AI competence in the company: Why training will be part of the infrastructure in 2026
This article was translated from German with the assistance of AI.
- AI projects rarely fail due to technology, usually due to a lack of training.
- For most teams, two worlds count: Microsoft Copilot and Claude with Cowork.
- Good training works with your real use cases and clarifies how to handle company data.
Most AI projects do not fail because of the technology. They fail because no one in the team uses the tools correctly. Licenses have been purchased, the tools are there, and after four weeks hardly anyone uses them anymore. Why training is the underrated part of any AI implementation and what matters.
Why do AI implementations fail without training?
Because AI tools work differently than classic software. An ERP has menus and fixed processes. An AI assistant reacts to speech, and the quality of the results directly depends on how you work with it. If you never learn how to do this, you get mediocre results, draw the wrong conclusion that the tool is no good, and go back to the old way of working. The investment evaporates.
Which tools should your team master?
For most companies it boils down to two worlds. Microsoft Copilot brings the AI to where your team already works: Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. Draft emails, summarize meetings, evaluate tables, all in a familiar environment. Claude with cowork goes one step further towards agentic work: create entire documents, carry out analyses, hand over multi-stage workflows to the AI. Which combination makes sense for your business depends on your processes, not the hype.
What does good AI training look like?
Three characteristics separate effective training courses from mandatory courses. First, it works with your real use cases, not textbook examples. The quote your sales writes every day is the best practice. Second: It conveys rules for the secure handling of company data, i.e. which information is allowed in which tool and which is not. Third: It doesn't end after the workshop. The questions come in the weeks that follow, when the team uses the tools in everyday life. That's why there is a contact point for questions.
Is AI training now mandatory?
The EU AI Act requires companies that use AI systems to have an appropriate level of AI competence among the employees who work with them. How strictly this will be interpreted in practice is still changing. It is wise to treat the issue not as bureaucracy, but as what it is: the obligation to train and the economic benefits point in the same direction.
What does that mean in measurable terms?
The effect of good training becomes apparent quickly and concretely: texts, offers and evaluations are created in a fraction of the time previously, and in the entire team instead of just the two colleagues who work privately with AI. There is also the hidden benefit: those who understand the tools can recognize which processes can be automated in their own area. The best ideas for the next step, for example the first one, come from trained employees AI agents. And the same applies here: training is about the South Tyrolean digitalization funding eligible for funding at 60 percent.
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