The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook. This week: Beyond AI readiness, noise is making workers ill, AI-driven job cuts accelerate, insider fraud rises, cyber hiring stalls, BYO AI spreads, manager engagement dips, coaching booms, and CIPD Festival of Work 2026 opens.
Why AI readiness training fails
In its 2026 AI Readiness Gap report, Docebo found that 85% of employees say they can’t apply the AI training they’ve received to their day-to-day jobs, despite AI literacy and applied skills ranking as the top priority for both employees and learning leaders over the next 12 to 18 months.
Docebo, a learning platform company, also found that 56% of workers are so overwhelmed by what they call “pre-AI” manual tasks that they don’t have time to learn the tools that are designed to save them time. In addition, 78% of respondents say that learning takes place outside the tools they actually use, like Slack or Salesforce, which means that AI training is a distraction instead of a driver of return on investment.
Geopolitics tops the CEO Agenda as leaders tighten focus on profitability, AI and strategic deals
CEOs are recalibrating growth strategies, putting financial returns and execution discipline ahead of expanding fast.
- Discipline is strengthening ambition as CEOs are tightening execution and investment while staying focused on long-term growth
- Political risk directly shapes operations, supply chains and investment strategies and geopolitics is now embedded in business decisions
- The focus on AI is shifting from adoption to generating value, therefore the advantage will depend on how well AI is measured against performance
Employers say they struggle to find workers with the right AI skillset
53% of employers said their main challenge was finding graduates with the right AI skills, according to new research from Pearson and Amazon Web Services. The report found that 78% of higher education leaders said they believed they were meeting employer expectations, but only 28% of employers said universities were keeping up with AI‑driven change.
Meanwhile, a scant 14% of current graduates said they had achieved a high level of proficiency when it came to applying AI tools in a professional setting. Although 64% said they frequently used AI for core academics, only 34% said they felt confident that their use was compliant with institutional policies.
AI in learning report: How L&D leaders can turn AI into business impact
A report from Absorb LMS examines where AI in learning stands today, what it should look like, why you can’t afford to wait to implement it, and how to get started. Here are the key takeaways from their survey:
- Goals are misaligned. 25% of respondents say personalization is the top AI goal, while <4% prioritize business performance. Translation: executives ask for ROI; L&D optimizes UX.
- L&D is under-represented. Only 22% of teams are in AI strategy discussions. Ethical readiness is low at 15%.
- The readiness gap is real. While 73% of L&D professionals use AI for basic tasks like drafting and ideation, only 28% feel confident integrating it into real learning workflows without quality degradation.
Noisy offices are making workers sick – and employers are doing little about it
New research from Oscar Acoustics, Great Britain’s leading specialists in architectural acoustic finishes, reveals that noise is causing stress, illness and lost productivity across the workforce. The survey, which polled 2,000 UK office workers, found that nearly a quarter (24%) have taken time off due to noise-related stress, highlighting the real-world impact of poor workplace environments. Half of those surveyed (50%) suffer from headaches or migraines, while 62% report tiredness and fatigue as a direct result of their noisy workspace. Despite this, employers are failing to address the problem.
AI job cuts: What HR leaders wish they knew first
In the last year, British companies reported that artificial intelligence had driven net job losses down 8%. Thousands of workers have found themselves out of work as companies rush to replace human roles with intelligence that promises to work faster, cheaper, and without lunch breaks.
British telecoms agent BT became a poster child of the movement, announcing plans to cut up to 55,000 jobs by the end of this decade, with around 10,000 of those roles handed directly to AI. In fact, a CIPD survey found that one in six companies expect AI to shrink their workforce, with desk-based, junior managerial, and administrative roles most at risk.
One in eight workers (13%) admit to selling company logins, Cifas research reveals
New findings from the UK’s fraud prevention service, Cifas, reveal a worrying shift in attitudes towards insider‑enabled fraud, with 13% of employees saying they have either sold their company login details to a former colleague, or know someone who has, in the past 12 months.
- 13% of respondents say it is justifiable to sell access to an ex-colleague
- Insider risk increasingly shaped by culture, not just controls
- Training and access governance critical to reducing internal fraud exposure
Fortinet report reveals cybersecurity hiring stalls as nearly half of IT leaders face corporate pushback
Fortinet®, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, released the 2026 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report, revealing the emerging and persistent challenges organisations face as they grapple with ongoing cybersecurity skill shortages and the ever-evolving threat landscape. The global survey’s key findings include:
- The lack of cybersecurity skills—stemming in part from insufficient investment in cybersecurity talent—remains a top cause of devastating security breaches
- Although cyber defenders are effectively leveraging AI-powered tools, upskilling and reskilling are necessary to fully reap the benefits from these advanced technologies
- Despite gaps in investment, intentional efforts are being made to attract and retain top-tier cybersecurity talent
53% of your workforce has already upgraded itself but not necessarily with the AI tools you know about
New research reveals the rise of “Bring Your Own AI” and the growing gap between employee demand and organisational readiness. More than half of UK workers are already using personal AI tools and informal workarounds to improve how they work, rising to 75% among 25–34-year-olds.
But this employee-led demand for AI is creating a new leadership dilemma. The more organisations hesitate over enterprise AI because of unclear use cases, limited guardrails, data trust, risk or compliance concerns, the more employees may turn to unmanaged tools to get work done.
Manager engagement is slipping — and affecting AI use, Gallup finds
Global employee engagement dropped for the second consecutive year, declining from a peak of 23% in 2022 to 20% in 2025, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report.
Sinking engagement among managers is driving the downturn, the report said. Between 2022 and 2025, manager engagement dropped nine points, from 31% to 22%, Gallup’s research found. Nonmanager engagement stayed low but constant, dipping from 20% in 2022, to 18% in 2023 and 2024, then slightly rebounding to 19% in 2025.
Despite the global downturn, engagement in the U.S. and Canada held steady and remained among the highest, according to the report.
Global coaching industry surpasses $5.34 billion US as emerging markets drive growth
The coaching industry contributed an estimated $5.34 billion US to the global economy over the past year, according to the International Coaching Federation’s (ICF) Global Coaching Study 2025, marking a 17% increase on the 2023 figure.
The report also points to continued expansion across the industry. The number of coach practitioners has risen by 13% from 2023, reaching a record 122,974, with 90% of coaches serving active clients.
The CIPD’s Festival of Work 2026 to feature keynotes from Alice Roberts, Diana Osagie, Richard Osman, and Tim Harford
The Festival of Work 2026 is open for registration and has announced the speakers, exhibitors, and interactive feature activities that will be running during the two-day event, supporting over 12,000 attendees in shaping thriving, productive and future-ready organisations. This year’s festival will showcase the latest developments in leadership, development, employee experience, tech innovations, wellbeing, and practical solutions in the people management space.
The event will feature engaging keynotes from Professor Alice Roberts (Biological Anthropologist, Author and Broadcaster), Diana Osagie (founder of Courageous Leadership, leadership coach, trainer, and author), Richard Osman OBE (TV presenter, producer, and bestselling author), and Tim Harford OBE (Financial Times’ undercover economist and presenter). The event also marks the final conference address from the CIPD’s chief executive Peter Cheese, ahead of his retirement at the end of June 2026.
Learning News Bulletin
A bite-sized round-up of popular stories on Learning News presented by Rob Clarke: Digital Learning Market; Model Context Protocol; L&D Working Conditions; Evidence Informed Practice Conference Preview; Plus all the headlines from Learning News.
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