Digital Learning Realities 2026: AI Value
Fosway Group has revealed the headline insights from its annual Digital Learning Realities research, in association with Learning Technologies, the world’s leading workplace learning tech event.
Now in its 12th year, the research explores how L&D teams are meeting the challenges of a fast-changing business and tech landscape.
A message to L&D teams – it’s time to grasp AI’s wider transformational potential. There remains a fixation on content creation, but we see AI’s influence now embedded across finance, operations and HR, to the point that it is redrawing the map of stakeholder relationships throughout the business. Now is the time to fully leverage its power.
This year, Fosway’s unique and sought-after infographics are split into three clusters: L&D Strategy and Resourcing, AI Value, and Ecosystem and Learning Experience.
Beneath is the second cluster of three: AI Value
View cluster 1: Strategy and Resourcing
Learning leaders can explore the very latest analysis focusing on ‘Expectations and Drivers of AI Use’, ‘AI Impact on L&D Budgets and Investment’, ‘Current and Emerging AI Adoption’ and ‘AI Effectiveness and Cost Opportunities’.
AI Expectations and Drivers
Expectations for the impact of AI on L&D teams surges to new heights
AI is now the dominant disruptor for everyone involved in learning. AI is mainstream and the momentum behind it accelerating, even if the application of AI is emerging and vendors roadmaps are still evolving and the evidence of outcomes can be patchy.
AI Impact on Budgets
The momentum behind AI content authoring continues to soar.
Whilst the momentum for investing in AI-enabled content authoring is repeated this year, there are interesting nuances in the 2026 results that make it different from last year. 63% are expecting their investment in AI content authoring to grow, and the impact of that investment appears to be coming at a cost.
Current and Emerging AI Adoption
AI use has accelerated significantly for media generation.
The acceleration of AI in media generation, translation and learning authoring is significant. The proliferation of these tools is a feature of how this part of the learning technology space is evolving outside of traditional learning platform and learning solution providers.
AI Effectiveness
Over half of L&D teams think half of what they do today could be replaced by AI and still be effective.
L&D teams need to have some serious conversations about their future role and their value proposition to their organisation – if they are to maintain anything approaching their existing resourcing levels.
As part of 30 years of Fosway, we have delved even deeper into the realities of corporate learning than ever before. The old rules are being ripped up. The nature of learning teams is going through massive shifts. So much is changing; the solution sets that make learning and development effective, the priorities for learning, next gen learning team skills, what makes a learning tech ecosystem work and what’s now needed in the modern learning experience.
Learning teams are reaching huge moments of transformation powered by an emerging landscape of AI. And this year’s Digital Learning Realities research provides a forensic view of it all. It’s what makes us the leading advisors for corporate learning. Because at a time of huge hype and uncertainty, it’s our rich insights that help us navigate you to the best choices.
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