For the obligatory question on what they considered 'hot' topics, respondents voted for one to three of 15 suggested options, plus a free text ‘Other’ option. Over 3,000 voters participated from nearly 100 countries. 95% chose to share their challenges for the year ahead.
The results show an uptick in interest in AI, skills and data and analytics. It also shows a renewed focus on issues around budgets and showing impact.
From the foreword:
It is no surprise that this year’s L&D Global Sentiment Survey was topped by Artificial Intelligence. AI is no longer a specialist area. Since the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022, the deluge of news, interest and opinions around AI has been inescapable. The survey has one obligatory question: “What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2024?” There could be only one answer.
Two things, however, did surprise in analysing responses to the 4-question survey: the sheer extent of the support for AI, and the ambivalence towards it. AI dominated voting in every region and area of work. The vote share of [21.5%] on the final table was an unprecedented [9%] higher than the previous year.
At the same time, when asked to describe their greatest challenge in workplace L&D this year, more people used the term AI and its derivatives than any other.
In the 11 years of the survey no option has come close to these numbers for what is hot, and none has simultaneously topped the table for being hot while simultaneously being what respondents were most concerned about. In this report, we explore what this explosion of feeling might mean for the use of AI in L&D, and for the profession itself.
Inevitably, this huge interest in AI reduced the share of the vote for other options, with almost every one of the 16 options on the main question attracting a lower share of the vote than last year. Two options, however, did also manage to increase their share of the vote – Personalization/adaptive delivery and Learning analytics. Together with the vote for AI, this suggests that the trend of interest in data, first noted in 2020 and which returned last year, is no temporary blip.
In contrast, interest in collaborative learning and coaching, which surged during the pandemic, continued to fall this year. If maintained in future surveys, these trends could indicate a fundamental shift in how the L&D profession sees itself and its role – shifting from the personal to the technical.
Many readers use this report to stimulate discussion in their L&D teams. To help with that, this year some articles now include suggested questions to consider. Whether reading alone or with others, we hope these will provoke further thinking.
As always, the results of the survey must be treated with caution. This survey is about sentiment, about feelings. Those feelings – however firmly held – neither prove nor disprove the idea that AI will take over L&D. Once again, we have included in this report a section on interpretation to stress where the survey can provide value, as well as indicating its limits. Please do read this section and approach claims made based on the survey results with informed caution.
As always, I must end by thanking our sponsors. Without OpenSesame, Speexx, Netex, Learning Pool, getAbstract and Lexonis, this survey would not have been possible.
Donald H Taylor
