When Heidi Edwards arrived at the Ministry of Defence over a year ago to take on the role of assistant head of AI skills and talent at the Defence AI Centre, she embarked on the challenge of building AI fluency across the department. The MoD is one of the UK’s most diverse workforces, as it's made up of war fighters and civil servants as well as doctors and nurses. It is, as Edwards put it, “like a microcosm of society.”
But Edwards brought with her a proven blueprint from another academy she'd built at HMRC. Within five months, her new centre of AI expertise had reached 5,000 learners across defence, and it was done by meeting people exactly where they were, helping them face their fears, anxiety and scepticism head-on.
“The biggest surprise for me is that people have been scared to use AI,” Edwards said in the latest episode of CSW’s Changemakers podcast, produced in partnership with Capita. “They think AI is going to take their job.”
That fear is felt across government. People worry they'll get into trouble for using AI incorrectly, and fret about hallucinations and incorrect outputs. These anxieties, she explained, create a mood that prevents teams from harnessing AI's transformative potential.
Her practical approach was key to overcoming those fears. Rather than dismissing people’s concerns, Edwards weaved in safety and responsibility through every piece of learning content, from checking outputs and understanding AI’s limitations to building confidence through competence.
The secret to success
Since the MoD's approach rejects one-size-fits-all training, Edwards's work focused on five distinct learning personas: the AI Explorer, the AI Business Operator, the AI War Fighter, the AI Professional, and the AI Senior Leader. Each one included targeted micro-learning interventions designed for busy professionals who need to upskill without stepping away from their day jobs.
Bold but simple, the initiative aligns with government's target for one in ten civil servants to become digital professionals. The aim was to reduce the number of explorers (those who don't understand AI) while growing the department’s workforce into AI professionals.
“We had this huge gap that we needed to fill in between,” Edwards said, noting that a capability survey revealed most people found themselves as either complete beginners or already professionals. The personas helped bridge that gap with structured, progressive learning.
Setting up the centre of expertise was just the beginning. Edwards believes the best learning content means nothing if nobody engages with it, so she set up a community of practice which now has 1,600 members where defence AI experts contribute video content and learning clubs support certification. This approach, she explained, transformed isolated learning into collective growth.
The impact of this initiative is in the numbers. The 5,000 learners represent a fundamental shift in defence capability. Each learner who moves from AI Explorer to AI Professional creates a ripple effect, sharing knowledge with colleagues and embedding new ways of working across teams. The 1,600 members in the community of practice add further support, providing teams with a platform where questions get answered in minutes rather than weeks, and best practices spread through the organisation.
Reflecting on this project, Edwards admitted that she'd do one thing differently: secure senior buy-in from day one. “I would have liked to get an endorsement from somebody very senior to explain why this AI fluency is so important to the organisation,” she said. To Edwards, this is a crucial lesson for any transformation initiative: you need champions at every level to drive real change.
But Edwards isn't alone in her mission to transform defence capabilities. Olivia Lory Kay, Director of Learning at Capita, shared her vision of building resilient organisations ready for constant change.
Drawing on her experience helping organisations navigate digital transformation, Lory Kay brought the concept of “antifragility” to the conversation. She argued for building organisations that don't just withstand change but grow stronger from it. “Think about a muscle. When you break it, it grows back stronger,” she said, and explained that this philosophy underpins Capita's approach to “building AI muscle every day”. With this approach, she explained, organisations can create resilience through constant adaptation rather than rigid structures.
That philosophy fits well in the age of AI, where skills become outdated in just two to four years, and traditional training can't keep pace. To Lory Kay, this is not about delivering more courses but about making learning part of everyday work. When teams learn together, they adapt and, ultimately, they grow their skills together.
An always-learning culture
Leadership plays a key role in creating a positive environment for teams to upskill, but in the age of AI, the challenge lies in adapting to uncertainty. As Lory Kay put it, “leaders need to be comfortable with not necessarily knowing all the answers”. She explained that in an AI-powered world, the leader who pretends to know it all becomes a liability, and that instead, organisations need leaders who lead with curiosity and take the opportunity to learn from failure.
Edwards admitted that she champions an “always learning culture” where development isn't something you do occasionally, but is included in every working day. She recalled initiatives like ‘Empower Hour’ and festivals of learning where entire teams pause to upskill together.
Civil servants already have five days of professional development annually, and Edwards wants everyone to maximise them and push for more. “When you learn, you grow your capabilities, your digital skills will enhance, and you will become more sought after in the market,” she said.
The courage to be curious
Both Edwards and Lory Kay challenged conventional recruitment approaches. While everyone fishes from the same STEM talent pool, Edwards wants to “look at the broader ocean”. She explained: “If people have a passion for technology, can they have that capability? Can we upskill them?” The question shifts the focus from credentials to potential.
Lory Kay framed it less as a search for talent and more about building environments where people want to contribute. She noted that the public sector has compelling stories to tell, but the challenge is telling them.
Edwards’ journey proves the transformative power of learning. “I learned about cloud computing probably about five years ago. It changed my life. It changed my career,” she said, noting she now runs community initiatives breaking down barriers for other women entering tech. Building on this experience, Edwards shared a simple but powerful piece of advice: “Learn and be curious.” She argued that there’s no end state, no point where you've learned enough, because the pace of change makes that impossible. The only option civil servants have is to start today.