In this episode of The Science of Excellence, I sat down with Arkesh Mishra, who leads skills-based transformation for Walmart's 12,000-person tech organization. He's spent years building a capability framework that connects skills to hiring, rewards, promotions, and learning—and now he's refreshing it for AI.Our conversation explored why skills have become essential for AI adoption. Arkesh shared how his team is using frameworks like Stanford's Human Agency Scale to map which AI tools help with which tasks, how work is shifting from creation to review, and why clarity about higher-order work determines whether people embrace or resist AI.These 5 insights stood out from our conversation:-Connect AI to Jobs via Skills-Break Work Into Three Parts-Use the Human Agency Scale to Map Tasks-Lead AI Adoption with Specific Examples-Show People the Higher-Order Work That AI UnlocksTune into the full episode to learn more!