The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook. This week: From hidden workplace stress to L&D’s shifting purpose in AI-first organisations, plus a worrying dip in manager engagement. Also: sci-fi’s tech legacy podcast, a CS enrolment slowdown, brain plasticity, and over-50s unemployment issues.
Global study finds widening gap between AI ambition and workforce readiness
A global Adecco Group study of 2,000 c-suite executives across 13 countries finds that organisations are accelerating AI adoption, but many lack the leadership clarity, workforce trust and capability-building needed to turn adoption into measurable results. Respondents oversee more than 8.6 million workers, offering a senior leadership view on how AI is reshaping strategy, skills and organizational readiness.
- 45% of leaders expect AI agents in workflows within a year; only 30% of workers say the same
- Just 22% of leaders are highly confident their organisations are developing future-ready capabilities within the workforce
- Only 36% of leaders say their talent strategy clearly demonstrates that AI will create opportunities for workers and only 39% are involving employees directly in job redesign
Business leaders still primarily use AI for simple tasks, study from General Assembly and EZRA Finds
A new survey of more than 500 U.S. and U.K. business leaders found that while they are increasingly confident in their own AI skills, the most common use cases of the technology at the leadership level remain simple tasks like searching for information (69%), summarising documents (68%) and drafting emails (58%).
Strategic applications such as scenario planning (27%), organizational design (27%) and financial modelling (28%) lag far behind. The research was conducted by General Assembly, a global leader in practical AI skills training, in collaboration with EZRA, a leading global coaching and learning provider, both LHH brands.
The new career currency: AI-fluent professionals secure promotions 3.5x faster in the “Age of Augmentation”
New Randstad data shows the combination of AI fluency and uniquely human capabilities – such as emotional intelligence and creativity – are acting as powerful accelerators for career growth, allowing professionals to leapfrog into senior roles.
- Credentials over seniority: Verified AI certifications are disrupting career pathways, enabling professionals to secure promotions up to 3.5x faster and entry-level talent to command 25% salary premiums.
- Human capabilities surge: As routine tasks are automated, demand for uniquely human capabilities has skyrocketed, with emotional intelligence and creativity requirements up 173% and 168% respectively.
- The AI integration gap: Despite AI job postings tripling in early 2026, a global shortage of operational leadership and specialized AI integration talent is creating a bottleneck for enterprise-wide adoption.
UK employment costs have risen nearly 10% in a year
The cost of employing someone in the UK has risen by almost 10% (9.6%) in the past year, new YouGov data commissioned by Employment Hero shows. As higher salaries, rising National Insurance Contributions and growing compliance demands squeeze businesses from all directions, the figures – drawn from a YouGov survey of more than 1,000 UK business leaders – paint a picture of an employment landscape that has shifted considerably in a short space of time.
The silent stress epidemic
Allowing stress to go undiscussed can have significant implications for both employees and organisations. Indeed, survey participants reported serious effects on work:
- 63.2% have considered leaving their job due to stress
- 52.6% have made mistakes at work
- 32.9% clashed with team members
- 27.8% called in sick
- 27.5% missed deadlines
The survey establishes that employees are turning to partners instead of managers. But why is that the case? The answers from the 553 participants highlight a broader cultural problem: psychological safety at work just isn’t enough.
What is L&D’s role when AI is already part of work, information and capability?
That’s the question Donald H Taylor and Egle Vinauskaite aim to answer in their latest report, the fifth in their AI in L&D series. L&D’s traditional rationale rested on content. Creating it took time and expertise and nobody else could do it well. Today, AI can generate content at speed – increasingly to a good enough standard – and business units use it outside of L&D. The scarcity that underpinned the content-focused model is disappearing.
Managers are becoming less engaged at work – does this signal a deeper crisis?
Last year engagement fell for only the second time since 2009, from 23% to 21%, according to the Gallup ‘s latest report into the global workforce. The last sustained fall was due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, again a two-point drop from 22% to 20%. This latest dip, the report suggests, has cost businesses a collective $438 billion in productivity losses.
A new podcast from the Learning Hack explores how science fiction made the modern world
A new podcast explores how science fiction — as a body of stories, ideas and provocations — shaped the technologies we live with today.
The Tech Imaginarium, hosted by L&D broadcaster John Helmer with co-host and subject expert Ezri Carlebach, takes its first season on a six-episode tour through the ideas, inventions and imaginings that turned speculative fiction into technological reality. From Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; from Hugo Gernsback’s pulp dreams to artificial intelligence — the series argues that science, technology and imagination are constantly feeding each other.
Computer science boom peaks as students rethink tech careers
The long-running surge in computer science enrolments in US universities appears to have peaked, as students respond to weaker technology hiring, narrowing salary advantages and uncertainty over AI’s impact on entry-level coding jobs.
New analysis of student profile data from Revelio Labs suggests the class of 2026 will mark the high point for computer science participation before enrolments begin to fall among younger cohorts. At the same time, subjects including mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and finance are gaining momentum.
25 people learned to fly with virtual wings. Here’s how the brain changed
After training to use virtual wings, people’s brains responded to wings more similarly to how they respond to real limbs, making wings seem more like body parts, researchers report Cell Reports.
“This is an intriguing study that nicely demonstrates how plastic the brain is,” says cognitive neuroscientist Jane Aspell of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England.
Rise in over-50s unemployment sparks concern over long-term impact of UK workforce
Nearly one million UK workers aged 50 and over are now struggling to secure employment, with new labour market data showing a 22% rise in joblessness among over-50s since 2023.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey, 917,000 people aged 50 to 66 are currently unable to find a job. The figure rises to 996,743 when including those aged 66 to 70, many of whom remain keen to work despite being eligible for the state pension.
Don’t discount human skills or older workers in AI upskilling, expert warns
Workforce leaders talk about the importance of human skills in the face of the artificial intelligence gold rush, but what does that mean? Andy Nelesen, head of solutions and market insights at behavioural assessment company SHL, told HR Dive to think of the relation between tech skills (the AI element) and strategic judgment skills (the human element) like a tree.
The leaves, which are prone to falling off the tree and regenerating, are what Nelesen and SHL call “perishable skills.” These tend to be tied to tasks done in specific software, like Microsoft Office. “Those are a lot of the skills that might be replaced by AI,” Nelesen said.
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