Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, AI in learning and development (L&D) has hit a turning point. That was the focus of the second webinar in our Future of Learning series, hosted by Liza Mucheru Wisner, featuring L&D experts Donald H. Taylor and Egle Vinauskaite.
Donald, author of Learning Technologies in the Workplace and creator of the annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey, joined forces with Egle, founder of Nodes and one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers of 2025. Together, they surveyed 600+ L&D professionals across 50 countries to uncover how AI is being used in practice.
Their findings paint a clear picture: AI in L&D is becoming more sophisticated, more human-centered, and more strategic. Here are the key takeaways from their research and what they mean for the future of learning.
AI has moved from pilot to practice
AI in L&D has officially crossed the threshold from pilot programs to meaningful adoption. As Donald explained, “We’ve passed an inflection point… Over half the people in our survey said, Yes, we are either using AI or using it intensively.”
This marks a significant shift: L&D teams are no longer debating if they should use AI; they’re now focused on how to do it well. The conversation has evolved from experimentation to integration, with an emphasis on building structured, sustainable workflows that support continuous improvement.
Rather than one-off use cases, teams are embedding AI into the way they design, deliver, and measure learning. It’s becoming part of the everyday toolkit.
Two emerging AI use cases are gaining traction in L&D
While AI once focused primarily on content generation, this year’s breakout trend was qualitative data analysis.
“Qualitative data analysis jumped up from 8th last year to 5th this year,” Donald explained. “That’s a much bigger jump than anything else on the table.”
L&D teams are now using AI to analyze open-ended feedback, interview transcripts, and survey comments at scale. Instead of drowning in text responses, professionals can quickly identify patterns and extract insights that lead to better program design.
The takeaway? The next competitive edge in learning isn’t who creates more content. It’s who learns more from their learning data.
Donald and Egle also highlighted another rising category, workforce enablement, where AI interacts directly with learners.
“The most prominent uses are AI for roleplays – AI-powered simulations that help people build specific skills through scenario-based conversational practice,” Egle shared. “People often use them to prepare for difficult conversations, like giving feedback, handling resistance, or to practice coaching dialogues, sales pitching, or objection handling.”
Together, these trends show how AI’s role in L&D is expanding, from analyzing how people learn to actively shaping how they practice. L&D is now using AI not just to teach, but to help people do their jobs better.
Moving from content tool to creative collaborator
AI’s role in learning design is also evolving. Instead of using AI simply to generate first drafts, L&D professionals are now engaging with it more interactively, seeking feedback, refining ideas, and exploring new creative directions.
Egle described it this way: “More people are using AI for a two-way interaction… asking it to review draft designs and give feedback, highlight potential problems, suggest improvements… all to make training more impactful and engaging.”
This shift reframes AI from a content creation tool into a thought partner. L&D can test ideas, get quick critiques, and strengthen their instructional approach before ever sharing a draft. It’s about combining AI’s speed and pattern recognition with human creativity and empathy, resulting in content that’s both smarter and more learner-centered.
We’ve seen this approach firsthand at OpenSesame. Our own Learning & Development Manager, Tina Jones, used ChatGPT to apply advertising techniques to an internal training program.
“It gave us some ideas, and then we went back and forth—okay, we like this, we don’t like this, what about this?” she shared. “It was really an active partner in that.”
The result? A more engaging, memorable learning experience that wouldn’t have come together without AI in the room. It’s a great example of what happens when Humans + AI work together.
Trust, governance, and integration are now front and center
Of course, increased use brings increased scrutiny. As L&D continues to adopt AI, organizations are navigating more complex questions around trust, integration, and governance.
“The barriers remain largely the same… trust in the outputs, trust in privacy and security,” Donald shared.
But there’s a new wrinkle: issues around integration and regulation are also rising in importance. Why? Because teams are pushing AI into new, more critical areas of work. That’s a sign of maturity.
“You hit integration issues because you try to do more with it,” Donald said. “You hit regulatory issues because you’re trying to push the use of AI into areas where it’s not been used before.”
In other words, the stakes are higher, but so is the potential. Building trust now means establishing policies and frameworks that make AI feel both safe and reliable for every learner.
(P.S. Our Trust-First AI Playbook can help, complete with strategic frameworks, actionable checklists, and messaging templates to guide adoption across your business.)
The Transformation Triangle: A new model for L&D
To close the session, Donald shared a new framework for L&D’s future: the Transformation Triangle. In his words, “Content has become something of a commodity. It remains important, but it can’t be the main focus of what we do.”
Instead, he offered three alternative visions of what L&D can become:
- Skills Authority: Becoming the organization’s central intelligence on skills, mapping capabilities, identifying gaps, and building the workforce of the future.
- Enablement Partner: Empowering subject-matter experts across the business to create and share learning, transforming L&D from content creator to connector.
- Adaptation Engine: Embedding continuous learning and feedback directly into workflows, helping the organization adapt in real time.
Each role offers a unique path forward. But as Donald reminded us, “You have to choose what your main focus is… You can’t be both.”
Egle added, “It’s about how L&D is perceived and respected in the organization.”
The opportunity now is to evaluate your team’s current culture, capabilities, and strategic goals and decide which of these roles you’re best positioned to lead.
So what now?
The conversation around AI in L&D is just beginning. The next era of learning will belong to teams who blend human insight with AI-powered creativity, strategy, and adaptability.
Want to dive deeper?
- Watch the full webinar recording, where Donald and Egle expand on the data, share examples from real companies, and answer audience questions.
- Download their report to explore their findings in detail.
- And stay tuned for the final session in our Future of Learning series, where we’ll explore how to lead this transformation and prepare for AI’s role in 2026 and beyond.