Booz Allen Hamilton’s AI upskilling program tackles needs across the spectrum of AI work

Women are wildly underrepresented in tech roles. In Q3 of last year, only about 23% of developers identified as female and only 14% of tech leaders were women that year. Women only account for 18% of new computer science degrees as of 2024, according to BLS data.

Strategic AI upskilling might be a way for employers to build an equitable workforce in the AI-enabled economy, especially for women—a group underrepresented in tech for decades. The trick, according to one L&D leader, is to build out a learning program that equips workers with all of the skills needed to successfully deliver on AI projects and products, not just engineering and math skills.

Booz Allen Hamilton is currently the largest provider of AI services to the federal government, procuring for between $500 and $700 million in government contracts in fiscal year 2024, according to Axios.

In order to best provide federal agencies and other clients with AI-powered solutions, it created a program to allow its massive 34,000 workforce to upskill. In October 2023, the company released its AI Ready program companywide.

“Generative AI is democratized. Anybody can use it. Anybody can upskill on it,” said Yvette Wolfe, a data scientist who designs AI and data science training at Booz Allen. “But I do think organizations need to be intentional with those upskilling opportunities.”

Booz Allen offers all employees two “nuts and bolts” AI courses: AI Aware, a three-hour course, and AI Foundational, over eight hours. But after completing those basic courses, the curriculum diverges into two tracks: one for consultants and another for engineers.

Between the two tracks, Booz Allen employees have access to a 52-course library.

Wolfe said the consultant training program can help employees learn how to communicate about AI, use generative AI, do data storytelling, and lead digital transformation projects. These are the sorts of skills needed to be conversant and lead in an AI ecosystem, but not necessarily to develop an application or solution.

“This training program goes from aware—[for] people that know the word ‘AI’ but nothing more—all the way up to building expertise,” she said. “So, we can take anybody anywhere in their AI journey and build them up to an expert, but I think the key here is that you don’t need to learn math or coding right to become an AI expert.”

Digital glass ceilings

Jobs often held by women are some of the most at risk of AI displacement. This might be partly because the types of roles women most often perform involve the same types of tasks generative AI is really good at replicating, HR Brew previously reported.

Wolfe sees the training program as one for everyone, and inclusion was part of its foundational DNA.

“We can take anybody from any field, any prior skills, and make them into an AI adoption specialist [or an] AI innovation leader,” Wolfe said, later noting that for “women that are at risk for losing their jobs with generative AI…this training program helps you learn…all of these soft skills that are needed for AI.”

More than one-third of Booz Allen employees have been trained through this program. Booz Allen teamed up with Workera on designing the curriculum, which through an AI-powered assessment can create a training pathway unique to each employee’s skills and desired learning outcomes.

“This training program is immensely accessible to anybody who’s not interested in coding, not interested in learning mathematics, and…you can dip in and get the skills that you need,” Wolfe said.