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Why your AI strategy is now part of your employer brand

Candidates have a new question and very important question during the job seeking process.

What’s your AI strategy?

Alongside salary, flexible working and career development, they are actively assessing a business’ approach to AI. Why? Because how a business has approached implementing AI over the last 12 – 24 months says a lot about what they are like to work for.

Let’s compare two hypothetical companies:

  1. The CEO is talking about cost efficiencies, layoffs and restructures due to AI
  2. The CEO has an ambitious AI-driven vision and made a commitment to upskilling their people

Headlines like these are going to influence your decision. This isn't a future problem, it's impacting candidates’ decision making right now. Your AI strategy and its consequences are sending a signal to the talent market, whether you've thought about it or not.

Your AI strategy is a window into your culture

Most employer brands still talk about "great culture," "development opportunities," and "innovative environment." That language was already generic. Now it's incomplete.

Because what prospective talent actually wants to know is:

Will you invest in me? Only about 11% of UK employees use AI daily, and the vast majority have had no formal training beyond compliance. Candidates considering their next move are paying attention to whether an organisation is genuinely building AI capability across its workforce or leaving people to figure it out alone.

Will I have a future here? Every organisation is navigating the tension between using AI to cut costs and using it to build capability. Most are trying to do both and candidates can feel that. Companies that are transparent about investing in their people's development alongside AI adoption send a very different signal to those making headlines for replacing roles. 94% of employees say they'd stay longer at a company that invests in their learning. That stat predates AI, but it's never been more relevant

Can I trust your leadership? Candidates want to know whether your leaders have actually stood up and made meaningful commitments about AI and the future of the business. Some have. Arthur Sadoun at Publicis Groupe told 114,000 employees directly: no AI-driven redundancies, continued investment in talent, and a pledge to never become "a synthetic company." The business has grown headcount by 30% since.  Caterpillar's CEO committed $125 million to equipping the future workforce with AI skills. These are concrete, public commitments, not vague statements about "embracing innovation."

Is this business going to thrive? A clear, people-first AI strategy signals strategic confidence and long-term thinking. No strategy, or one that's purely about efficiency, raises questions about what comes next.

AI reframes every pillar of your EVP

At MSL UK we've spent years helping organisations define the ‘give and the get’ between employee and employer. The EVP has always been built on the things that matter most to people: growth, purpose, belonging, leadership, reward.

AI doesn't replace those pillars. But it reframes every one of them.

  • Growth now means: will you help me stay relevant as my role evolves?
  • Purpose now means: are you using AI to create value or just to extract it?
  • Belonging now means: is there a shared culture around how we work with AI, or is everyone fending for themselves?
  • Leadership now means: are your leaders actively navigating AI change with their teams, or just mandating adoption from above?
  • Reward now means: as AI drives productivity, will the value be shared or will the expectations simply rise?

If your employer brand doesn't address how you're navigating AI, genuinely, not performatively, you're leaving an increasingly important question unanswered. And the best candidates won't wait around for the answer.

Authored by Ben Read, Managing Partner for Employee Experience.