Gartner Survey Shows 85% of Learning and Development Leaders Agree There Will Be a Surge in Skills Development Needs Due to AI and Digital Trends in Next 3 Years

30 October 2024 — As digital and AI trends continue to disrupt work, 85% of learning and development (L&D) leaders agreed that the need for skills development will significantly increase, according to Gartner, Inc. 

According to a June 2024 Gartner survey of 330 L&D leaders, 93% agreed that their role is to ensure their workforce has the time and resources to continuously learn.

"In the context of today's AI fueled accelerated disruption, many business leaders feel learning is too slow to respond to the volume, variety and velocity of skills needs," said Chantal Steen, Senior Director, Global Advisory, in the Gartner HR practice. "L&D must become more agile to respond to changes faster and deliver learning more rapidly and more cost effectively." 

To help champion a new era of learning, Gartner has created the AI-Era Learning Manifesto (see Figure 1). The Manifesto includes a set of values that will help unite all stakeholders and a set of principles to guide learning delivery.

Figure 1: The AI-Era Learning Manifesto 

According to the Gartner Survey, enterprises that deliver the best business outcomes from their learning use a set of agile learning practices at least 1.5 times more than other enterprises. L&D leaders should follow these three recommendations to create a more agile learning environment:

Connect Learning and Earning to Target Business and Talent Outcomes
Outcome-driven learning benefits both the enterprise and its employees by connecting the learning activities with realising target outcomes. 

"For organisations, learning produces the skills critical for adapting to change and executing a competitive strategy, which in turn maximises earning outcomes," explained Steen. "The benefit of learning for employees is growing their skills to perform well amid change and advance their value, career and earning potential." 

Leaders can co-create narratives with their teams to help shift their view of learning, so they see learning as a vital part of their work that achieves tangible results, rather than time away from work that drains productivity. 

Adopt Agile Learning Values to Unite all Stakeholders
Leaders can unite their teams' mindsets around effective learning practices by adopting the five values in Gartner's AI-Era Learning Manifesto: 

1. Business outcomes over knowledge gained
2. Growth mindset over current skill set
3. Skills-based agility over role-based stability
4. Embedded learning over "off-the-job" training
5. Community compounding over individual learning

By embracing learning values, employees will become more energised and learning will be more effective, driving key business outcomes. 

Harness Agile Learning Principles to Speed and Scale Impact
L&D leaders can revitalise learning programs by combining emerging capabilities with proven methods - such as experiential and social learning - that provide learners the opportunity to apply their new skills on the job. 

The delivery of skills development programs is critical. Using the AI-Era Learning Manifesto as a guide, leaders can maximise learning efficacy when designing and delivering new training. By leveraging these principles, organisations will see more employee-led growth, which will better drive outcomes at speed and scale in this AI era. 

About the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference
The Gartner ReimagineHR Conference is the premier event for CHROs and HR leaders to learn from the latest research and Gartner experts covering talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, total rewards, talent analytics, and HR technology. Gartner ReimagineHR is taking place October 28-30 in Florida and December 4-5 in Sydney. Follow news and updates from these events on X using #GartnerHR.

About the Gartner HR Practice
The Gartner HR practice brings together the best relevant content approaches across Gartner to offer individual decision makers strategic business advice on the mission-critical priorities that cut across the HR function. 

Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/products/gartner-for-hr. Follow news and updates from the Gartner HR practice on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerHR. Members of the media can find additional information and insights in the Gartner HR Newsroom.

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organisation's mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.