THE GLOBAL SENTIMENT SURVEY 2025
What will be hot in workplace learning in 2025?
What are your L&D challenges in 2025?
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. 85% shared their challenges for 2025.
The results show more interest in AI, a renewed focus on showing the value of L&D, and some signs of greater maturity around our understanding of AI in L&D.
From the foreword
When the results of last year’s L&D Global Sentiment Survey were announced, I made a confident prediction. The results of the 2025 survey would be very different. The unprecedented surge in interest – which had seen Artificial Intelligence soar to the top of the table – was a one-off. Although I never made predictions, on this one point, I was confident: in the 2025 survey, interest in AI would fall. It would have to. Nothing in the 12-year history of the survey had seen an option shoot so high so fast.
I was wrong.
Interest in AI has only strengthened since the last survey. This year, it tops the table once again, with a higher vote.
Perhaps I should not have been surprised. After all, if the meteoric rise in the popularity of AI was unprecedented, why should the past be any guide to what happened next?
This immense, unprecedented interest in AI is, rightly, the headline story of the survey. But what lies beyond that headline? Our one obligatory question is: ‘What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2025?’ Respondents choose up to three options from a list of 16. From day one of the survey, AI held the top spot, but what happened with the other 15 options?
At the top of the table, options which centre on using data have held on to the top five places. Does this signify a shift in L&D’s view of its role? Further down the table, there is more. Only three options other than AI rose significantly this year. Those three all relate to L&D providing and showing its value. This focus on value is something new.
That shows something significant about the mindset of L&D today, something echoed in the answers to the optional question: ‘What is your biggest L&D challenge in 2025?’. The responses to this open-text question show that L&D has a better-informed view of AI this year. It also shows L&D as worried less about the tactical issues of delivery and more about the bigger picture of strategic and organisational challenges.
The aim of the survey and this report is not to provide answers. It is to provide information and analysis and with them, to provoke discussion. Once again, this year, we have included suggested questions to consider when reading this report. Whether reading alone or with others, we hope these will encourage further thinking about the future of L&D.
I must thank our sponsors. This survey would not have been possible without OpenSesame, Speexx, Netex, getAbstract, HowNow, and Colossyan.
And it is only possible to achieve the global reach we do thanks to our partners: Learning Uncut, VOV Lerend Netwerk, nōvi , L&D Cambodia, Learning Technologies France, L&DI, Learning & Development Institute, Holon Institute of Technology, Mosaicoelearning, FiAD, Interlocked, iPro, e-learnmedia, eLearningMinds, Swedish Learning Association, Learn Tech, Enocta, Biz Group, The Talent and Leadership Club, The Global Skill Development Council, Training Journal and Learning News.
Donald H Taylor
London, UK
February 2024
