We asked L&D professionals what’s on their minds, and their roadmaps. Keep reading for some of the key takeaways.
We recently surveyed L&D professionals to get under the hood of their strategies, challenges, and expectations for the year ahead.
The results?
A fascinating snapshot of an industry in transition where AI is maturing, learning is increasingly self-directed, and business value is no longer just a “nice-to-have,” but a must-measure.
Here’s how the industry is becoming increasingly driven by data, shaped by technology, and measured by business impact.
L&D priorities
We asked L&D professionals to rank their top three priorities for the year and while many familiar themes appeared, some shifts hint at deeper transformation in the function.
TLDR: Priorities for L&D this year
1. Measuring learning impact
2. AI
3. Change readiness
4. Skills-based learning
5. Leadership skills
6. Learning in the flow of work
7. Learning culture
8. Personalised learning
9. DEI
10. Soft skills development
🥇 Priority one
Interestingly, the top spot was a tie between measuring learning impact and building a strong learning culture, each chosen by 16% of respondents.
This highlights a dual focus, not only embedding learning into organisational DNA but also ensuring that L&D delivers measurable business value.
These choices signal a maturing L&D function.
It shows that we’re no longer content with “completions” or “hours learned,” professionals are now focused on proving learning’s value and creating a culture where continuous development is second nature.
🥈 Priority two
Here, measuring learning impact dominated again, with 27% naming it their second-highest priority.
Change readiness followed, signaling a growing need to build agile, resilient workforces amid ongoing transformation.
🥉 Priority three
AI and digital fluency emerged as key areas, with 20% ranking them as the third priority.
This highlights the dual importance of:
- Upskilling people in emerging tech, and
- Delivering learning at the point of need, not just in formal sessions.
The takeaway?
L&D is no longer just about courses, it’s about capability, access, and adaptability.
Which skills are you focusing on in your workforce?
We asked L&D leaders which topics and skills their organisations are actively building in the workforce.
The responses reflect a shift away from broad “soft” training toward strategic, job-specific, and self-guided development.
TDLR: Order L&D pros ranked skills they’re focusing on
1. Self-directed learning
2. Leadership skills
3. Role-specific upskilling
4. Digital skills
5. Soft skills
6. Reskilling
7. DEI
8. Wellbeing and mental health
🥇 Priority one: Job-relevant, just-in-time
- Role-specific upskilling (25%) was the top priority; a clear move toward capability-building directly tied to roles and performance.
- Self-directed learning (21%) followed closely, suggesting a rising interest in empowering employees to own their learning journeys.
Leadership skills and digital skills also featured prominently, especially as remote/hybrid models and AI adoption continue to reshape work.
🥈 Priority two: leadership & human skills
- Leadership development (28%) dominated second-place responses, reaffirming the need to equip future-ready leaders.
- Soft skills, self-direction, and role-specific learning followed in a tight race.
Surprisingly, DEI and mental health initiatives received far fewer votes, suggesting that although widely discussed in recent years, they may be slipping down the priority list in favour of skills with more direct impact on performance.
Which skills are most important for your L&D team?
We also asked: What skills are most important for your L&D team to build internally?
The top answers paint a picture of a more strategic, data-savvy function:
- Data analytics & reporting (26%)
- Instructional design (21%)
- Project management (16%)
- Learning experience design (11%)
The message? L&D is expanding beyond content delivery — into experience design, performance consulting, and insight-led decision-making.
Top challenges in L&D
L&D challenges is something we talk about a lot.
But we wanted to ask L&D leaders themselves, what are they dealing with?
Unsurprisingly, technological disruption remains the biggest thorn in the side of L&D teams.
Here’s what they said:
Challenge 1: Keeping up with tech
31% cited keeping pace with technological change as their biggest challenge from integrating AI to updating digital tools and platforms.
Challenge 2: Engagement & budget
Learner engagement and budget constraints were next in line.
Many teams are finding it difficult to capture attention in an always-on, remote-first world and they’re doing it with tighter budgets than ever.
Challenge 3: Resources & measurement
Measuring learning impact, allocating resources effectively, and managing limited headcount all featured heavily highlighting a need for better systems, clearer metrics, and sharper focus.
Barriers to innovation in L&D
What’s holding L&D teams back from being more innovative?
- Resistance to change (21%)
- Lack of leadership buy-in (16%)
- Budget constraints (16%)
- Insufficient data (11%)
Cultural and organisational blockers remain a challenge, despite the growing recognition of L&D’s role in transformation.
L&D budgets in 2025/2026
We asked how L&D budgets are shifting this year:
- 53% are maintaining current spend
- 21% plan to increase investment
- 26% are decreasing or unsure
For many, the message is “steady as she goes,” though the 1 in 5 increasing spend likely reflects a growing emphasis on upskilling, technology adoption, and leadership development.
Are L&D and strategic business leaders aligned?
One of the biggest indicators of L&D’s maturity is how closely it aligns to broader business strategy.
This one stings.
Only 17% reported full strategic alignment, where L&D is a true business partner
Plus:
- 39% reported moderate alignment — some initiatives aligned, but not all
- 28% admitted to limited alignment — occasional overlaps at best
- Worst of all, 5% reported no alignment at all.
This misalignment is a key barrier to demonstrating ROI and securing executive buy-in. It may also be contributing to low confidence levels in L&D’s perceived value.
Learning formats and approaches
Preferred learning formats
When asked which learning formats they plan to use more of, L&D professionals gave top marks to:
- eLearning
- Microlearning
- Blended learning
Formats like in-person workshops, mentoring, and virtual classrooms still play a role, but the trend is clearly toward digital, flexible, and scalable delivery models.
Which learning approaches are most important?
When asked what approaches are most useful, the results were pretty interesting.
Personalised learning came out on top – unsurprisingly – but just-in-time learning came out as both the least important and the second-most important.
So, it just goes to show the differing needs of L&D teams across industries and businesses.
What about social learning?
Social learning is one of the kye L&D trends for this year.
But what did our L&D pros say about it?
Well, only 28% of respondents said they’re already using more informal or social learning formats.
However, 37% are planning to suggesting this area is set for growth so it could be one to watch out for in the coming years.
The role of AI
We can’t talk about learning and development without mentioning AI.
We’ve seen it revolutionise the way we work, but how is it filtering into L&D.
Well, 68% of survey respondents said AI or automation already plays a role in their learning programmes.
Another 26% are planning to integrate it.
So, AI is no longer a futuristic concept for L&D. It’s becoming foundational to both content delivery and learner support.
L&D tools and platforms
Moving on, we wanted to know more about the tools and platforms that L&D teams are using.
So we asked:
What learning tools do you use?
And you can see, an overwhelming majority used an LMS, a content library and some kind of interactive tool.
Pretty interesting.
A small number used a mentoring/coaching platform, so maybe this is one to watch in the future?
When it comes to your LMS, you’re spending a fair amount of time and money, so you want to be happy with the product.
We asked:
What do you value most in an LMS?
Overwhelmingly, ease of use came out top. And it’s unsurprising. You don’t want your admins, or your learners, to struggle to use your platform.
All it does is create a barrier from the first step which won’t help learner engagement or LMS impact.
Next up came personalised learning which checks out with that also being rated the most important learning approach. So it’s good to see that users are seeing this tool reflected in their platform.
Lastly was a clear split between compatibility with a range of content, customisability and branding, personalised learning/learning paths ease of use
Quite broad and wide ranging, right?
It just shows the totally bespoke and custom ways each of us are using our platforms.
💡 Pro Tip
BuildEmpire is well-known for its custom LMS solutions. We’ve helped build custom plugins, create bespoke features, but even also just given you the scope to make your LMS as customised as possible, with very little effort.
See customisation in action
Are you happy with your current LMS?
Despite the usage of an LMS, and some of the key tools people are enjoying in their LMS, only 6% were very satisfied with their current LMS.
22% were fairly satisfied but 44% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and the remaining 28% were very dissatisfied.
So what’s going on? Where’s the disconnect?
Are you considering changing or upgrading your LMS in the next 12 months?
Given the huge issues with LMS satisfaction, you would expect to see a large portion of people opting to change LMS.
But this is not what we found.
21% voted that yes, they would consider changing or upgrading their LMS. But a huge 56% said no they wouldn’t, while 24% would maybe consider it.
So why are LMS users feeling like they’re stuck with an LMS that is frankly, not doing its job?
Key LMS features
To explore further, we asked what key features their LMS had.
What LMS features are you missing?
On top of that, we asked what LMS features they felt they were missing to see how L&D feel their LMS could be better.
Here’s what they said:
Quick-fire LMS questions
Lastly, we asked some quick-fire questions.
Firstly, how important is look and feel of an LMS to you?
How important is usability of an LMS to you?
Next, how important is feature-set of an LMS to you?
How important is security of an LMS to you?
Wrapping up
Lastly, we asked a big hitter.
How confident are you that L&D will be seen as a key driver of business success in your organisation this year?
17% were very confident, 28% fairly confident, 28% neither confident nor unconfident, and 28% were fairly unconfident
So not overly optimistic.
But that’s been the resounding feedback throughout this survey.
L&D is stepping into a more strategic, tech-enabled role (which is good) but it’s facing growing pains along the way.
So, to succeed in 2025 and beyond, L&D leaders need to:
- Prioritise impact over activity
- Champion self-directed, just-in-time learning
- Embrace data and AI as core capabilities
- Push for closer alignment with business goals
- Challenge the status quo of legacy tools
After all, the future of L&D isn’t about more content.
It’s about smarter delivery, sharper insights, and stronger alignment with what matters most: performance, adaptability, and growth.