The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook. This week: AI spending, workforce readiness, regulation and management dominate, alongside hybrid work, caregiving pressures and resilience skills. Discover why organisations must rethink processes, training, leadership and support as technology reshapes working life at speed.
Former Training Journal Editor Debbie Carter dies aged 69
Training Journal remembers Debbie Carter, whose five-decade career shaped the publication, strengthened the L&D profession and opened doors for younger talent.
Forthright, principled and joyful, she was an editor, mentor, disability advocate and friend whose influence, generosity and commitment will continue to inspire the learning community for years to come.
Debbie Carter: A voice in learning
Debbie Carter’s editorials, research, events and leadership reveal a distinctive voice in learning and development: commercially aware, people-centred, curious and unafraid of change.
Drawing on Debbie’s published writing and memories of working alongside her, Jo Cook reflects on the values, humour and insight that shaped her lasting influence across TJ.
LearnUpon’s Latest Research Reveals a Strategic Shift in L&D: The Rise of the “Learning Architect”
LearnUpon unveiled its latest flagship research report, “The Agentic L&D Report: How the Top 12% Are Moving from Admins to Architects.” Grounded in direct insights from 1,320 learning professionals across the US and UK, the study uncovers an inspiring evolution in corporate learning. Rather than sidelining human ingenuity, the rise of agentic tools is helping L&D professionals step out from behind platform logistics, reclaim their bandwidth, and lead as strategic Learning Architects who drive real business growth and impact.
But a profound strategy divide has emerged. While 89% of learning leaders actively use AI today, LearnUpon reports that most teams remain caught in ad-hoc experimentation and administrative friction—spending valuable time navigating the “Implementation Tax” of manual edits, administrative overhead, and unaligned workflows.
Great Minds on Learning returns for season eight as Learning Hack announces autumn line-up
Great Minds on Learning returns on 3 August for its eighth season, exploring how people learn far beyond the workplace — from sport and music to writing and dog training. The Learning Hack, ranked in the top 5% of podcasts globally, returns for season 16 in September. Both on all platforms.
Enterprises grapple with cost of AI scale
A new report found that one in four AI dollars is wasted, underscoring a growing reality for enterprises: The challenge is no longer just deploying AI; it’s controlling the cost of running it at scale. As AI spending spreads across the enterprise, managing costs is becoming as important as adopting the technology itself.
The finding comes from AI software development platform vendor Harness’ 2026 State of AI in FinOps report, based on a survey of 700 FinOps and engineering leaders. According to the report, more than half of organizations lack a dedicated owner for AI costs, making it difficult to track spending or identify waste.
95% of HR leaders report rising workloads as AI adds new pressure to workforce training and skills development
Three quarters of UK organisations still have no AI workforce plan despite growing demands on HR, learning and development teams. HR leaders and those responsible for workplace training are facing mounting pressure as artificial intelligence accelerates the pace of change across UK organisations, according to new research from The Coders Guild.
The findings reveal that HR and learning and development professionals are increasingly being asked to lead workforce transformation programmes, redesign recruitment processes, implement AI governance frameworks, upskill employees and improve productivity – often without the resources, training or workforce plans needed to support them.
Confidence in HR may hinge on moving beyond task-level AI use
Confidence in the HR function could crumble if HR leaders cannot move beyond task-level AI implementation, according to July 22 survey results.
HR professionals said they’re using AI for content creation (86%) brainstorming (83%) and information synthesis (81%). But they need to be moving toward agentic workflows to retain organizational trust, according to Culture Amp, which conducted the survey.
Europe’s new AI rules come into force
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act was initially passed in 2024, and, starting on Aug. 2, became enforceable in the member states, with new rules designed to increase transparency for those using AI systems.
The act effectively makes the EU the world’s foremost regulator of AI, although that in itself is likely to pose challenges for how the rules are enforced, with no precedents to follow and the tech evolving so rapidly.
Managers say they don’t feel ready to lead an AI-fluent workforce
Employers expect managers to lead a workforce that has expertise in artificial intelligence, but 43% of managers said they felt either poorly equipped to lead these employees or not equipped at all, according to a new survey from Indeed and market research company YouGov.
In addition, the research found a disparity between how employers want the workforce to implement AI and what workers feel comfortable actually doing with the technology. “Employer expectations even run two to three times ahead of worker comfort levels for more advanced tasks,” the report said.
Meanwhile, 52% of workers surveyed said they weren’t receiving the AI training they needed, and 25% said their concerns about AI accuracy, ethics and data privacy were the most significant reasons they weren’t upskilling in AI.
Why manager training may be the key to AI integration
Without effective managers, companies may have a hard time seeing the gains that they expect from AI investments. Only 3% of leaders surveyed by ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions said their leaders are “highly prepared” to lead amid AI adoption, and 17% said their organisations had “advanced” or “transformational” workforce readiness for AI workflows.
AI skills gaps haunt organizations overall; many workers simply do not know how to use AI at all, and that could be the fault of employers, per a Forrester analysis published in March.
IT isn’t holding AI back, your business processes are
Most CIOs and other IT leaders are confident in their teams’ ability to meet the coming AI challenges, but many believe business operating models and processes need an overhaul.
More than 80% of senior IT executives surveyed for the 2026 Global Leadership Technology Study from Deloitte are confident in their organisations’ ability to deploy and govern AI capabilities at scale. However, 75% think their operating models and processes must change in the next 12 to 18 months to drive greater value.
Employers see benefits of hybrid work as workers accept tradeoffs for greater flexibility
In late 2024, eight in 10 CEOs believed that most workers would be back in the physical workplace in the next three years, 17% envisioned a world where most roles were hybrid and only 4% expected workers to be remote. By contrast, six in 10 workers surveyed believed a hybrid model will become more common than other models.
“The truth is, most organisations today are somewhere in the middle,” according to a report from the HR Executive Board. “88% of U.S. employers provide at least some hybrid work options. Employees are also on board with hybrid work: Six in 10 employees with remote-capable jobs want a hybrid work arrangement, and more than half of current job seekers also prefer a hybrid role.”
The sandwich generation at work: New data on the hidden cost of caregiving
A growing share of the workforce is now part of the “sandwich generation”—the cohort of people caring for both aging parents and children. Sparrow surveyed hundreds of U.S. caregivers, representing a population of roughly 80 million Americans, to understand what these workers are going through. The results reveal a workforce under strain, but also many opportunities for employers to support them.
- Burnout is widespread, and it’s costing companies talent. 83% say caregiving affects their wellbeing, and 30% have avoided new projects or promotions as a result
- Presenteeism is the hidden cost. 55% of caregivers haven’t taken time off when they needed it, citing financial concerns or fear of career impact. The result: reduced hours, missed deadlines, and decisions made under cognitive depletion
- The impact isn’t evenly distributed. 54% of women provide regular care for an aging relative, compared to 27% of men
Senior officials asked to upskill on resilience competencies
Senior officials will be increasingly required to demonstrate an ability to anticipate, prepare for and recover from crises under new standards launched by the UK Resilience Academy.
The UK Resilience Academy, which is part of the Cabinet Office, has published the new National Occupational Standards for Resilience and Emergencies, which introduce a dedicated focus on strategic resilience leadership.
