In 2025, learning and development (L&D) is evolving rapidly. AI is driving the need for continuous upskilling and reskilling, presenting both challenges and opportunities.
Pair this with the expectations on L&D functions to be a strategic partner in key organisational decisions and there’s a lot to digest.
One continuing trend is the focus on people; employees should be central in planning and decision-making. The impact your L&D initiatives have on your learners and how they can use your learning platforms to develop themselves personally and professionally must be front and centre when considering every trend.
With this in mind, let’s explore four key corporate learning trends for 2025.
1. Rethinking compliance
Governance, Risk and Compliance Training remains a non-negotiable for all organisations, no matter the size or industry – which is why organisations must consider it a top priority. With regulatory updates and changes happening at a pace that can be difficult to keep up with, it often feels like organisations are on the back foot. Luckily, systems and technology can help make compliance far easier to keep a handle on.
However, compliance often carries a negative connotation – perceived as a dry, mandatory exercise. This can hinder engagement and make it difficult to motivate employees. To overcome this, organisations must strive to make compliance training exciting and engaging.
How to rethink compliance in 2025:
Personalise Learning: Tailor training to specific roles and industries to ensure relevance. Borrow a tactic from marketing and make sure the learner can see the relevance of the training for success in their job role.
Keeping up with compliance is a constant requirement, so it’s vital that L&D focus not only on providing the right type of training, but also on making it exciting and showcasing why it’s so important to get right.
Spark a joy for learning that goes beyond a tick-box exercise.
2. Prioritising upskilling and reskilling
No end of research showcases the value upskilling and reskilling have from both an organisational and personal development perspective. To remain competitive, organisations must continuously invest in employee learning and development across the employee lifecycle. And with good reason – continuous skills development can underpin many organisational goals:
- Future-proofing the workforce: Preparing employees for the future by developing in-demand skills
- Attracting and retaining top talent: Providing clear career paths and opportunities for skill development
- Improving organisational agility: Enabling employees to adapt quickly to new challenges and opportunities
How to prioritise upskilling and reskilling in 2025:
Provide targeted training: It may seem obvious but not everyone is considering their people and the specific roles they carry out when they are looking at assigning training. Personalised learning paths will ensure everyone has access to training that matters to them.
3. Driving engagement
Employee engagement is critical for successful learning and development. While L&D departments may invest in high-quality training content, it's crucial to ensure employees are willing and able to engage with it. Without employee engagement, even the best training programs will fail to deliver the desired return on investment. This is where L&D needs to create a top-down approach to learning.
How to drive engagement in 2025:
Meet employee expectations: Today's employees expect high-quality, user-friendly learning experiences similar to what they encounter in their personal lives. This necessitates a shift towards more engaging and personalised learning solutions.
By showcasing learning as an investment in employee growth and a core component of the company culture, L&D can create a more engaged learning environment and prove its value across the employee lifecycle.
AI can’t replace people – but it can help actualise people’s potential.
4. Leveraging AI
Artificial intelligence is certainly not a new corporate learning trend. But with its scope and potential continuing to grow, it's now more important than ever to embrace AI and work with it in the L&D space.
While expectations of AI’s contribution to learning are high, its adoption doesn’t currently match the hype. This needs to change in 2025 - and it can only be rolled out successfully with the help of L&D professionals paving the way. L&D professionals need to equip themselves with the knowledge to use AI to unlock their people’s potential, helping their workforce – and L&D themselves – do the best work of their lives.
How to leverage AI in 2025:
Don’t be afraid of its potential: You only get out as much as you put in, so by providing your learners with the right AI training to help them get the answers they need, you will reap the rewards and create a thriving workforce.
The opportunity to support the workforce through AI is huge. AI can’t replace people – but it can help actualise people’s potential.
Final thoughts on L&D trends in 2025
To get the most out of your L&D initiatives in 2025, you should consider how to use these current learning and development trends to your advantage. However, it also requires the right technology and tools to master compliance, prioritise upskilling, drive engagement and leverage AI successfully.
By using solutions like a robust Learning Management System and a professional development platform, you can empower your workforce to digest engaging content, track completion rates and help to create a culture of learning.
As previously discussed, you must also keep people at the heart of the learning experience. When you consider how your workforce wants to learn and provide seamless solutions which enable this, you can spark a joy for learning that goes beyond a tick-box exercise.
