How AI will transform learning: As skills gap closes, confidence gap grows

2025 marked a historic turning point for corporate learning, as it was the year learning and transformation finally converged. “For the first time, companies stopped treating learning, talent, and technology as separate conversations,” David Blake, CEO and Co-founder of Degreed, explains. “They became one shared agenda.” He looks at how AI will transform learning in 2026…

In 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) moved decisively from pilot to production. Organisations automated content creation, personalized development, and embedded learning into the flow of daily work. Skills also shifted from taxonomy projects to practical tools powering hiring, mobility, and workforce planning. And in an unprecedented shift, HR, IT, L&D, and business leaders aligned around a unified transformation strategy, driven by the momentum of AI and the realization that no single team could move fast enough alone.

Even micro learning experienced a renaissance, evolving from “snackable content” into a strategic mechanism for keeping pace with rapid change across frontline, technical, and leadership roles. As David puts it, “The question has shifted from ‘Should we?’ to ‘How fast can we?’ – and that speed will define 2026.”

How AI will change learning: making human transformation a budget line

Looking ahead, he predicts the arrival of agentic AI inside learning systems, where AI doesn’t just generate content but takes action – enrolling teams, orchestrating workflows, and mapping skills to real work. Companies will also start measuring transformation itself, demanding evidence that investments in AI, learning, and capability-building translate into performance outcomes. And in a major shift, the human side of transformation – change readiness, resilience, leadership – will finally become a budget line.

Another defining trend: learning and operations will converge. “Learning won’t sit on the side of work,” David says. “It will be woven directly into productivity tools – CRMs, engineering platforms, ticketing systems, and frontline scheduling.”

His most surprising prediction? “The biggest skill gap in 2026 won’t be capability, it will be confidence,” he notes. “AI will dramatically expand what people can do. But many won’t believe they can do it. Companies that close the confidence gap through coaching, micro learning, and real practice will outperform everyone else.”

What are the biggest lessons from 2025?

David is clear on the biggest lessons from 2025: change moves faster than people unless you invest in them; skills have become the currency of the modern enterprise; AI is upgrading – not replacing – learning teams; and simplicity beats stack sprawl every time. Ultimately, “Transformation is a human story. Technology may spark it, but people make the change real.”

Here are his top 5 predictions for learning in 2026:

1. Agentic AI becomes the new learning co-worker

“AI will move from generating content to taking real action – enrolling teams, triggering workflows, mapping skills needs to work, and automating nudges that drive behavior change.”

2. Transformation finally gets measured

“Companies will demand hard evidence that learning, skills, and AI investments are moving the needle. Expect diagnostics, benchmarks, maturity models, and ROI frameworks to become standard operating tools.”

3. The human side of transformation becomes a budget line

“Organizations will invest directly in change readiness, resilience, and leadership development. AI adoption will stall without human capability, confidence, and trust to support it.”

4. Learning and operations fully converge

“Learning will integrate directly into productivity systems – ticketing, CRM, engineering tools, frontline scheduling – so development happens in the real flow of work, not in a separate platform.”

5. Confidence becomes the most critical skill gap

“AI will dramatically expand human capability, but belief in that capability won’t automatically follow. Companies that close the confidence gap through coaching, practice, and micro learning will outperform those that focus solely on skill training.”

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