Seminars, sessions, exhibitions and demos covering AI, skills development, personal growth, data-driven decision-making and more; a whole lot was packed into 2 days. No one could possibly see everything (especially if you were* taste testing the endless selection of booth snacks). So, to share with anyone that missed a session or wasn’t able to make the event, we’ve put together a list of the moments that resonated with us the most, plus some bonus insights from speakers.
What we learned
1. L&D’s job isn’t to create learning programs.
The truth is that your job is to support performance. It just so happens that, thus far, the best method has been learning programs. While we know these programs make an impact, learning is only the end that gets us to the means. There are other ways to support performance as an L&D pro, you likely just haven’t considered them yet.
2. Organizations need a shared language.
Skills and AI are on everyone’s lips. But are we talking about the same things?
Unilever shared that at one point they had leadership skills, functional skills, business skills, domain skills, priority skills, focus skills and future fit skills. But no one had a shared meaning of what ‘skills’ were.
This left them with a lot of questions. What’s the difference between AI skills and AI literacy? What do they mean? Writing prompts? Using tools? Understanding data? Make sure you and your team are rowing in the same direction and focusing on what matters most—instead of adding in layers of complication.
3. L&D needs to be fully integrated into the whole employee lifecycle.
RedThread research shows that in 2022, 48% of learning leaders said they were involved in business strategy discussions, and 59% in future workforce decisions. But by 2024, it was down to 24% and 35%. What happened?
Dani Johnson from RedThread Research thinks that during the pandemic, teams focused on the tactics rather than strategy. As a result, training is now seen as something that technology can automate. But with a shift in mindset and an expansion of scope, you’ll be back on track for organizational domination once again.
Rethink your approach to strategic learning with The state of learning report
4. None of us are asking the right questions.
This came up in at least 4 different conference sessions. So many questions still need answering for better business strategy, AI ethics in L&D, and the purpose of learning. Many answers felt out of reach or above our pay grade, but you can still have an impact. Start with questions you can answer, and frame them in a way to position technology as an opportunity.
Questions to consider:
- Which technologies are going to be most impactful to my employer?
- Which technologies would be most impactful in my next role?
- How are new technologies changing how you live your everyday life? How can I apply that to my work?
- Ask intentionally: Why is it important for me? How can I apply this to my work?
- What makes my work uniquely human?
5. You need to be experimenting with AI.
No action is an action, which leads to risk. So, we need to rethink what is deemed risky. Status quo was always considered the safe bet, but with AI, that’s been turned on its head. Our new reality is that doing nothing is risky, and experimentation is the risk-averse path. To take action, find a safe way to experiment that will benefit your learners and your organization in the long run. Assess, iterate, reevaluate: What’s the need going forward?
6. There’s an AI gender gap emerging.
Skills gap. Pay gap. And now we have a new gap to contend with. The AI gender gap emerged from research showing that men show a more positive attitude toward AI than women. They’re also more likely to use it in their work, and as a result, more likely to benefit from productivity and career gains. This is something L&D needs to address, pronto. We must encourage women to build their confidence, enhance innovation and ensure they have a diverse and talented workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed.
Have you reassessed learning challenges with generative AI?
7. Skills, just like learning, can be seen as a means to an end. Be careful how you talk about them with executives.
Your executive team cares about learning because if people are learning, growing, and building skills, they can add more value to the organization. But apart from that, they don’t spend much time thinking about it. They’re busy thinking about ways to grow right now.
Instead, reframe the conversation. Understand the priorities of the CEO and drive the workforce in that direction. What does success look like?
Keep in mind that skills ratings mean nothing to them, because its data they don’t know what to do with it. But insights like: ‘these X people have skills that will be obsolete in the next 2 years, affecting Y project’ will propel them to take action. By rethinking how you deliver the message, you’ll have them knocking at your door to learn more about the merits of upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling.
8. Who should own skills? People functions, or the business?
No definitive answer, but the debate was insightful. The business functions are the only ones that understand the context, business and priorities, the tasks, and the skills. But the science of how to build skills? That lives firmly in learning.
Ask yourself: How does upskilling work at your organization?
9. You need to find organic ways to build human connection.
If you're looking for personalized and connected learning, AI isn’t always the answer. Flip the coin, and on the other side, you’ll find community. But it’s not a simple case of build it and they will come. So how can you bring learners together? For starters, a top-down approach won’t work. If you over-engineer it, social learning can feel mandatory and defeat the purpose.
Our favorite framework was:
- Be clear on your why. Why do your learners want it? Why do you want it? How does it align with the greater business strategy?
- Build trust. Be consistent and build a sense of confidence for users to engage with one another freely.
- Let users drive success, too. Yes, the business is important. But ultimately, you want a level of ownership for your learners so they can drive the experience where they want.
- Seek out resources. Community is a large undertaking. Don’t underestimate the job at hand and do your learners a disservice by not implementing an easy-to-use tool.
10. People love to learn from people.
If we ask you to reflect on your career and what’s had the biggest impact on your learning, I’m willing to bet that most of you thought about a person. Unsurprising then that employees overwhelmingly turn to peers when learning on the job.
Without human connection, learning has limited impact. But those that do get it? They’re seeing higher retention rates, increased engagement, and stronger skills development. That’s why mentoring and coaching are no longer feel-good initiatives. And with a modernized approach to peer learning, you can tie these programs directly to business results.
Get more L&D content like this delivered straight to your inbox.
What does this mean for you?
There’s a lot that needs to be wrestled with, and the questions will continue to outpace the answers. But we are at a crossroads. We need to keep asking the difficult questions and looking for different solutions. It would be a shame to just scale the basics of what’s working, or worse—not have any perceived strategic value to bring to the table because you were too focused on tactical questions like: “How do I get all my classroom training online?”
In most of the panel sessions, each of the speakers had different approaches and learnings from their programs. It made them interesting to attend, but clear that no one’s got this figured out. There is no learning roadmap for you to download and follow. There's no AI prompt that’ll give you all the answers. Everyone’s on their own journey and at different stages, so everyone’s experience will look different.
But because AI is hitting all of us at the exact same time, the two pieces of advice that we found pretty applicable to all are:
- You can't outsource for a lot of these new skills, you can only develop them internally.
- There’s no putting AI back in the box. You need to adapt, or you’ll get left behind.
So, what are you waiting for? There’s no time like the present to get started.
