Oracle Dynamic Skills

Oracle Dynamic Skills is the skills record built into Oracle’s HR system, Fusion Cloud HCM. It comes only inside Oracle’s HR subscriptions, and costs $0 extra on top of them, so far. Its AI works out skills from HR records and what employees write about themselves. Each employee sets their own level, and endorsements confirm it. Every employee can see every other employee’s skills, with no setting to turn off.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 16 Sep 2026 Last updated 16 Sep 2026
In one line

Start here if you already pay for Oracle’s HR system. Its levels are only as solid as the endorsements and settings behind them.

Use it if

You already pay for Fusion HCM Base or Fusion Suite Employee. You want a picture of skills by role, built from job profiles, what people claim and what colleagues confirm.

Look elsewhere if

You need skills based on real work, not on what people say about themselves. Or you need skill levels set by someone other than the employee and their endorsers. If your HR system is not Oracle, do not switch just for this tool.

Price

Dynamic Skills costs $0 extra, so far, inside Fusion HCM Base or Suite Employee. You cannot buy it as a separate product. Oracle’s price list from 10 September 2026 puts HCM Base at US$15.00 a month for every employee. You pay for every employee and contractor in the system, whether they log in or not. The smallest order Oracle will sell is 500 people.

Job data, self-ratings and endorsements build each skill profile

Oracle launched Dynamic Skills in June 2021. It has three parts. Skills Nexus builds your own skills and job list. It mixes an Oracle model with your own data. Skills Advisor suggests skills. Skills Center is where employees, managers and administrators see and manage skills. One skills list serves job profiles, open roles, courses and short-term gigs. Oracle posts those gigs on its Opportunity Marketplace. Oracle matches people, jobs and other resources by meaning, not by exact words.

Oracle’s AI works out skills and updates employee profiles. For employees, it reads fields already in their profile. Those fields include business title, job name, career statement and areas of interest and expertise. They also include education, certifications, previous employment and skills already recorded. For jobs, candidates and courses, it reads the text already held about them. It starts by matching a person’s job title to a short list of standard titles. Oracle says this needs only “a very limited set of input data”. The employee then picks which suggested skills to add. Oracle also shows every skill it has found across the company. That gives one picture of the skills your organisation has.

A skill can reach a profile in other ways too. The skills on a job profile are added automatically, as skills the role needs. Any manager above them in the reporting line can assign more skills. Employees can type in their own skills. Colleagues can add a skill a peer should be developing, or confirm a skill the peer already has. Finishing a course or a gig adds the skills it lists. Administrators can load skills in bulk, for many people at once. An employee who imports a LinkedIn profile can bring in skills that are not on your own list. That can happen even after you tell Skills Center to allow only skills from your own list.

For jobs, an AI agent reads job descriptions, job titles and the skills already on the job profile. It also reads other HR records. It then proposes skills for each job, each with a confidence score. That score shows how sure Oracle’s AI is that the skill fits. Administrators can review every proposal by hand. Or they can let Oracle auto-approve any proposal that passes a score they choose. Once job profiles carry skills, Oracle compares each profile against its job profile. It suggests courses in Oracle Grow to close any gap.

If skill levels are switched on, each skill carries the level the employee picks. The employee can change that level until it is validated. Validation works on a points system. An endorsement from any manager above the person is worth 100 points. One from a colleague already validated at the top level for that skill is worth 75. One from a peer with the same manager is worth 25. One from anyone else is worth 10. A finished course or gig that lists the skill is worth 50. Oracle calls this whole system automatic confirmation. Where it is switched on, and those points are left as Oracle sets them, one manager’s endorsement is enough. It confirms a skill on its own. An AI tool can also mark a short questionnaire and suggest a rating, with its reasons. The employee can keep that rating, or pick a different one.

Two settings decide how much of what people claim counts as settled fact. The first is automatic confirmation. Switch it off, and the profile shows the highest level anyone selected. An employee’s own rating then stands, even when a manager or a peer confirms a lower one. The second setting decides whether a skill counts as reached before anyone confirms it. Oracle calls it ‘Move skills to attained only after they’re validated’. Switch it off, and a skill someone claims shows as fully reached. That happens whether or not anyone has validated it. A required skill can then count as met without ever being validated. Choose both settings before anyone reports numbers from this record.

It’s bundled into two subscriptions, with a library already built

It comes with two Oracle HR subscriptions

Oracle’s contract terms, dated 6 August 2026, list Dynamic Skills inside two subscriptions. Those are Fusion HCM Base and Fusion Suite Employee, where it applies. If you already pay for either one, there is nothing extra to buy. You only need to set it up. That means you can see what it produces before anyone approves new budget.

One skills list covers jobs, hiring, courses and gigs

Job profiles, open roles, courses and gigs all share one skills list. That lets Oracle suggest a course to close a gap between a person’s skills and their job. Closing that gap also needs Oracle’s Learning subscription. Your team does not have to write the skills for every job profile by hand.

A large library you do not have to build

At release 25A, Oracle’s ready-made skills list held 11,656 skills. It covers 18 business areas, in 30 languages, with 50,000 alternative names for the same skills. Because the list is this big, many customers no longer ask employees to type in their own skills. That keeps the list tidier. You cannot add new skills to Oracle’s own list. You can switch off any skill that does not fit, and rewrite its description. If you already use Lightcast, a skills-list supplier, you can bring in its skills through your own Lightcast account. From release 26D, a connector brings TechWolf’s skills list into Oracle too. Oracle keeps adding to Dynamic Skills. Its most recent update was in September 2026.

You decide what counts as proof

With automatic confirmation switched on, administrators can still change how many points each type of endorsement earns. A manager’s endorsement can be set to count for less than the full 100 points. Set up that way, one manager’s endorsement is no longer enough on its own to confirm a skill. Administrators can also hold back any skill an employee claims until it has been confirmed.

The tool also works in three of Oracle’s locked-down environments, built for strict rules. They are European Union Restricted Access, UK government, and Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer. US Government Cloud customers can use it too, but without the AI features.

Everyone sees every skill, and closing gaps needs more subscriptions

You cannot buy it on its own

If your HR system is not Oracle, you would need Fusion HCM Base or Fusion Suite Employee to get it.

Every employee can see every other employee’s skills

The Skills Center, and every skill inside it, is public. Any employee can look at any other employee’s skills. You can usually restrict who sees different parts of a profile, but those controls do not apply to skills. If an administrator lets employees add skills to each other’s profiles, anyone can do this without the employee knowing. If you answer to a works council or a data-protection officer, raise this before you switch the tool on.

Acting on a gap needs more Oracle subscriptions

Dynamic Skills can show a skills gap. The suggestions for closing that gap come from other Oracle subscriptions. Skills Center shows job and gig matches only when Oracle Recruiting and Opportunity Marketplace are both switched on. Course suggestions to close a gap appear in Oracle Grow, which comes with the Learning subscription. Career suggestions come from Career Development, which comes with Talent Management. Oracle’s price list, from 10 September 2026, puts Recruiting at US$8.00 a month per employee in the system. That is counted the same way as HCM Base. Learning costs US$5.00 a month and Talent Management costs US$7.00 a month. Both are priced per named user, a different way of counting people. Each of the three has a minimum order of 500. If closing skills gaps is why you want this data, budget for these extra subscriptions.

The agent that reads work systems has no release date yet

In August 2026, Oracle announced a new tool called the Intelligent Talent Profiles Agent. Oracle says it keeps profiles “continuously updated” by working out skills “from connected work-system data”. The announcement gives no release date and no price. Do not count on it until Oracle names one.

The AI works in English

The skills list itself is translated into 29 languages, besides English. But the AI features work only when the system’s language is set to English. Course skill suggestions can appear in the language the person is using. That only works if the course title and description are written in that language too. If your HR records are kept in another language, raise this with Oracle before you rely on the AI suggestions.

Good suggestions need a year of data

Oracle strongly recommends at least 12 months of Core HR and Talent Management data before its suggestions reach high quality. That data can come from 12 months of live use. It can also come from 12 months of talent profile data brought in from an earlier system. If you use Oracle Recruiting too, add 6 months of recruiting data. A company new to Oracle, with no earlier data, needs a full year of live use before suggestions get good.

Existing customers have had required project work

Oracle made customers move to a newer version, called Enhanced Dynamic Skills, before release 26B. That is when support for the old version ended. Oracle also made customers switch from its older suggestion method to a newer AI one, by the same date. The newer version needs every screen using Skills Center to run on Oracle’s newer look, called Redwood. Some older set-ups cannot make that switch yet. Budget for project work like this after the tool is running, not just before.

No named customers you can call

Oracle names no customers who use Dynamic Skills. A reference customer your size is worth requesting before you sign. Speak to that customer without Oracle on the call.

It costs nothing extra on top of $15 per employee a month, 500 minimum

The price that matters is that of Fusion HCM Base or Fusion Suite Employee. Fusion HCM Base is listed at US$15.00 a month per hosted employee, with a minimum order of 500. Fusion Suite Employee is listed lower, at US$5.00 a month per hosted employee, also with a minimum of 500. But the $5 Suite price is not a cheaper way to get the tool. It needs a contract of 36 months or more. You cannot buy the parts of the suite one at a time. Oracle’s terms also say “you must buy additional base licenses”. Oracle marks this price list as for educational purposes only, and says it can change without notice. Its US public sector price list, from 4 August 2026, shows the same two figures.

The hosted employees Oracle charges for include all full-time, part-time and temporary staff. It also includes any agents, contractors and consultants who use the system, or who are simply tracked in it. So the number you pay for is set by that full count, not by how many people actually log in. The minimum of 500 is an order minimum, not a limit on company size. So even a company with fewer than 500 hosted employees still pays for 500, at list price.

If you hold either subscription, your contract includes the tool “where applicable”. What that phrase covers depends on your own contract’s wording. Oracle’s 2023 Get Started guide says the tool comes at no additional cost for Oracle Global HR customers, so far. But a warning note in that same guide says this is not part of your licence agreement. It cannot be written into any contract with Oracle. Trust the contract over the guide.

Some of Fusion’s AI is charged separately. Oracle’s price list shows an “AI Agents” subscription at US$5.00 a month per hosted employee, with a minimum of 500. It also shows “AI Units,” a separate allowance some AI features draw on, at US$1,000.00 for each 100,000 units. Every Fusion customer gets 20,000 AI Units a month, for each live Fusion environment. If a customer’s balance drops under zero, Oracle may limit, cut back, or block any feature that needs those units. The new agent Oracle announced for reading work systems has no price yet.

Leaving is harder than starting, because this tool only exists inside Oracle HCM. Another system can automatically pull each employee’s public skills out of Oracle. But the endorsements attached to those skills, the record of who vouched for each one, are still marked “controlled availability”. That means Oracle only offers that data to selected customers. Choices you make while setting up are also hard to undo later. Skills loaded onto profiles in bulk can only be changed or deleted through Oracle’s own screens afterwards. You cannot fix them by loading another file. Oracle’s own skill lists cannot be deleted. Any list you create yourself cannot be deleted either, once it holds a skill. If you stop using Lightcast, its imported skills stay behind. You must remove every reference to them by hand. Work out how you would take your data out, before you put it in.

You could also build this on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. See it as an agent

What should you ask Oracle before you sign?

  1. Your announcement from 11 August 2026 says a new agent will work out skills from connected work systems. Which systems will it read? Which release brings it? Will it cost extra, or use up AI Units? Good answer: A named release, a list of systems, and a clear answer on cost.
  2. Show us, in our own system, one skill your AI added to an employee’s profile. Where did that data come from? Good answer: A live example, with the exact field or record it came from.
  3. For a new customer, is automatic confirmation switched on or off by default? Is ‘Move skills to attained only after they’re validated’ switched on or off by default? Can an employee replace an AI-suggested rating with their own? Good answer: A written default for both settings, and a yes or no on overriding a rating.
  4. A single manager’s endorsement is worth the full 100 points in your published scores. What stops one manager confirming a whole team’s skills in one sitting? Good answer: A named limit, such as one endorsement a day, or a second approval.
  5. Every employee can see every other employee’s Skills Center. How have other customers with a works council, or strict data-protection rules, handled that? Good answer: A named customer or a named setting, not a general reassurance.
  6. Which of Learning, Talent Management, Recruiting and Opportunity Marketplace do we need? Which ones unlock course, career, job and gig suggestions? What will each one cost us? The AI-marked skill questionnaire from release 25D, and the learning features, are Controlled Availability. Are they open to us? Good answer: A written list of subscriptions, with a price for each. A written yes on Controlled Availability, with a date.
  7. Your Service Descriptions list Dynamic Skills ‘where applicable.’ What does that phrase cover in our own contract? Good answer: A written answer naming what ‘where applicable’ means for us, not just the phrase itself.
  8. If we leave, how do we take out every employee’s skills, levels and endorsement history? Your own guides still call endorsements ‘controlled availability.’ Good answer: A date when that data stops being controlled availability for us, in writing.

Start with Dynamic Skills itself, or TechWolf for work-based skills

If you run Oracle Fusion HCM, two products are the main alternatives to Dynamic Skills. One is TechWolf, which connects to Oracle. The other is Microsoft People Skills, for people who work mainly in Microsoft 365. A third route is to use Dynamic Skills itself and buy nothing new.

Start with Dynamic Skills itself. It costs set-up time, not a new purchase. Tell employees, in advance, that everyone will be able to see their skills. Our guide to skills intelligence software sets out which questions a picture of skills by role can answer.

Look at TechWolf if you need a skills picture built from what people are actually doing in their jobs. You do not have to wait for Oracle’s announced agent to get that. TechWolf is a skills product sold separately from Oracle. It connects to Oracle as one of its job-data systems. What it reads from Oracle is hiring data, such as job listings. TechWolf’s price is not published. Get a quote directly from TechWolf before you compare costs. Get both companies’ answer on where each person’s skills would actually end up. Our TechWolf review covers what that product does, and where it stops.

Microsoft People Skills works out skills from what people do in Microsoft 365 only. That suits people who work mainly in Microsoft 365. On top of a Copilot or Viva licence, it costs $0 extra, so far. Microsoft says its tool is not designed for promotion or pay decisions. Our review of Microsoft People Skills sets out the limits Microsoft itself documents.

Buying nothing is also a fair choice. That is true if neither Dynamic Skills nor a new product would answer the question you actually need answered.

Sources and method Every statement about Oracle comes from Oracle’s own published material: its product page and brochure, its announcements, its user guide, implementation guide and question-and-answer document for Dynamic Skills, its release notes, its contract Service Descriptions and its price lists. What Oracle publishes about its own product is taken as its description of that product. TechWolf’s description of its Oracle integration comes from TechWolf’s own site, and what we say about Microsoft People Skills comes from Microsoft’s own documentation. The date beside each source is when it was last read.