AI is not only for IT: how SQB trained 4 000 employees in artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of working processes ever faster. Where AI used to be seen as a tool for developers and analysts, today it is used in customer service, HR, marketing, document handling and everyday communication.

For large companies the question is no longer whether to introduce employees to AI. The question is different: how to do it systematically, at scale, and in a way that keeps the training from being a one-off initiative.

SQB launched artificial-intelligence training for 4,000 employees. The task was not only to give access to a course, but to establish a shared level of knowledge across different departments and branches, and to see how employees progress through the training. For this the bank used the learning platform OSNOVA.

Why AI literacy is becoming important for the whole team

AI is gradually ceasing to be a separate technology domain and becoming a working tool for employees across specialisms.

It helps structure information faster, draft documents, analyse data, search for ideas, work with text and automate part of the routine. But to use these capabilities deliberately, employees need a basic grounding.

In large organisations this matters especially. If part of the team is already actively using new tools while another has only heard of them, a gap in digital skills opens up inside the company. Some start solving tasks faster; others keep working the familiar way and do not always see where AI could help.

For SQB, AI training became part of a broader goal — developing modern employee skills and helping the team adapt to changes in working processes.

If we don't keep track of trends, modern solutions and the development of artificial intelligence, if we don't teach people to use new tools every day in their work, we will fall behind. It's a challenge: you have to do more than teach — you have to change mindsets, both among young employees who are open to change and among experienced professionals whose knowledge needs a modern implementation.

Svetlana Golosheva, Head of Staff Training and Development at SQB

Training one team is easier. Training thousands is a management task

You can run a workshop for a single department manually: gather the participants, hold the session, send out the materials and ask for feedback. But when it comes to thousands of employees in different parts of the country, training becomes a far more complex process.

Employees need to receive the same knowledge base. You need to understand who started the training, who finished the course, where people are falling behind and which units need extra attention. It is not enough to announce a launch — you need to see the real picture of completion.

That is exactly why in projects like this a learning platform becomes not only the place where a course is hosted, but a learning management tool.

On the OSNOVA platform, SQB employees got access to the AI course, and the team responsible for training was able to track progress and collect statistics in a single system. This approach matters especially for companies with a branch structure: training no longer depends on a particular trainer, a schedule or manual data collection.

Our goal is to make learning available to everyone — regardless of whether an employee lives and works in Tashkent or in a small settlement on the other side of the country. We want to reach every employee of our large bank with knowledge and give them the chance to learn both offline and online.

AI is an important skill, but not the only one

Despite the rapid growth of interest in artificial intelligence, core professional skills are not losing their significance. On the contrary, they are becoming even more important.

To use AI effectively, an employee still needs critical thinking, the ability to frame a task, work with information, analyse data, build communication and understand the context of their work.

In the age of artificial intelligence, critical thinking is becoming a crucial skill. A person needs to do more than trust AI's output — they need to check it: how correct it is, how applicable, whether it suits the specific conditions. And we shouldn't forget the pairing of human skills with modern technology.

So AI training does not replace developing soft skills and mastering working tools. Communication, time management, teamwork and presenting ideas, along with confident use of programmes like Excel, remain the basis for effective work.

Through the OSNOVA course library, employees develop not only AI knowledge but other applied skills too — from working with office tools to soft skills and professional competencies. This makes it possible to build training around continuous employee development rather than around a single course.

Content has to be clear for employees with different backgrounds

One of the challenges in AI training is the varying level of preparation. For some, artificial intelligence is already part of daily work; for others the topic is new and even a little daunting.

So a course should not be overloaded with technical terms — it should be built around clear examples and working tasks. What matters is that an employee doesn't just learn definitions but understands where AI can be useful in their own job. For employees not directly connected to technology, the training helps remove the barrier to a new topic and see the practical value of the tools.

Evaluating training is just as important a stage as the launch itself

In corporate training, launching a course is only part of the process. Understanding what happens after the launch matters just as much.

Employees may receive access to the materials, but that does not yet mean learning actually took place. A company needs to see how many people started the course, how many finished it, which topics generate more interest and which skills employees are picking up more actively.

OSNOVA helps collect this data and evaluate the learning process. It lets the responsible teams make decisions based on statistics rather than on impressions. For SQB the statistics became more than completion reporting — they became a way to understand employees better: which directions they choose, which language they learn in and which topics attract more interest.

That picture shows not only overall coverage but the team's real learning interests. For the company this is an important signal: which competencies are already developing actively, and which are worth strengthening in the next stages.

Internal knowledge should stay inside the company

For a large organisation, training is not only external courses and off-the-shelf programmes. The bank already holds significant expertise internally: processes, standards, practices, the experience of strong specialists. That knowledge must not be lost — it needs to be packaged, passed on to new employees and kept inside the team.

OSNOVA also helps work with internal content: hosting instructions, regulations and training materials, and where needed translating expert knowledge into a more accessible format.

This matters especially where there are many internal processes and standards. A strong expert is not always able to explain material so that a newcomer or a colleague from another unit understands it easily. So in corporate training it is not only the knowledge that matters, but how it is packaged.

The result: a single training system for a large team

With OSNOVA, SQB bank launched AI training for 4,000 employees in a single digital environment. This made it possible to give access to materials centrally, ensure a single training standard across different departments and branches, and obtain statistics on course completion.

For SQB this became a step towards developing AI literacy inside the team. For OSNOVA — an example of how a learning platform helps large companies scale training without losing control, quality or transparency.

Mass AI training is no longer a story about getting acquainted with a new technology. For large companies it is a way to prepare employees for changes in working processes and to build a foundation for further development. When training is built systematically, a company gets not just a course but a managed process: with a single standard, clear statistics and the ability to develop employees in different directions.

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Any company — small, mid-size or large — can build a similar system in-house: for onboarding, product training, upskilling or other processes. OSNOVA will help you work it out.

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