AI use in the workplace soars with testing leading the way
A new report, based on data from 3.9 million skills tests taken by employment candidates globally, reveals a dramatic shift towards AI proficiency and cognitive capability across the global workforce.
The data from TestGorilla shows AI testing recorded the highest growth, up 166 percent in comparison to the previous year. Following closely are coding debugging (+133 percent), computer literacy (+77 percent) and data structures/arrays (+73 percent). Together, these underline the urgent demand for practical coding competence and AI fluency.
Wouter Durville, CEO and founder at TestGorilla says, “This data shows that the global skills landscape is evolving fast, and employers are waking up to the reality that CVs and interviews alone can’t reveal true capability. As our 2025 State of Skills-Based Hiring report found, 71 percent of employers say skills testing is more predictive of on-the-job success than resumes. This difference is only going to increase as AI reshapes the world of work and the demand for precise tools to measure candidate proficiency grows. Organizations are increasingly looking towards skills tests as the most objective and fair way to assess technical proficiency and capacity to work alongside AI effectively.”
The findings come as employers scramble to close the AI skills gap and rethink how they evaluate technical talent. Harvard Business Review recently found that 93 percent of candidates weren't even asked about AI skills in their interviews, highlighting a gap between ambition and assessment.
“Most leadership teams right now are thinking about how to build an AI-first company, and, as a result, every modern recruiter is thinking about AI-first hiring,” adds Olive Turon, head of people and culture at TestGorilla. “In other words, how to hire people who can excel in an AI-driven world. Skills tests that are designed to objectively measure technical ability and critical thinking, especially those with robust anti-cheating measures built in, are crucial for recruiters to have available as they build their AI-first teams.”
You can find out more on the TestGorilla blog.
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