Inside the L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2025: AI, Value & Future Trends

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Donald Taylor, longtime learning and development leader and chair of the Learning Technologies Conference, unpacks the findings from the 2025 L&D Global Sentiment Survey. Hear what surprised him most, why AI remains a dominant focus, and how L&D professionals are responding to increasing pressure to prove value and do more with less.

 

 

SHOW NOTES:

Donald Taylor shares A timely look at where the industry is heading—and why it matters. His key takeaways include:

• AI Dominates—Again
  For the second year in a row, AI received unprecedented support in the L&D Global Sentiment Survey, signaling not just hype but real momentum in how professionals are exploring its potential—especially for internal efficiencies.
• Value Matters More Than Ever
  "Showing value" made a strong comeback in this year’s survey results, reflecting a growing urgency among L&D teams to demonstrate their impact in measurable terms, especially in resource-constrained environments.
• Data-Driven Strategy Is Rising
  The most popular trends—including upskilling, reskilling, and learning analytics—require robust data strategies. L&D is shifting from delivery methods to understanding workforce capabilities at a deeper level.
• The "Do More With Less" Reality
  Resource limitations were the fastest-growing challenge cited by respondents. As budgets tighten, L&D professionals are being asked to deliver greater impact with fewer people, tools, and time.
• Building Relationships Is Still Foundational
  Amid all the tech shifts, Taylor emphasizes that personal connection remains essential. Strategic L&D leaders build credibility by getting out of their offices, listening to business needs, and aligning learning to organizational goals.

Read more about the 2025 Global L&D Sentiment Survey 

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Transcript:

Susan Cort: [00:00:00] The results of the annual global L&D sentiment survey are in, and some of the answers surprise the author Donald Taylor.

Don Taylor: The one category of comments that's increased the number of comments and attracts each year has been the resources category. In other words, people are finding it increasingly difficult to do their job.

They haven't got the resources, they haven't got the people, they haven't got the budget. And that's something which is growing each year as other things fall away. And so the phrase that typifies that is we're being asked to do more with less.

Susan Cort: Donald Taylor joins d’Vinci's, Luke Kempski, and me to talk about the survey results.

We'll hear about the greatest industry challenges, feelings about using AI, and a renewed focus on demonstrating the value of L&D  - next on Powered By Learning.

Announcer: Powered by Learning is brought to you by d’Vinci Interactive. d’Vinci's approach to [00:01:00] learning is grounded in 30 years of innovation and expertise. We use proven strategies and leading technology to develop solutions that empower learners to improve quality and boost performance. Learn more@dvinci.com.

Susan Cort: The 2025 Learning and Development Global Sentiment Survey results are now published and joining us to discuss the findings and inspire your thinking about the future of L&D, d’Vinci CEO, Luke Kempski, and the lead researcher of the Learning and Development Global Sentiment Survey, Donald Taylor. Don, thank you for joining us today.

Luke Kempski: Yeah, welcome to Powered by Learning, Don.

Don Taylor: Great to be here.

Susan Cort: Don, start out by providing a brief background, uh, on you and also some background on the survey.

Don Taylor: Sure. I've been around for a while in learning and in technology. I started programming computers in the early 1980s, switched to training and have been involved in learning and development and technology ever since. Everything I've done pretty [00:02:00] much in work has been around those things, and I've done pretty much everything you can do from designing, delivering courses, to setting up and selling companies, and being the chairman of the board.

Right now, what I do is I run the Global Sentiment Survey, and I do other associated research as well. I also chair the Learning Technologies Conference. – that’s the biggest conference of its type in Europe. That takes place in London and I've done that for 25 years. I also work as a bridge within a company called Emerge Education, that’s a VC company focusing on Ed tech start ups in Europe.  So everything I do still revolves around the learning technology space.  

Susan Cort: And the survey's been out now, what 12 years?

Don Taylor: 12 years.

Susan Cort: Talk a little bit about that and how you put it together.

Don Taylor: Survey's been going for 12 years, and it's a very simple idea, rather than to ask people this year.

We have a very short survey, has five questions. Initially only had one. It now has five questions, only, one of which is obligatory, and [00:03:00] it runs every year. And the design is to get people to answer it in ideally less than two minutes. So we get a quick pulse check. What are people thinking about and feeling every year goes to something like.

And we have great results in terms of being able with those simple questions, collect a data set that we can predict what's gonna happen each year, and we can watch trend lines evolve over time. It's really quite extraordinary. You get once start accumulating. Thousand points of data each year from several thousand people.

Luke Kempski: Did you envision it to be an annual survey when you first developed it?

Don Taylor: No. I first thought, oh, this will be fun. I need to ask people what's going on. I just put it up on my website. In the old days was a blog and I just put it up on the blog and, and I didn't even think anything about it, but we got so much positive response. And to this first survey, I ran it again. And then of course you have two surveys. You can say, well, this number's gone up and this number's gone down. And then by the time I did the third year, [00:04:00] people wanted to pay me to speak about. And I thought, well, this is fun. I'm just making me money.

I'm gonna keep doing it..

Luke Kempski: There you go. Yeah, and um, you're writing the history of learning technology every year.

Don Taylor: Yeah, that's true.

Luke Kempski: Yeah. So, um, when you picture the readers or the other, uh, researchers who look at your study, what do you hope that they get out of it and what kind of actions can they take based on it?

Don Taylor: You know, it, I do ask people how they use the reports and what they make of the survey because the LinkedIn publications of the results always gets a. And the greatest use people make of it is to use it as a prompt to consider what they should be doing. So it's not so much providing answers as database stimulation to questions, and it makes people think, well, if this is happening, what should we be doing in Learning & Development?

Now, it doesn't mean that people are slavishly following what other people are doing. This doesn't mean people. [00:05:00] To ask, why is this going up? Why is, where are the caveats, where's the hype? And it makes people think about those things. And it's often used as a stimulus by training departments to work out what sort of things they should be considering in the year ahead.

Luke Kempski: Yeah, that's perfect. So now that you've been doing it annually, do you have, like, do you predict before you send it out each year, like what you gonna happen and then, um, you know, as you're looking at the most recent results, any surprises in there for you?

Don Taylor: Try to stay clear of predictions because I'm really not very good at them. And honestly, I did that this year, last year. Last year, AI jumped to the top of the table that everyone was saying was gonna be hot. Now, that wasn't a surprise. What was the surprise was just how massive the support for it was.

Previously, the largest vote we'd had to anything in the history was 13%. [00:06:00] Attracted 21.5% of the vote of all the votes that are collected Now. I looked at that and I said, well, this is unprecedented. We've never had anything leap this high before. It can't happen again. I predict AI will fall in the 2025 results, and of course I was wrong.

It went back up again, and it goes to show the folly of predicting future performance. Past performance, when past performance is unprecedented. If something smashes all the records, don't expect it suddenly going to behave normally next year. That's my lesson I take from that.

Luke Kempski: And I guess, you know, beyond the research, what kinds of things do you think are happening where learning and development departments and practitioners are really starting to integrate AI into their practices and their operations?

Don Taylor: I did three other reports in the past, uh, 12 months roughly with ler, who's a very smart Lithuanian woman living in London, who's a great [00:07:00] collaborative worker, and we looked at exactly that. What are L&D departments doing? AI, we discovered that, uh, initially they weren't doing very much, they were talking about it, but within 12 months they've moved to doing things with it, and there were three different buckets that we put them into.

So one is using it for internal efficiency, one is using it for point solutions. So tried to help customer call centers. Integrating AI across the use of L&D across the business, but those transformational business wide use cases are very few and far between. Mm-hmm. Even the point solutions are quite rare.

Mostly L&D is using this stuff for increased efficiency internally. I think there's a problem with that because we found in evolving and going on to use it in more, more in [00:08:00] more mature ways. For example, to support a particular department of what it was trying to do in depth. Rather, there were different drivers that drove to success in using AI for point solution or for business wide transformation. It didn't have much to do with, for example, using it to be faster.

Luke Kempski: Over the last multiple years, you've seen a lot of, uh, higher scores for data related items and, uh, how they are impacting L&D. Uh, do you believe that kind of shows a big shift that's happening over time? That's more of a permanent shift than, do you see any correlations with the ai, uh, item as well?

Don Taylor: Yeah, that's a great question, Luke, and the answer is yes. Last year in particular, we saw the top of the table was dominated by things that required data and probably, uh, artificial intelligence and also skills. So data [00:09:00] and skills really were taking over the top of the table. Things like reskilling, upskilling, skills-based talent management, personalization, learning analytics, these all required data.

On skills, and that's a very different picture to what we had four years ago, eight years ago, 12 years ago. If you go back, you see that in the past we were much more focused on what mechanisms we were using to deliver content. Now it seems as more of a shift towards understanding the fundamentals. What makes up the skills base, the talent base of the organization.

But we have to bear in mind that this is a non-representative sample. So the people we query are people. We go out and we invite people by email. We invite people by social media and direct messaging to participate, and that means the people we've got answering this survey are people who are naturally excited about what's new in learning breadth.

To answer your question, does this indicate a change in L&D as a whole? [00:10:00] I don't know. The people who answer this survey are the people who are at the early adopter part of the Everett Rogers innovation curve. I believe that some of those things that they're excited about will transfer over to the early.

That's, that happens. We've seen it happen with mobile delivery, for example, and with other things. Will this view be adopted more widely? I don't know, but I kind of think it has to be. All organizations and learning and development departments will fail. I think if you don't take that more fundamental view of what in your organization and creating and delivering content, if that's what you're doing and that's you're doing internally. I'm not saying there's wrong with that. It's powerful, it's necessary, but it's now one part a much larger view of L&D. If you [00:11:00] don't expand what you're doing, I think there's every risk that you get sidelined and become less important to the organization.

So I'd say, my guess is we are going to see a much more in-depth use of data and of skills in the organization, the future by L&D.

Luke Kempski: And maybe that's, uh, connects to another item where you, um, that seems to be growing, which is showing value. Yeah. Uh, you know, and that, that is selected as a hot, hot item. Among your responders, do you see kind of an integration, I guess, of a lot of the different hottest items?

Don Taylor: The showing value thing is really interesting. Looking back at the research I've, I've come to the conclusion that 2024 we suffered and it wasn't just learning and development, but I think generally we suffered what I'm calling an AI shock. Think people were bombarded with stuff about AI since the launch of ChatGPT and [00:12:00] the survey for 2024 would've been something like 14 months after the launch of ChatGPT.

So people had a relentless amount of stuff coming into them about it, and they were frankly paralyzed by it. They were overwhelmed and everything else took a hit. So the votes for everything else almost were down this year. Okay. The vote for AI went up, but there was also a sense of what I'm calling an AI recovery, so that people having had the shock came back to what they thought was important. And there are three options that people can choose in their list of things they can choose on this survey.

They're consulting more deeply with the business. Performance support and the idea I think, is that you consult with the business to see what's wrong. You, you do something to support performance and then you show value. After we did this, worked, [00:13:00] these three options on the survey behave very differently.

Predictably, differently, over a period of five than any other option. They parcel together peoples’ minds. People see them as being a coherent whole, and they vote for them in the same way and they behave differently. Last year they took a big hit like everything else, and this year they bounced back. They were the only things to bounce back.

That tells me that this year people are returning to something they think is very important, and that thing is showing the value of what they do. Why? Why is showing the value of what we do so important? I this year bluntly. People have been excited by AI, but also scared by it. I think there's fear there.

AI may well be coming from my job. I think people are right to be afraid of it. It also has a great deal of potential. So I think the idea is, look, it's a huge change. Let's be sure [00:14:00] we make the most of it. Let's show value as a result.

Luke Kempski: Yes, I too, I would imagine, you know, when you look at all of the hot items, I mean, it's not like any of them have gone away, right?

There's still a presence of all of 'em. So, you know, to focus how you make decisions among all of the different options. Um, really comes down to showing value. It comes down to having a strategy for taking what you're doing and integrating with what technologies are available Yeah. In order to demonstrate value and improve performance.

Don Taylor: And that business of demonstrating values came up in the challenges question as well. 'cause the other key question we ask is, what's challenge this finding two things.

Being part of the talent strategy for the organization. And the other thing is the only the I take all the words people put into that free text answer, which is like, it's [00:15:00] like 30,000 words, like a complete book. And I categorize the comments and the one category of comments.

They haven't got the resources, they haven't got the people, they haven't got the budget. And that's something which is growing each year as other things fall away. And so the phrase that typifies that is we're being asked to do more with less. So when you've got that on the one hand and you've got the, I wanna hit the strategy piece on the other hand, show.

Susan Cort: So Don, with, with the strategy, skills and talent kind of overtaking technology and AI as the top concern, what does this say to organizations and in particular L&D leaders about how they can navigate those challenges?

Don Taylor: Uh, [00:16:00] I, I can't, I shouldn't go beyond the data. The data tells me people are concerned about it. It doesn't tell me anything about what they can do about it.

I, I make this comment based on, as I say, decades of being in the script and talking to people who I regard very highly as practical CLOs. How do you show that what you're doing is valuable? How do you make sure you are seen as more than just a subsidiary fulfillment house, but something that's essential to the organization?

The answer for me is that you go out and you build relationships with the organization. That's the underlying bedrock of it. On top of that, you have good performance consulting conversations. You understand what's happening. You talk to people about their department, where things are going wrong, how people's skills and knowledge can be augmented.[00:17:00]

You have those conversations after you first built relationships with people, which could be as simple as saying, Hey look, I'm gonna come and have a cup of coffee with you. I want to listen to what you're doing. And that activity is something that I've seen people do very effectively in very large organizations at quite a senior level.

And I'd sum it all up in the words of McKinsey and she said, I said to her, Heather, how do you know you're doing a good job? She said, I look at my diary. Uh, I said, what? What do you mean look your diary? I said, I check. Am I spending at least half of my time outside the office talking to people in the business?

I said, that's it. That's it. That's how you tackle the strategy problem. That's how you make sure you.

But if you do go out and you build the conversations and you build the relationships, you're starting down the process of making your [00:18:00] department integral to the business.

Susan Cort: Something that we should never lose sight of, you know, even as you're looking to integrate AI and to giving you more data to prove ROI.

But it all starts with that bedrock of those conversations.

Don Taylor: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Luke Kempski:  Yes. And, um, when you think about the, the future. Learning leader who has responsibilities for creating learning experiences and, uh, performance support experiences and learning and the flow of work experiences. Like what, beyond the, the relationship skills that they need and the ability to understand kind of business as a whole, what, what should they be focusing on, do you think?

To develop their talents? To develop their abilities as, um, learning leaders. Uh,

Don Taylor: Such a good question. And so often we look at that question as if it's a natural extension of what you're already doing so well. If you are a training manager, just [00:19:00] do lots more training, managing, and do it better. That is not the way you get to be a strategic learning person.

You are doing mandatory training, you are doing onboarding, you're doing this, that, that, it's all, you could do that as well as you like. And you've got kit with you. You've got a backpack, you've got a stick, you've got boots, but you hit the snow line. When you hit the snow line. You need a new set of equipment, not boots.

You need cramp, not a stick. You need an ice sack, you don't need a rucksack, you need oxygen. Those things you don't get in the and those things are things nobody teaches you when you're doing a training management job. It's a whole lot of new stuff. I would include, obviously, performance consulting. I would also include understanding the world beyond the organization, the wider world, what effect is demographics go to have on your organization if you're in the western world.[00:20:00] Demographics are shifting dramatically.

How's that gonna, that gonna affect your organization? How's immigration gonna affect it? How are energy costs gonna affect it? These are all big questions which typically think people think have nothing to do with L&D, but I can guarantee they're going to affect your business tariffs. How are they going to affect your business and the skills your organization needs for the future?

I think some of the best things you can do if you want to be a learning leader of the future is go out and buy copies of the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, or listen to the news and get understanding about what it is that’s happening outside your business that's really going to affect it. Have a well-formed justifiable opinion. Take that into some of your conversations. People will start looking you in a different way. You’re not the person who delivers that training anymore. You’re the person that’s got the same sort of strategic insight that they’ve got are having the same sort of difficult conversations they’re having.

You might get invited into some more conversations.

Luke Kempski: Yeah, really good advice. Don, talk a little about the [00:21:00] future of the global sentiment survey. I know you want to keep it consistent year after year, but do you see evolving in, in any way tweaking different things?

Don Taylor: Obviously this is a whole now two-hour podcast.

There are two key questions. Don, are you going to AI on this list in the future. 'cause it's a bit like saying, oh look in your kitchen, you've got a microwave, you've got a fridge freezer, you've got a dishwasher, and you've got electricity. Which one do you think is most important? And of course the answer is electricity, AI, right?

It's been a real privilege to have had AI on our survey since 2017 and be able to witness from the inside this tornado of sentiment change. It’s like a biologist discovering a rare species on an island somewhere.

But I have to be realistic. AI is going to be top of this table for the next 10 years, probably if [00:22:00] I leave it there. So am I going to keep it there? I'm going to keep it there at least one more year after that. I'll see, because I want to just be able to witness the turning point and then I might change some things.

The other key thing is, right now I don't know how people voted year to year. I have three and a half thousand people, they seem to vote predictably in different ways and that's fascinating. But what I'd really like do is to go to core groups of people and say, now look voted on the survey last year and I see you voted this year…and I can do two things. Firstly, from your data I got, I can look I how vote reflects patterns in different industries. So for example, I see you work in manufacturing or pharma. That’s one thing.

So, I could also go to the people and say, look, I see you're one of a group of people that shifted their attention from X to Y. Why is that? Now? If you can then have those conversations, you can get a lot of really intricate, interesting information about [00:23:00] why things are changing. It's not just me speculating from my desk in London.

We go out and have a conversation with the world and see what’s changing. I would love to do that. That’s my plan for the future.

Susan Cort: You don't like predictions? You said?

Don Taylor: Don’t ask me for prediction.

Susan Cort: So you don't want to give a prediction for 2026?

Don Taylor: Come on, come on. That's, that's alright. Come on.

Susan Cort: So, if you look ahead, as you evolve the survey or as you plan to do that, what do you think you're, you're going to see this time next year when you're putting the survey together?

Don Taylor: So dangerous. So why are forcing me into this dangerous position?

Susan Cort: I won't hold you to it.

Don Taylor: I’m going to make the same prediction that I made last year with AI. I’m going to predict it’s going to have a small vote in 2026 than 2025.

The reason for that is I noticed the USA, which generally leads on sentiment around technology. Dropped its vote for AI by nearly 4%, [00:24:00] which is in of the, that's a big, so that gives me some hope that my prediction might.

Luke Kempski: All right, Susan mark, March 13th, 2026. We'll have Don back on Powered by Learning.

Susan Cort: That sounds good. So Don, as we wrap up, what would you like people to take away?

How can they best use the results to help impact their L&D departments?

Don Taylor: The key thing is not to treat any of this as a fact that you should slavishly follow people say these things are important, but your context, your country, your company, are unique to you. You know what's important for you. So use your common sense in looking at the results.

But I would ask yourselves one key question here. Why is value so important now? I think there are good reasons for it. And I’d ask yourself how are you showing the value of what you do in your organization?

And if you're unsure about it, network with your [00:25:00] colleagues and your peers. Find out what they're doing. There are great things that you can do.

You are already doing great things.

There are great things you can do to show the value of what you’re doing for the organization and show them how they're benefiting. So I, I would take that as the big takeaway this year.

Luke Kempski: Sounds good.

Susan Cort: That's some great, great advice, Don

Luke Kempski: Performance powered by learning technology. There you go. There we

Don Taylor: go.

Susan Cort: And Don, we'll be sure to put a link to the results of the survey and the show notes as well as some of the other resources that you have up on your website.

Don Taylor: Thank you so much.

Luke Kempski: Great talking to you Don.

Don Taylor: Great to be here.

Susan Cort: Take care. Thank you.

Don Taylor: I look forward to seeing you again to check my predictions next year.

Susan Cort: Thanks to d’Vinci's, CEO, Luke Kempski and our guest Don Taylor for joining us today to talk about the L&D Global Sentiment Survey. If you have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out to us [00:26:00] at Poweredbylearning@dvinci.com. And don't forget that you can subscribe to Powered by Learning wherever you listen to your podcasts.