Microsoft Viva Unveils Skills: AI for Talent Development

To achieve peak performance, it is crucial that leadership sets the right course and that employees have the necessary skills to adapt to any challenge. However, many companies remain stuck in a traditional job-based talent management model, making it difficult to understand capabilities at the individual or organizational level. In today’s rapidly changing talent market, the ability to identify dynamic skills – a set of capabilities that are adaptable, flexible and constantly evolving – offers companies a more detailed view of the talent profile, looking beyond the traditional standards of job title and resume data.

Challenges in Transitioning to a Skill-Based Organization

However, the transition to a skills-oriented organization can be challenging, often hampered by low employee engagement in developing and updating skills. In light of these obstacles, we are excited to introduce Skills in Viva, a new AI-driven service within the Microsoft Viva Suite that helps organizations grow and manage talent.

Availability of Skills in Viva

Skills in Viva will be included in the Microsoft Viva Suite license at no additional cost and will be available in a private preview by the end of 2023.

The Architecture of Skills in Viva

Skills in Viva is designed to bridge the gap between traditional work structures and the skill-oriented future that organizations are striving for. Leveraging the wealth of data available through the Microsoft Graph, the extensive capabilities of the Viva platform and close collaboration with LinkedIn’s Skills Graph, Skills in Viva offers an AI-driven, employee-validated approach to support high-performing organizations.

Microsoft Graph: Insights into Skills

Skills in Viva generates skills inferences from a variety of sources, including emails, documents, meetings, chats, key contacts and more. In the future, it will also leverage additional signals, such as experts in Viva Topics, learning paths and an organization’s data entered from connected HCM systems.

LinkedIn Skills Graph: The Dynamic Skills Model

A dynamic model that uses real-time signals from 148 industries and more than 200 countries to map the global skills landscape. This includes how 39,000 unique skills relate to each other, to jobs, and to learning materials. It provides a foundational skills library that Skills in Viva uses as a common language to enable skills experiences within the Viva suite and the Microsoft 365 platform.

By applying AI reasoning on top of this data layer, Skills in Viva can intelligently derive a skill profile of an employee, giving Viva customers a better understanding of current work skills.