Amid rapid AI adoption and accelerating skills obsolescence, one HR leader warned that only those who unify strategy, culture, and AI-ready skills will unlock real business impact from L&D in 2026
Learning and development is entering a make-or-break phase in 2026, as HR leaders juggle rapid AI adoption, accelerating skills decay and intensifying demands to prove business value.
According to Lauren Tropeano, chief people officer at learning platform provider Docebo, these forces are converging to fundamentally reshape how organisations approach capability building.
“Learning and development is being reshaped by three converging forces: the deep integration of AI into everyday work, accelerating skills obsolescence, and rising pressure to show measurable business impact,” she said.
“Learning is no longer episodic or program-based. It is embedded into workflows, personalised, and continuous.”
The old model of courses, catalogues and one-off programs may no longer be enough in the future of L&D.
From roles to skills – and from proficiency to adaptability
Tropeano says one of the most significant shifts underway is the move from role-based learning to skills- and capability-based development.
“As work itself changes faster than job architectures can keep up, L&D teams are being asked to enable adaptability, not just proficiency,” she explained. Traditional competency frameworks and job descriptions, often updated every few years at best, struggle to reflect how quickly tasks are being augmented or reshaped by AI.
In this environment, business leaders are also sharpening their expectations.
“At the same time, business leaders expect learning investments to directly support productivity and innovation,” Tropeano noted. That means L&D can no longer sit at arm’s length from core business priorities; it must demonstrate a direct line between learning initiatives and outcomes such as performance, customer satisfaction, speed-to-competence or innovation metrics.
For HR, this is driving a pivot toward:
- Skills taxonomies and capability maps instead of static role profiles
- Learning paths that flex as work changes
- Closer integration between talent strategy, workforce planning and L&D
Fragmented L&D: A side effect of AI hype
The rapid rise of AI tools – and experimentation at the team level – is creating a new problem: fragmentation.
“In many organisations, fragmentation is already visible,” Tropeano said. “As AI tools proliferate and teams experiment independently, learning often becomes reactive and disjointed.”
Employees are left jumping between platforms and pilots, often with conflicting advice and inconsistent skill messages.
“They’re navigating multiple platforms, inconsistent guidance, and unclear expectations about which skills actually matter. Is it upskilling in the specific technology itself or the know-how to work alongside it or both? People need clarity,” she said.
Tropeano is clear that technology itself isn’t the root cause.
“This fragmentation is less about technology and more about the absence of a unifying learning strategy,” she argued. When AI adoption runs ahead of change management and skills planning, L&D risks becoming “a collection of disconnected initiatives instead of a coherent system that supports how work is evolving.”
The organisations that will win are those that treat AI as a whole-of-business change – not just a tech roll-out – and align learning from the outset.
The fundamentals: Clarity and humanity
Against the backdrop of rapid change, Tropeano believes L&D leaders need to double down on fundamentals.
“The most important fundamentals are clarity and humanity,” she said.
On the clarity side, learning systems and experiences must be explicitly connected to business priorities so employees understand the “why”.
“L&D systems must be clearly connected to business priorities so employees understand why they are learning. They must be designed around real work and integrated into daily workflows rather than pulled away from them,” she explained.
That means embedding learning into tools, processes and moments that matter – rather than relying solely on scheduled programs and separate portals that sit outside the flow of work.
Equally, Tropeano stressed the human side of learning.
“Psychological safety, trust, and permission to try something new are prerequisites for skill growth,” she said. “Without these foundations, even the most advanced learning platforms will fail to drive meaningful behavior change due to human friction.”
For HR leaders, this puts the spotlight on managers and culture: ensuring leaders model curiosity, allow experimentation, and create environments where employees can practice new skills without fear of failure.
AI upskilling: From tools training to AI readiness
On AI upskilling specifically, Tropeano believes the bar has moved.
“AI upskilling is now essential, but not in the narrow sense of teaching people how to use tools,” she says. “The real imperative is building AI readiness.”
That readiness includes helping employees understand how work is changing, including how tasks and responsibilities within traditional roles are being reshaped, building skills in human judgment, creativity and ethical reasoning alongside automation, and enabling people to redesign how they work, not just add a new tool to their current process.
“For example, the way that work gets done or what work would fall into a traditional role may be evolving with the adoption of AI,” Tropeano explained.
“Also important is the skill of how to apply sound human judgment, creativity, and ethical reasoning alongside automation and artificial intelligence.”
While many employees now touch AI through chatbots, productivity tools or embedded features, Tropeano believes only a minority are using it in ways that fundamentally change their workflows. The payoff for getting this right is substantial.
“Organisations that invest in structured, thoughtful AI upskilling will unlock far more value from their technology and build a workforce that is confident and capable in the face of ongoing change,” Tropeano said.
For HR and L&D leaders, Tropeano’s message is both a warning and an opportunity.
The warning: without a unifying strategy, AI adoption will magnify existing fragmentation in learning, confuse employees and dilute impact.
The opportunity: by anchoring learning in business priorities, focusing on skills and adaptability, and treating AI as an enterprise change supported by clear, human-centred learning, HR can turn L&D into a decisive competitive advantage in 2026 and beyond.
