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From Home Furnishing Business
IKEA Retail Tackles Capabilities, Literacy & Ethics in Rapidly Evolving World of AI
June 30,
2025 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
Let’s be honest: AI isn’t a finished story. It’s a rapidly unfolding one, with plot twists no one saw coming. And for companies outside the tech world, the challenge isn’t just about understanding the tech. It’s about building trust in something that’s still changing.
At IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), a furnishing retailer with over 80 years of legacy in making things simple, useful, and human-centric, this has meant learning how to live with ambiguity. And not just survive it, but to train for it. The company is currently developing courses, and training materials for approximately 160,000+ co-workers across 31 countries with the hope of further customizing these solutions as new AI technologies emerge.
And yes, it’s hard.
Turning confusion into capability
“Everyone’s looking for the AI playbook,” says Maria Eugenia, AI Governance & Adoption Manager at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group). “But what we’ve learned is, we have to write it as we go, and make sure everyone’s holding the pen.”
That’s the paradox IKEA is living out loud: making AI training meaningful when the goalposts are continuously moving.
And yet, that’s where its people-first culture becomes a real advantage. Instead of standardising learning into a single track, IKEA is adapting to different roles, backgrounds, and comfort levels. The message isn’t “get with the program”, it’s “let’s shape this together.”
From digital teams undergoing responsible AI assessments and creating inventories, to staff experimenting with tools like Hej Copilot, and store staff using automation and analytics (powered by AI), the training experience is layered, contextual, and deeply human.
And crucially, it’s guided by a clear path. By FY26, the goal is to have approximately 70,000 co-workers trained. This means roughly half of the company, equipped with the essential AI literacy tools needed to create efficiencies in their roles, and by FY27, the goal is for most co-workers to be trained.
AI literacy is now becoming embedded into onboarding for all new workers, so learning starts from day one. It’s also tracked as part of KPI’s for the company’s digitalization strategy, signaling that AI capability is a critical business driver, not just a tech experiment.
Ethics as the engine
It would be easy to race ahead and worry about inclusion later, but rules are the first step to building the tools needed for improving efficiencies across the business, whilst maintaining co-worker and consumer trust.
The company’s AI Digital Policy includes self-evaluations and ethical risk assessments for every AI-integrated product. Red lines are clearly drawn, and IKEA has made a conscious decision for what it won’t use AI for, including human surveillance, algorithmic hiring bias, synthetic deception (like AI generated images, voices or messages), as part of a vision and mission for the many.
By signing the EU AI Pact, sharing practices with the European Commission, and being part of the Partnership on AI (PAI), a global, multi-stakeholder organization that brings together companies, academics, and civil society to promote the responsible development of AI and society, IKEA isn’t just managing its own risk, it’s helping shape a responsible AI ecosystem and becoming an example of what other companies can do.
The real skill? Comfort with change
Here’s the truth that few companies are ready to say out loud – they don’t know where this is all going.
But what IKEA is proving is that you don’t need all the answers to start leading. According to Parag Parekh, Global Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), “You need the humility to say you’re learning, the courage to train broadly, and the clarity to centre trust in every decision. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being prepared, and bringing all co-workers on the journey, regardless of location or position.’’
In a time where AI information can feel overwhelming, the IKEA story is one of curiosity, co-creation, and continued growth. And in that way, it’s not just teaching AI, it’s learning from its workforce on what AI offers are the most effective, taking feedback continuously (as part of its change management efforts), and moving forward with those. In the end, it’s less about the tech itself and more about the people who shape it – and where their stories take it next.