Right now, AI is handing chief learning officers (CLOs) an opportunity they have long been waiting for.
As AI embeds itself in daily workflows, it is not just changing what people need to learn, but it is transforming how and when they learn.
Rather than pulling employees away from their work to build skills in isolation, learning can now be delivered at the precise moment it is needed, in the context where it will actually be applied.
This represents a breakthrough for corporate learning leaders and practitioners.
The So What
“Learning and development (L&D) is having an existential moment,” says Patrick Erker, a partner at BCG U, which delivers upskilling solutions. “If people have a question about anything—a research topic, how to learn a new skill, how to deliver effective feedback—they go to their preferred AI tool. That puts pressure on traditional L&D, because people are now doing that learning within their daily workflow.”
This is an opportunity for leaders who recognize this disruption as a long overdue paradigm shift rather than a threat.
“For years, L&D has been trying to get out of the classroom and into the workflow,” says Elizabeth Lyle, managing director and partner at BCG, who leads BCG U in North America. “AI has done that for them. That’s not a threat, that’s a gift. The opportunity now is to harness that shift and reimagine L&D as the high impact enabler that today’s transformations really need.”
Upskilling workforces to meet strategic challenges and opportunities is a top investment priority for C-suites, yet the barriers to transformative upskilling have been consistent. There is limited appetite to take people away from their work and low tolerance by employees for learning that feels disconnected from the job. Until now, those constraints were difficult to overcome.
AI doesn’t simply lead to faster content creation, at-scale coaching, or more personalized learning, explains BCG U’s Laura Dermody. Rather, it makes applied learning the crux of the skill-building journey.
For example, a product manager could receive tailored content directly in their workflow tools to guide them through building a working prototype, rather than watching videos on a static training platform.
It also allows learning facilitators to enable and monitor the progression of new skills in the context of carrying out the job.
Now What
The organizations that will look back on this moment as a positive turning point are those whose CLOs chose to employ AI as the mechanism for learning as well as for organizational transformations.
For CLOs ready to lead that shift, five moves matter most:
- Stop supporting the Applied AI agenda. Co-own it. Technology transformation is typically owned by the CTO and CIO, but it will not deliver without learning, people, and change at its core. The CLO's role is not to enable someone else's transformation but to shape it from the start. Getting to the table early and establishing that capability-building is a precondition for ROI and how CLOs reclaim their seat as a strategic leader.
- Redesign how learning is delivered, not just what is taught. The opportunity Applied AI presents is not faster content creation; it is a fundamentally different learning model. CLOs who move beyond updating curricula and instead redesign learning to meet people in the flow of their work will be the ones who demonstrate real impact. This is the operational heart of the CLO's reinvention.
- Build the team that can deliver on the new mandate. The skills that defined great L&D in the past are not the ones that will define it going forward. As content creation gets commoditized, value shifts to AI fluency, solution architecture, and business partnership. CLOs who make a proactive, rigorous case for investing in their teams (and who bring those team members along as genuine partners in their reinvention) will be far better positioned to deliver on the broader mandate they are asking for.
- Deliver business results, not impressive tech. Anchoring every initiative to a specific capability the business needs, and measuring progress relentlessly, is both good practice and good politics. In a moment when AI ROI is under scrutiny across the C-suite, L&D has a real opportunity to be the proof point that gets it right.
- Be equal parts champion and skeptic. The CLOs who get this right will pursue what AI makes possible while asking the hard questions others may be too invested to ask. Are responsible AI guardrails in place? Does the team being asked to lead this transformation feels equipped rather than threatened by it? In a moment when most functional leaders are either all-in or standing still, holding both convictions at once is what makes a CLO credible.
“Applied AI does not signal the demise of L&D. For those willing to seize the opportunity, it is the beginning of something far more powerful,” Lyle says.
