Key Findings & Highlights:

Future-proofing the workforce through skilling and the global impact of AI/GenAI are the most talked-about subjects in learning services. Organizations recognize the need to take skilling action and are keen to embrace the benefits that AI/GenAI can bring to the workforce, but they face a dichotomy: they know what they would like to do long-term, but ongoing budgetary constraints curtail their ambitions, so they can only act on their most pressing needs, taking a short-term view.

There is optimism that the learning services market will take an upturn in 2025 after several subdued years. Organizations are keen to leverage strong partnerships with learning services vendors who will help them to navigate their future skilling and technology challenges and overcome their barriers to learning by providing expertise and relevant solutions, safe in the knowledge that the vendors will be investing in the latest skilling/content services, AI/GenAI, and developing market knowledge.

The future world of work is Human+AI centric. Vendors are building their offerings around this concept, with frameworks to support organizations in transitioning to this new era. Learning services vendors are investing much time and effort in helping organizations put the skilling and digital foundations in place to build a sustainable, prosperous, long-term future. New and revamped skilling content/programs, notably for functional and job-related learning, prioritize the development of soft and digital skills aligned to the future of work.

The evolution and investment in AI/GenAI have transformed learning services and technology, making unprecedented advances in one year beyond market expectations. Adding more sophisticated AI/GenAI-enabled features and functionality to learning platforms has enabled the timely provision of hyper-personalized, contextualized, and experiential skilling content for learners, transformed content creation times, learning admin, and delivery, with AI assistants undertaking much of this work. Learning services vendors continue to develop robust roadmaps for AI/GenAI and their learning solutions.

The pace of skilling and digital (including AI/GenAI) change will quicken over time, requiring more intensive and ongoing investment in learning and talent development to keep up. Vendors and organizations cannot underestimate the effort that will be required. They will need unprecedented flexibility, agility, and resiliency to survive.