A new survey from digital content company Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L) and Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) reveals many companies are finding it hard to hire AI-ready employees. The global report, “AI Readiness: Building the Bridge from Higher Education to Work,” finds 53 percent of employers say their primary challenge is finding graduates with the right AI skills.Meanwhile, 78 percent of higher education leaders believe they are meeting employer expectations, while 14 percent of current graduates report they have achieved a high level of proficiency in applying AI tools to a professional workflow. The survey noted that while AI adoption is accelerating across industries, AI readiness is breaking down at the point of execution.Across markets, employers indicate that graduates tend to accept AI recommendations without the foundational domain expertise to interrogate them, with 58 percent overall rating a graduate’s ability to critically verify AI outputs as their weakest competency.