The $360 billion corporate learning industry has entered a revolution, and we invite you to join us on this journey. Today we launch our 2025 Corporate Learning In The Age of AI Study, and we encourage you to participate.
Why L&D Reinvention Is So Urgent
Corporate learning is a massive imperative: companies spend billions of dollars on skills development, now reaching the highest level of spending in my career. Our research shows that spending on corporate learning has grown by double digits in the last two years, now reaching over $1,400 per employee per year on average.
Why the massive investment? We’ve entered a skills-based economy. No longer can companies rely on college degree or tenure as a measure of potential: every person must continuously improve their skills and the pace of change is quickening.
Think about the challenges implicit in AI. Each employee must learn about what AI is, how it works, and how to leverage it in their jobs. Add to this the hundreds of industry-specific technologies and processes in each company and you see that “learning at work” may be the most important thing we do.
I talk with business leaders every day and regardless of the industry the story is the same: they want to improve productivity, move into a new market or technology, and improve “speed to skill” in new ways.
Many Challenges Exist: Aging, Legacy Platforms
Despite this massive demand, skills development remains difficult. A large financial institution just told me their best-of-breed learning systems are flooded with out of date content, hard to use, and so complex that it takes two minutes for an employee to start a course they want to take.
Why is this so difficult?
Well as our research points out, much of the training market operates like an old publishing industry. HR departments and vendors produce courses and content through a slow, hand-crafted process of instructional design, video production, and content development. Employees then receive “Courses” or “Programs” which they consume in a linear path.
Over the years this has evolved, albeit slowly. Today companies are littered with course libraries and dozens of specialized programs, lashed together into a Learning Management System (LMS) or LXP. Despite 20+ years of investment in these platforms, clients tell me these systems are hard to use, slow, and unable to keep up.
Once a course opens the employee confronts a series of chapters, forcing them to traverse or search within a course to find what they want. So many companies built libraries of small objects, making it even harder for employees to figure out what to consume.
In the back office things are similarly complex: training designers must continuously interview managers and update legacy courses to keep them up to date. So many learning programs are dated or incorrect, creating a maintenance operation which bogs down L&D.
Some of the training is mandatory (ie. compliance, regulatory) so these force employees to slowly complete the program, even if they already know much of the content. This gives employees a sense of frustration, forcing L&D leaders to create ever-more exciting designs, learning paths, and other experiences to simplify access.
This leads to more complexity: live online experiences, online collaboration and cohort learning, simulations, and virtual reality. HR and L&D leaders must constantly look at new tools and platforms, giving employees a complex tapestry of options to consider.
Despite the complexity, L&D teams bring passion, expertise, and commitment to the space. So the L&D profession itself, which is hamstrung by this complex environment, has been held back by the proliferation of options to consider.
Innovation Has Lagged, Essentially “Waiting” for AI
Over the last two decades many new ideas have emerged: competency modeling, micro-learning, adaptive learning, and reusable learning objects. Today most companies use skills taxonomies to organize content, and many systems have thousands of skills tags to click on.
Yet despite many new ideas, as I look back over time the progress has gone sideways. I remember e-learning courses we developed in the early 2000s which were more fun and exciting than many I view today. Somehow, despite all these ideas, many L&D programs are under-utilized and content vendors still struggle to survive.
AI Changes Everything
Well, as we’re exploring in our research, all this is about to change. AI, the technology of the decade, is perfectly suited for what we need to do. AI helps companies build content quickly, it produces creative new content at scale, and it gives users a personalized, dynamic experience to learn. And I’m not just hyping an idea: I’ve seen what AI can do and the results are staggering in many ways.
(We will be previewing the reinvented AI-powered version of our Josh Bersin Academy at Irresistible, so come see it!)
Why We’re Doing Research
As we talk with clients about these changes we realized this revolution is trickier than one may think. Many companies are not aware of many AI solutions in L&D, designers and instructional purists are nervous or uncertain about AI-generated content, and companies are filled with legacy programs to transform.
The level of awareness, understanding, and adoption of AI in L&D is still immature. So that’s why we’re doing this research.
Our thesis is expansive: we see L&D going through a complete reinvention in a short period of time. But before we hyperventilate about the promise, we want to give you the real world story. So in this study we’re interviewing dozens of companies and putting together a detailed roadmap to help you.
In the meantime, as we build out our expertise, I want to invite you to three things:
First, please participate in 2025 Corporate Learning in The Age of AI Study. Regardless of your role, we want to hear your current state. Everyone who participates in this survey will get a copy of our findings.
Second, please join me at the L&D Technology Conference on April 23 in London. I will be sharing our findings and conducting a workshop for 90 minutes, and everyone is invited.
Third, join the Josh Bersin Academy and start your personal learning journey. Not only have we recently published several courses in AI throughout HR and L&D, the community is buzzing with ideas. If you join the JBA today you will gain access to our new AI experience this summer, so you’ll have a front-row seat on a world-class AI learning experience for yourself.
Finally, if you’re doing something amazing you want to share, please send us a message. We’d love to interview you, feature you on our podcast, or just compare notes and help you with your own L&D transformation.
Of all the amazing things going on in the world of AI, the reinvention of corporate learning may become the biggest of all. Join us in this journey and we can transform our companies, our careers, and our employee experiences together.
Additional Information
New Research: Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO
Artificial Intelligence in HR (Josh Bersin Academy)
The Rise of the Superworker: Delivering On The Promise Of AI