As part of TCS’s internal AI upskilling journey,” says Swarna Sudha Selvaraj, Global Head of Talent Development at TCS AI.Cloud, “our employees are building strong technical and industry-specific skills. They’re becoming responsible AI practitioners, developing AI solutions as engineers, advising clients on AI offerings, and leading the way in AI across industries.”

Two of the foundational AI courses TCS recommends employees start with are unlocked for members everywhere and free to access through July 31, 2025:

TCS first explains to employees why AI upskilling matters to inspire them to learn. While they require all employees to take foundational-level AI courses, they also recommend a variety of AI learning pathways in LinkedIn Learning for more advanced AI skills. This allows the preferences of individual employees to shape the skills they learn.

The strategy appears to be working. Of the approximately 460,000 TCS employees who’ve engaged with LinkedIn Learning over the past two years, more than 60% have chosen to take courses on AI.

3. Curate AI courses based on employee roles and AI proficiency

The sheer number of AI courses available in the market can be overwhelming to a learner. While TCS encourages all employees to gain a foundational understanding of AI and its potential, courses and learning paths are recommended to employees based on their roles and AI proficiency.

“Employees’ current skill sets and their future role aspirations also play important roles in determining what type of AI upskilling is right for them,” says Madhurya Hariharan, Head of Talent Development for TCS North America.

While most of TCS’s workforce has a foundational knowledge of AI, employees such as AI engineers and architects who require deeper technical skills and specialized expertise move up to higher learning levels and receive appropriate certifications. For example, TCS senior associates who play advisory roles with the C-suite go through a marquee TCS program to help them advise clients on AI-related business transformation strategies.

LinkedIn recommends a similar approach for any organization to approach AI upskilling. LinkedIn Learning offers employers an AI Upskilling Framework with five structured learning levels tailored to different degrees of AI expertise. As a result, talent development teams can be more strategic in planning their AI upskilling initiatives.

LinkedIn Learning’s AI Skill Pathways can also be filtered by level of the AI Upskilling Framework and role. Try out these role-based pathways, free to access through July 31, 2025:

4. Put AI upskilling at employees’ fingertips

Many employees are so focused on their workdays that making time for learning can be a challenge. This is especially true for TCS associates who are often in the field working with clients.

TCS has eased the path for its employees by offering on-the-go access to AI courses via the LinkedIn Learning app and the TCS internal learning platform.

“In a market like North America, where our people are constantly on the go, LinkedIn Learning is a great way for us to help them learn,” Madhurya says. “LinkedIn Learning makes anywhere, anytime, any device learning possible for people in a very real way. Its user-friendly design and comprehensive content make it a learner-centric platform.”

LinkedIn Learning’s AI Skill Pathways can be utilized for in-depth learning or broken down for learning just a few minutes at a time. For example, the learning pathway Preparing for the Future of Work with AI Agents includes a course, How AI Agents Create Value for Businesses, with several three-to-five-minute videos to help employees quickly learn more about AI — and put those learnings into practice.

Continuous learning keeps employees engaged

Ashok Seetharaman, Head of Human Resources at Tata Consultancy Services North America, says TCS has constantly fostered a culture of continuous learning through its nearly 60-year history. As a result, over the years the company has been able to adapt to seismic transformations, including and leading to the current AI era.

TCS has had consistently high employee retention rates which “tells a story of how we’re committed to working with our people, constantly upskilling them and reskilling them,” Ashok says. “Today we have three generations in our workforce. They can’t thrive unless there’s a deep commitment to working with people and constantly transforming them.”

AI Skill Pathways to advance your workforce

Ready to get started? Upskill your organization with 27 unlocked pathways from AI Skill Pathways through July 31, 2025. View all AI Skill Pathways aligned to the AI Upskilling Framework and by role here.

Understanding AI

For professionals, including leaders and managers, seeking fluency in generative AI and responsible AI foundations.

Applying AI

For professionals, including leaders and managers, looking to apply GAI skills in their specific role.

Building AI

For AI power users working with no- and low-code tools and seasoned developers building custom GPTs.

Training and Maintaining AI

For tech professionals and AI/ML engineers who need specialized training to maintain and train AI models.

Deep Specialization in AI

For your most technically advanced employees, including DevOps, data scientists, and R&D teams, to advance their expertise in skills like AIOps, MLOps, LLMOps, AI security, and AI cloud.

METHODOLOGY

AI literacy proportion refers to the proportion of employees who have developed at least one skill for leveraging AI tools, such as ChatGPT. This metric is analyzed from October 2023 to September 2024.

Financial impact is the ratio of average revenue growth of companies in top versus bottom quartile of AI literacy proportion. For LinkedIn customers, financial impact is the ratio of average revenue growth for customers versus noncustomers.

Revenue growth data is sourced from Alpha Vantage and calculated as quarterly revenue in September 2024 versus September 2023 for a company. Companies with fewer than 50 employees or over 100% revenue growth are excluded.

AI learning engagement reflects the share of individuals (including enterprise and consumer users, employees, guests, and nonsubscribers) who consumed AI-related courses on LinkedIn Learning between March 2024 and March 2025 versus the period between March 2023 and March 2024.

The 2025 Workplace Learning Report. Explore now.

Topics: Artificial intelligence Upskilling and reskilling Talent leadership CHRO