For decades, corporate learning and development (L&D) has fueled organizational growth — creating programs, tools, and experiences that help people perform at their best. From classroom instruction to e-learning, microlearning, and gamification, each innovation reflected one goal: helping people perform better through knowledge.
Now, AI-powered search and large language models (LLMs) are reshaping how knowledge is found, shared, and understood. Employees can ask any question and get nuanced, context-aware answers in seconds.
As L&D industry analyst Josh Bersin noted in his Enterprise Apps Unpacked podcast, ChatGPT alone has driven more content engagement in one year than decades of corporate training combined.
But access doesn’t equal action. In a world where answers are instant, the challenge for L&D is no longer producing more material. It’s about activating knowledge to drive performance.
Redefining learning for the AI era
L&D has long been at the forefront of introducing new media and methodologies. As access to knowledge changes, so does L&D’s mission: to connect, integrate, and activate learning in the flow of work — ensuring employees not only know more, but do more with what they know.
L&D has to move faster and aim higher. It’s not about broadcasting knowledge; it’s about designing the conditions for performance. That means building experiences where people practice in context, apply insights, and continuously refine their capabilities.
Making content live in the flow of work
When learning is embedded in work, content becomes a catalyst for performance:
- A team practices negotiation strategies through adaptive simulations.
- A sales rep interacts with AI-powered avatars that challenge and refine their technique.
- A manager receives real-time coaching prompts during a performance conversation.
These moments transform training from a one-time event into continuous improvement — where learning happens exactly when and where it’s needed.
Beyond content curation, today’s L&D leaders are becoming strategic enablers: designing conditions for performance and ensuring every interaction leads to deeper understanding and measurable growth.
L&D’s transformation
As Josh Bersin notes, the $340 billion learning market is ‘poised for disruption,’ as investment shifts from content creation to capability enablement — expanding the focus from creating knowledge to activating capability. As AI handles information delivery, L&D’s opportunity is to design the experiences that make learning stick -- turning information into confidence, collaboration, and performance.
Using AI to go deeper, not broader
- Identify skill gaps before they affect outcomes.
- Design personalized interventions tied to workflow data.
- Replace generic courses with interactive, adaptive guidance.
This approach turns learning from a one-size-fits-all effort into a strategic performance engine.
Designing learning that sticks
Leading organizations are using AI-powered L&D as a strategic growth engine, designing simulations, scenarios, and roleplays where employees can safely apply knowledge and see the consequences of their decisions.
- A customer success manager practices handling a tough renewal call in a simulation that reacts dynamically.
- A new manager experiments with giving feedback and observes emotional reactions in real time.
- A pharmaceutical salesperson engages AI-powered avatars of physicians with different personality types.
Learning doesn’t just happen in the doing; it happens in the reflection afterward, guided by L&D through questions like:
- What did you expect to happen?
- What surprised you?
- What assumptions guided your decisions?
- How will you adjust next time?
These guided reflections turn insight into performance — closing the gap between knowing and doing.
Turning insight into action
With advanced analytics, L&D can now pinpoint exactly where learners struggle — using AI insights to personalize interventions and accelerate improvement.
If most managers confuse “coaching” with “fixing,” L&D can design targeted interventions. If employees misinterpret compliance steps, create contextual walk-throughs — not another course.
By combining AI insights with human understanding, L&D becomes a true performance partner — using data to personalize learning, drive change, and measure impact.
L&D’s next act
The role of L&D isn’t disappearing — it’s expanding. Today’s leading teams are orchestrating ecosystems of AI tools, human coaches, and workflow systems that embed learning directly into the flow of work. The L&D organization of tomorrow will operate as a connected learning ecosystem — one that blends technology, mentorship, and continuous practice to build lasting capability.
If knowledge is everywhere, the differentiator is what we do with it. AI expands what people can know — but L&D transforms that knowledge into capability, confidence, and culture.
The future of learning isn’t about creating more content — it’s about activating it.
Make it live. Make it connect. Make it deliver deeper. That’s what’s next for L&D.