Designing an AI-ready workforce: A guide for SMB leaders
In just a few short years, AI has grown from an emerging trend into an operational reality shaping hiring, workflows, and competitive positioning for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). This shakeup is forcing SMB leaders to look into how they can design their workforce and workflows around AI.
When The Upwork Research Institute examined hiring behavior across more than 1,000 business leaders alongside marketplace demand trends, one finding stood out: AI is not reducing demand for human talent, but reshaping how talent creates value.
The In-Demand Skills 2026 report, which surveyed 349 business leaders and analyzed freelance hiring data from January to December 2025, found that 77% of business leaders report that AI is increasing their need for fractional or freelance talent. Core creative, marketing, and technical skills remain in strong demand. More than expertise in AI by itself, what is needed - and what is becoming the differentiator for SMBs in 2026 - are domain experts who can apply AI effectively to their workflows.
In a recent webinar, Dr. Gabby Burlacu, senior manager of the Upwork Research Institute, joined by Alina Jesien, senior director of human resources at Ergeon, and John D. Saunders, founder of 5Four Digital, unpacked how AI is transforming workforce strategy for SMBs.
AI is reconfiguring human work, not replacing it
The most in-demand skills by hiring volume have remained remarkably consistent year over year. Logo design, social media marketing, web development, and content production continue to rank highly despite widespread assumptions that these categories would decline first as AI adoption increased.
The explanation is straightforward: AI can generate output, but it can't independently exercise contextual judgment. The copy that it drafts, the code that it generates, and the visual assets that it produces need to be vetted and refined by experts who understand business goals.
Instead of replacing specialists, AI is absorbing rote, repeatable tasks and helping people focus more on oversight, refinement, and strategic direction.
This shift becomes even clearer when examining growth trends. As Dr. Burlacu explains:
"AI skills are growing in demand, but it's applied AI skills. It's domain expertise plus the propensity to apply AI tools toward doing things differently."
For SMB leaders, successfully adopting AI will not mean hiring AI generalists to displace their domain experts. Instead, adopting AI will look more like finding domain experts who know how to get more done faster - without sacrificing quality - by integrating AI into their workflows.
The strategic shift from tool adoption to systems thinking
Business leaders ranked adaptability highest when asked which capabilities are increasing in importance as they integrate AI into their companies. This result reflects a broader shift: Static skill sets depreciate quickly in fast-moving technological environments, while the ability to learn and redesign processes compounds.
One theme emerged consistently in conversations with operators: AI rewards structured systems.
"Having the skill and discipline to move knowledge into structured, queryable systems is really a foundational operations skill that we're seeing," says Jesien.
AI performs best when institutional knowledge is documented, accessible, and organized. Without that structure, outputs degrade and inefficiencies multiply. "AI rewards organized business - and it will really expose disorganized ones," notes Saunders.
For SMBs, the fact that AI works best with organized data is particularly important. Many smaller organizations rely on informal knowledge sharing and undocumented processes. That flexibility has in the past been an asset in early growth stages, but becomes a liability when integrating automation.
Investing in documentation, clear workflows, and centralized knowledge systems may unlock more value than adopting another new tool. AI will amplify whatever structure - or lack thereof - already exists. If processes are clear, performance improves. But if they are fragmented, inefficiencies accelerate.
These changes align with broader trends in which organizations are redesigning roles and workflows around oversight and strategic interpretation rather than task execution.
Adaptability as an operational capability
Adaptability is often described as a mindset. In 2026, it must become a mechanism. Upwork data suggests that to realize the most benefits from AI, organizations should consider doing these four things consistently:
- Redesign workflows deliberately. Rather than layering AI on top of existing processes, select one recurring workflow - such as reporting, onboarding, or content production - and rebuild it end-to-end. Define what can be automated and where human review is required.
- Centralize knowledge. Structured documentation dramatically improves AI outputs. Maintain updated standardized operating procedures (SOPs) and searchable knowledge bases to see compounding efficiency gains.
- Distribute AI fluency across teams. Don't confine AI adoption to technical departments. Finance, operations, marketing, and HR teams can all integrate AI tools into daily workflows - though it doesn't have to happen all at the same time.
- Combine core expertise with flexible talent models. AI is accelerating demand for specialized fractional expertise. Rather than hiring full-time for every new capability, engage experienced professionals to integrate AI, redesign systems, and lead targeted initiatives.
Taken together, these actions transform adaptability from a cultural aspiration into a structural advantage.
Don't try to eliminate human value; redistribute it
Demand for core expertise remains strong even in the face of broad AI adoption. The fastest-growing skills are applied rather than abstract. And adaptability - expressed through systems thinking, documentation discipline, and proactive learning - is becoming the ultimate competitive advantage for SMBs.
Organizations that embed AI within structured workflows while elevating human judgment will increase their leverage without proportionally increasing headcount. But those that adopt tools without redesigning systems will struggle to see meaningful returns.
The opportunity lies in designing for what comes next.
Put adaptability into practice
SMBs in 2026 will find that AI rewards operationalized adaptability. But first, they have to ensure they have access to the right expertise at the right time.
This story was produced by Upwork and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC
This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 10:10 AM.