Compliance slides further down the list as skills stay top strategic priority for learning, latest Fosway Group research reveals
Fosway Group, Europe’s #1 HR industry analyst, has revealed the headline insights from its annual Digital Learning Realities research, in association with Learning Technologies, the world’s leading workplace learning tech event. Now in its 11th year, the research explores how L&D teams rise to the challenge of a fast-changing business environment and tech landscape.
The key story doesn’t come as a surprise. AI is transforming L&D teams and the future of L&D lays in the balance, as economic pressures and the transformation of both work and the workforce go through a major shift. L&D teams are not immune. The impact of AI on learning has reached new and significant highs. Half (51%) of L&D professionals think the claims for AI are living up to the hype, with only 25% remaining sceptical.
In the search for productivity, effectiveness and costs, AI has become an increasingly irresistible addition to the learning landscape. Headcount is constrained, and most commonly down for almost all L&D roles except those intertwined with AI.
For all the swing to AI across L&D teams, the truly transformative thinking we’d advocate is exactly how AI changes learning across every stage of the learning cycle, but this is still at the fringes.
That reticence to think radically about the flow from measurement to L&D planning - as well as the transition from knowing to doing and evidencing value-add - may yet the be undoing of many L&D teams, as their position around delivering learning content in organisations becomes increasingly commoditised.
Key insights from this year’s research include:
· 90% report that AI is influencing how they think about resourcing learning teams
· 50% of L&D teams think that around half of what they do today could be replaced by AI and still be effective
· Only a third (34%) of L&D teams think that they are adequately skilled to succeed in the next two to three years
· AI-powered LMS and LXPs start to take the lead in L&D’s ‘live’ AI adoption - with 48% reporting already using, piloting or implementing an AI-enabled LMS or LXP
David Perring, Chief Insights Officer at Fosway reflected, “As the world continues to accelerate change, the picture from this year’s Digital Learning Realities research shows just how challenging this year has been for L&D teams. Spend is static at best, headcount is under pressure, and resources are stretched. Innovations in content development, the pivotal nature of people insights in defining next gen learning, the skills transformation agenda, the need to scale and optimise learning teams and evidence learning value are all creating a perfect storm.
“But it’s a tempest which only one in three thinks they are skilled enough to navigate. It’s going to be a hairy ride. Equally, it’s not a time to question the role of learning teams. The plain truth is, their role is secure if they can bridge the skills gaps they’ve identified and we’ve captured in our report.”
The infographics comprising this year’s Digital Learning Realities Research are available to download from 18 November from the Fosway Knowledge Centre.