The Crown Estate has launched a new digital training program to upskill employees across the organization in AI in a drive to boost its digital capabilities.

The AI for Business Value program apprenticeship aims to equip team members from business functions across the organization with advanced, industry-relevant AI and machine learning capabilities.

Delivered by Multiverse over a 13-month period, the AI for Business Value program trains apprentices to identify business value gains that can be achieved through using AI and executing ethical AI projects.

The training is part of The Crown Estate’s ambition to better utilise AI to drive value for the nation. A significant national landowner, The Crown Estate delivers financial value to the Treasury and creates wider environmental, social and economic value for England, Wales and Northern Ireland through its diverse £16bn portfolio that includes urban centres and development opportunities; one of the largest rural holdings in the country; and Windsor Great Park. It also manages the seabed and much of the coastline around the same parts of the UK, playing a major role in the country’s world leading offshore wind sector.

Participants on the AI for Business Value program will be embedded across the organization, delivering AI innovation and utilising real-time data in areas ranging from administration and property management through to urban design and marine planning.

The program will enable teams to identify new opportunities to improve operational and design efficiencies, reduce emissions and carry out optimum planning, among other strategic outcomes, supporting The Crown Estate’s objectives on net-zero, economic growth and productivity and stewarding the UK’s natural environment and biodiversity.

With businesses predicting that almost half (44%) of workers’ core skills will be disrupted by 2027, with AI widely reported to be a key disrupter, the training will also enhance the careers of apprentices who are enrolled, empowering them with the most in-demand skills in the economy today, and allowing them to act as champions for AI within the organization.

According to the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report, almost two-thirds of companies globally predict AI will grow in importance, with AI and big data the number one priority for company training strategies with more than 50,000 employees.

It’s becoming ever more critical for employers to heed the advent of AI, both to harness the numerous benefits it can yield for their business and to prepare their people for the future of work.