NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / October 6, 2026 / General Assembly, the global leader in practical AI skills training, today announced it has trained more than 2.5 million professionals, including within 54 of the Fortune 100, with tech and AI skills over 15 years.

To celebrate this milestone, General Assembly launched Keep Progress Human, a campaign built on a key principle the company has observed across every tech cycle: technology only becomes progress when people can confidently apply it.

“General Assembly has helped people acquire the most in-demand skills for 15 years of continuous technological change,” said Daniele Grassi, CEO of General Assembly. “Technologies come and go, but one reality has stayed consistent: organizations who invest in their people get the most out of their tech and AI investments.”

General Assembly Shares the 4 Key Criteria of a Successful AI Workforce Transformation

As AI changes organizational structures, workflows and roles, General Assembly is sharing four lessons derived from its experience teaching practical tech skills to 2.5 million learners:

Training must be hands-on and connected to employees’ actual work. Generic training does little to help employees implement AI in their workflows. Role-specific training, on the other hand, helps employees start applying AI immediately, with tangible results. General Assembly research found that HR leaders rank role-specific training as the most effective upskilling approach.
Foundational AI fluency is only the first step toward workforce transformation. Foundational fluency is helpful, but literacy alone never leads to transformation. Instead, employees must progress from understanding AI concepts to applying AI in repeatable workflows and use cases, and consistently executing good judgment over outputs. AI training must be progressive and continuous as technology advances.
Human instruction remains critical as organizations adopt AI. AI makes information more accessible, but it doesn’t replace the real-time feedback, accountability and real-world expertise of human instructors. Live instruction is much more engaging than on-demand videos, where employees are more likely to “check the box” than actually learn something.
AI adoption depends on building employee confidence and competence, not simply providing access to tools. Every employee starts at a different place. Some don’t know where to begin, some worry about making mistakes or violating company policy, while others may be AI power users who lack the skills to protect sensitive information. Guided practice, repeated application, feedback and accessible support from instructors and peers are all critical to building actual competency, and making AI tools actually valuable to workers of all levels.