New Year predictions offer an opportunity to practise our forecasting skills. And so at the beginning of 2025, we asked the authors of TrainingZone’s 2024 most popular reads to dust down their crystal ball and predict what’s next for the world of learning.
With the end of 2025 in near-sight, we’ve asked these 11 L&D experts to assess the extent to which their prediction ‘came true’.
Here’s how our L&D future gazers rated their crystal-ball gazing skills…
Prediction one: People will seek to overcome division and reconnect with each other
Anna Shields, Director, Consensio
While conflict continues to affect workplaces, there’s a growing appetite for the skills needed to navigate tensions and build stronger relationships. LinkedIn’s “Skills on the Rise” for 2025 ranks conflict mitigation as the second fastest-growing in-demand skill, just behind AI literacy.
More people are speaking up, something many employers rightly encourage. Yet, this willingness to raise concerns is also contributing to an increase in grievances, with more employees using AI to write them. So, while humans are getting better at speaking up, there’s a risk that technology ends up doing the talking for them.
As we look to 2026, we must ensure that, while we embrace technology, we also continue to invest in the essential human skills needed to manage the complexity of workplace relationships.
Prediction two: We will witness the end of ‘soft-skills’ in 2025
Robin Hoyle, Head of Learning Innovation, Huthwaite International
I predicted that 2025 would see the end of ‘soft skills’ as terminology to describe the vital and difficult-to-master skills of communicating effectively, working well with others and collaborating with purpose and intent. To some extent, I claim a win! I haven’t seen the term ‘soft skills’ used as frequently as I have in the past.
However, I was also hoping for a linked demise of the psychobabble that accompanies interpersonal effectiveness capabilities. There, I still encounter meaningless and imprecise theories and phraseology. For example, mindset (remember when it was called attitude?), empowerment (now a synonym for delegation), and resilience (don’t get me started!) All of them transfer organisational responsibility for better leadership to the team member.
In time, they will be as discredited as learning styles and other vacuous and disproven theories that hang around like a bad smell.
Prediction three: Despite providers releasing a market-wide tsunami of AI features and functionality in 2025, real adoption in corporate learning will be at a trickle rather than a biblical flood. And that’s a good thing.
David Perring, Chief Insights Officer of Fosway Group
This prediction was based on what L&D professionals told us in 2024, and so it’s no surprise that it was pretty accurate. When we wrote it, our data indicated that supplier roadmaps were crammed with AI. And true to form, our in-depth market analysis during 2025 shows just over 20% of predictable AI features were delivered in the past year. That’s quite a wave of innovation – and in that surge, the biggest traction for learning was AI content creation and skills, which is exactly what buyers told us in our Digital Learning Realities Research.
Looking ahead, skills and strategic workforce planning are the No 1 initiatives for HR investment in 2026. So, if you are a learning team not involved in that conversation – sharpen your elbows. It’s something that could be critical to saving your L&D budget and team for the next three to five years.
Prediction four: Leadership development will shift from leaders to systems
Dani Bacon and Garin Rouch, Consultants at Business Distinction Consulting
It’s a mixed picture. Many organisations still focus on isolated one-off training, but we’re seeing a real appetite for systemic approaches among our clients.
When people begin to notice the system around them, they can’t help but view leadership development differently. That awareness doesn’t need long programmes – small, deliberate actions like asking thoughtful coaching questions, designing short learning opportunities, or using reflective tools in meetings can all help shift collective thinking.
L&D teams often understand this instinctively, but working systemically can challenge organisational norms. Practitioners will need courage and confidence to question ‘how things are done’ in 2026.
Prediction five: Deep listening will be the most important skill to equip ALL employees with
Jackie Clifford, Director of Clarity Learning and Development
As 2025 has progressed, my belief that deep listening is a skill required by us all has not diminished. But is deep listening actually happening in our workplaces?
My experience suggests not. During this year, I’ve been working with many leaders and managers who tell me how pressured they and their teams are. They feel compelled to move from one thing to the next with little time to take a comfort break, let alone anything else. This indicates to me that we are yet to spend time on deep listening, and that we are likely to see the consequences in the months and years ahead as we experience challenges with employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity.
Prediction six: Skills-based learning will both fast-track priorities and tackle common painpoints for L&D
David James, L&D expert and Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning
Skills-based learning accelerated L&D priorities in 2025, helped by AI-powered skills mapping and performance-linked learning.
Yet data from ETHRWorld shows 58% of L&D leaders cite skill gaps and slow AI adoption as challenges. Meanwhile, according to Adobe, 65% of job seekers see AI skills as essential, yet 19% feel unprepared.
In 2026, the focus must be on application, embedding skills development directly into workflows to prove measurable business impact.
Prediction seven: L&D departments that lack an organisation-wide AI strategy will be pushed to the margins
Nigel Paine, L&D heavyweight and cohost of Learning Now TV
YES! There is some evidence that L&D teams that are engaged in transforming workflow are thriving, whereas those in L&D who are building and delivering courses without that holistic approach are struggling to make an impact.
This schism is nothing like as stark as I predicted, and traditional L&D stumbles forward. However, this transformation will come, albeit at a slower pace than I envisaged, despite the lightning speed of AI adoption across business.
Prediction eight: Accountability will shift from individuals to systems
Matt Somers, Founder & Managing Partner, Matt Somers – Coaching Skills Training
My prediction that accountability would move from individuals to systems has seen pockets of progress, but there is still a way to go. High-profile stories like the Post Office Horizon scandal have shown the dangers of misplaced blame, prompting wider conversations about structural failure over individual fault.
Yet many organisations still default to the “who messed up?” mindset and play the Blame Game. To move forward in 2026, L&D must help leaders reframe accountability as a shared outcome, not a personal failing. This can be achieved through better feedback loops and psychologically safe cultures.
Prediction nine: Skills England will make changes, but not anything revolutionary in 2025
Erica Farmer, Digital Learning & Apprenticeship Expert of Quantum Rise Talent Group Ltd
I was pretty much right! It takes time and effort to turn a tanker, and there’s not really a much bigger tanker than a UK government department. We had moves from Skills England into the Department of Education, a pull of level 7 apprenticeship funding, and various government ministers coming and going, but that’s about it.
We are seeing some changes in the relaxation of English and maths requirements in Apprenticeships for learners over the age of 19, a revised OFSTED inspection framework, and initial consultation in reducing the length of some apprenticeship programmes. But there’s nothing here that apprentices or their employers will benefit from in the near future.
Prediction 10: Those able to anticipate continual change will be better equipped to take advantage of it
Laura Overton, Founder, of Learning Changemakers,
I’m pleased to say that the latest research from Fosway shows that some are making headway. L&D’s top priorities this year have shifted from responding to compliance requests to improving skills and preparing their organisations for an AI future. However, the same study also showed that dissatisfaction with learning platforms jumped up by 20%, with the gap between positive and negative experiences growing. At the end of 2025, could it be that L&D practitioners are better able to anticipate the needs of their customers than their platform vendors?
Prediction 11: 2025 will prove a crucible for DEI, testing organisational integrity
Lior Locher and Dr Christy Allen, Learning consultants at NIIT
Our prediction proved largely accurate. We’d have preferred to be wrong. The crucible intensified beyond expectations. Major corporations scaled back DEI programmes amid pressure, with 53% of Fortune 100 companies materially adjusting their messaging.
Some organisations reframed rather than retreated. Skills-based hiring emerged as the predicted pathway forward, while major players in retail, banking, and tech maintained commitments tied to business outcomes.
For 2026, focus on what it does, not what it’s called. This means embedding inclusive leadership capabilities into core development programmes, instead of standalone compliance training. It also means building evidence-based learning journeys that focus on behavioural change that matters to the business.
Reflect on your own 2025 forecasting
For the most part, these end-of-year reflections suggest that L&D is heading in the right direction – albeit slightly slower than anticipated. Keep up the good work and take a moment to reflect: did your 2025 prediction come to fruition?
