The Adecco Group signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. to create a career platform for workers as part of an overall memorandum of understanding between the global staffing firm and the tech giant.

Plans call for the career platform to assess individuals’ current skills, strengths and gaps, then map those against evolving labour market needs. The platform uses generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). GenAI is a type of AI that can create a wide variety of data, such as images, videos, audio, text, and 3D models.

“It will deliver customised career advice and services in coaching, micro-learning and upskilling, preparing people for emerging job opportunities and ensuring continued employability,” the announcement states.

Large companies have made AI adoption a priority, but workers risk getting left behind, Adecco CEO Denis Machuel said.

“Our research shows that 70% of workers now use GenAI at work, but access to training and guidance remains a barrier,” Machuel said. “Our vision is to enable all individuals to maintain their skills currency and employability in the era of GenAI.”

The overall memorandum also includes four areas of collaboration on which Adecco and Microsoft will work together.

1. Support responsible and ethical generative AI adoption across the workforce. Constructively support generative AI-related policymaking and workforce planning that considers fairness, inclusiveness, safety, transparency, privacy and accountability.
2. Inclusive use of generative AI in workforce. Work toward the elimination of geographical, generational, race, gender, socioeconomic or other barriers in work using generative AI.
3. Accelerate organisational adoption of GenAI. Enable organizations to unlock economic opportunity, bridge skill gaps and create inclusive work through the integration of GenAI.
4. Develop joint go-to-market solutions. Co-develop products to support individuals and organizations in navigating new job creation, job augmentations and job transitions in GenAI-enabled work.

“With our shared vision of harnessing the power of GenAI to transform the world of work, we are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with The Adecco Group to help augment human skilling and ingenuity, while supporting inclusive access to GenAI for all people around the world,” Hayete Gallot, corporate VP, commercial solutions areas at Microsoft, said.

The announcement of the launch of a new platform worldwide follows a similar launch in 2021 in Switzerland between the staffing firm and the tech giant.

In 2021, Microsoft and the Adecco Group Switzerland launched a digital learning platform, ‘Skills for Switzerland’ to offer further training in various digital areas. The initiative aims at helping grow a more digital-savvy and inclusive skills-based economy.

“We want to help the Swiss workforce and next generations to prepare for the skills and jobs of the future – in short, to upskill,” Skills for Switzerland states.