Empowering employee-led upskilling: how job crafting drives workforce agility in the AI era

Purpose This study aims to demonstrate how employee-led job crafting can be leveraged as a strategic driver for workforce new skilling, upskilling, reskilling and agility amid rapid artificial intelligence-driven change. The paper highlights how enabling autonomy, competence and relatedness through cognitive and behavioral adaptation fosters agility and practical business outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Synthesizing recent organizational psychology research, this paper introduces a needs-based framework directly linking proactive job design with strategic talent management and provides actionable recommendations for human resource (HR) leaders. Findings Top-down training programs often underperform without employee ownership. When HR leaders enable “need crafting” – supporting employees to adjust perspectives and daily behaviors – employees align development with business needs, resulting in greater agility, team problem-solving and communication. Originality/value This paper bridges theory and practice, offering an actionable playbook for chief human resources officers and HR leaders to embed job crafting into talent strategies and build future-ready workforces.