4 major highlights from Learning Technologies 2025

Change is in the air for learning professionals! Nowhere was this more evident than at the 2025 Learning Technologies conference and expo, which took place in London on April 23rd and 24th. This much-anticipated event boasted 200 L&D seminars on learning trends and topics, over 200 exhibitors of best-in-class learning technologies—including Gomo's collaborative, cloud-based, and responsive eLearning authoring tool—and more than 11,000 L&D professionals in attendance.

We had the pleasure of attending this two-day event and listening to some of the best and brightest thought leaders in L&D share insights on how learning designers and other L&D practitioners can help their organizations achieve new levels of success.

Want to know why experts like Donald Taylor, Chair of Learning Technologies, and David Kelly, former CEO of The Learning Guild, think inevitable changes are on the horizon? Read on for their thoughts, along with three other key takeaways from the conference.

1) L&D is at a crossroads

If you're anything like our team here at Gomo, you'll have noticed that major changes have been brewing in L&D for the past couple of years. The shift to hybrid learning, changing expectations from our organizations due to economic conditions, and the unpredictable job market have steadily been increasing pressure on learning designers and other L&D professionals. These and other factors are urging us to reconsider our learning philosophies, our workflows, and how we approach our organizations' development goals. Now, with sophisticated generative AI in the mix, profound change is inevitable.

Donald Taylor’s opening Learning Technologies address perfectly encapsulated what many of us in L&D have been feeling for the past few years: We're entering an era of profound change. AI will radically alter how we approach learning and development at every level, and instructional designers must adapt.

David Kelly, former CEO of The Learning Guild, echoed this sentiment in the first keynote session of the conference, "Learning, Technology and Change." The question isn't if AI will change L&D, he said, but if we'll be able to change to keep up with it! David urged the audience to get better at asking the kinds of questions that will help them navigate technological changes in the industry.

The right questions can help you reframe challenges in terms of opportunities. Here are some of David's recommendations for questions to ask yourself or to use as discussion starters for getting a handle on the implications of AI or other new technologies:

How do I do what I do with AI?

AI has broad applications, but it's important to consider its daily impact on your role. How will the technology impact your processes and workflows? Take an honest look at your daily habits and try to identify opportunities where this technology will empower you to do what only you—with your unique experiences and skills—can do more efficiently or at a larger scale.

How does AI enhance my team’s learning programs?

There are lots of opportunities for emerging technologies to take learning programs to the next level and help your team work more efficiently. Gomo, for example, offers seamless AI integration. Just link your OpenAI account to Gomo and automatically generate course elements such as introductions and conclusions, translate entire courses in just a few clicks, and seamlessly review learning content to maintain high standards.

What makes my work uniquely human?

In an AI-saturated world, it makes sense to ask what benefits a human touch can bring to the role of learning expert or instructional designer. When AI is used as a tool for efficiency, you may discover new avenues by which you can help your organization offer more engaging and effective learning. At Gomo, we like to think of AI as a tool to take care of repetitive work, so instructional designers like you have more freedom to do what you do best—craft creative, compelling, and target-driven eLearning.

2) To prove impact, learning pros should be strategic collaborators first

Amidst change, one thing has stayed constant: organizations expect instructional designers and broader L&D teams to deliver measurable value. In fact, business impact may matter now more than ever. Organizations are under more and more pressure to demonstrate tangible value from any investment, and this includes learning. Tighter budgets in the current economic climate, changing workforce needs, and the impact of technologies may mean that you are under even more pressure to demonstrate ROI from the courses you create.

Kevin M. Yates, an L&D consultant who’s worked for brands including McDonald’s and Meta, understands this challenge. In his session, "Learning Evaluation," he encouraged L&D to identify the metrics that will prove business impact before undertaking any new training initiatives. But don't get learning and development tunnel vision! Valuable data for measuring impact may not be immediately obviously related to learning. The most salient insights won't necessarily be contained within an LMS or in learning surveys, for example. This is because stakeholders in other functions may not understand how positive learning outcomes will impact the business's overarching goals. Kevin quipped that L&D professionals can think of themselves as detectives searching for the most pertinent business impact metrics across teams and departments.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of designing new courses, consider collaborating with stakeholders across teams to learn about the metrics that will be most salient for their business functions. This will help you get a better understanding of the outcomes your courses need to achieve. Depending on the nature of your organization, these metrics may include:

• Customer satisfaction scores
• Sales targets reached
• Productivity or efficiency KPIs
• Individual performance scores
• Fulfillment targets reached
• Staff engagement

Ask the right questions across your business to ensure you know the metrics that matter. This will not only allow you to present yourself as a strategic partner who always keeps the organization’s interests top of mind, you'll also be able to create a more effective and goal-driven course.

The importance of strategic communication was echoed across the conference, including by Dani Johnson, co-founder and principal analyst at RedThread Research. In the keynote session, "Learning, Technology and Change–a New Roadmap for a New Era," she argued that L&D professionals need to think like business people first, and learning experts second. Ultimately, many business leaders or decision-makers will have the bottom line of the organization top of mind at all times. Use strategic communication to help stakeholders (regardless of function) understand how your courses will positively impact the business as a whole.

Daniel J. Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP, would agree. In his talk, "The Future of Work, AI and Humanity," Daniel stressed the importance of thinking strategically to ensure business impact from technological investments. He emphasized that, despite the rapid pace of change, L&D pros shouldn’t be passive. You can impact the success of your organization, especially if you take an active role in using powerful technology to drive business goals forward.

3) Mandatory training has been boring for too long

The importance of getting mandatory training right was echoed throughout the conference. Most learners will experience an organization's training for the first time when they complete their mandatory training. Leave a bad taste in their mouth, and your courses may never gain traction! As Donald Taylor put it in his opening address, "Mandatory training is the shop window of L&D—it’s how they judge what we do."

It's no small wonder then, that many conference attendees were particularly interested in mandatory learning. Despite its importance, mandatory training remains one of the most challenging aspects for any learning professional. Q&A sessions throughout the conference were peppered with questions about ensuring completion, tracking compliance figures, and corralling unwilling learners.

“How can I get learners to complete anything when it's so boring?” one attendee lamented. Luckily, Caroline McCarthy, Senior Manager of Learning and Change Design, and Jonathan Gray, Change and Design Manager—both from Lloyds Banking Group—addressed this very question in their session, “Mandatory Training.”

Jonathan and Caroline advised the audience to offer streamlined learning experiences that motivate learners to actively engage with compliance courses instead of avoiding them. Some of their top tips and tricks include:

• Offer choice: Always make training available on multiple device types. Laptops, in-office desktops, and work-approved tablets are great, but smartphone-enabled training will be a game-changer! Learners want to complete their training wherever they are. Gomo makes this easy—with responsive eLearning content that automatically works on any device, you never have to worry about manually restructuring layouts and screens.
• Less is more: If learners open their training and see a block of text or rows and rows of modules, they’re more likely to click off the content as soon as they open it. Jonathan advised being ruthless about brevity. “If it's not a legal requirement and if it isn't necessary for safety, remove it,” he said.
• Keep it to 20 minutes or less: Employees today tend to be very busy and feel like they’re under a lot of pressure, but when they know that training won't take them any more than 20 minutes, they're more likely to squeeze it in between meetings and deadlines.
  

They also encouraged learning professionals to get creative! Even though compliance training should be taken seriously, there's no reason that it should be boring. If you’re designing training to teach learners about access control to an office building, for example, you can consider bringing theoretical training to life by having a colleague ‘go undercover’ and try to sneak into a building unauthorized. These kinds of interactive activities can be great material to make your compliance learning and mandatory training memorable.

Joseph Devlin, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, would agree with that. In his session, "Learning and the Mind," he explored the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine when it comes to learning. Our bodies release dopamine when we experience something enjoyable, and it’s a signal for us to keep coming back to that activity. This is why making learning fun and engaging, even when it’s about a serious topic, can motivate employees to keep coming back to their mandatory training.

A panel session exploring compliance lead by L&D consultant, Andrew Jacobs, gave the audience a few great tips on bringing these principles to life.

Panelists mentioned that L&D practitioners often struggle with negative perceptions of eLearning programs. Staff associate eLearning with uninspiring, mandatory courses, a factor that deters engagement. The panelists encouraged the audience to experiment with new media to help make compliance training feel more compelling. Why not inject some life into mandatory training topics by delivering them with exciting new methods, like podcasts frontline workers could listen to wherever they are? Also, consider bringing your existing social media presence into the learning environment. That way, your learners can connect with your brand voice and feel at home across your organization's media landscape.

4) Yes, AI is everywhere (and isn’t going anywhere!)

Throughout all the varied and engaging topics covered at the conference, AI was touched upon again and again. The event was buzzing with both optimism and a hint of apprehension about the opportunities and potential pitfalls this technology represents. Every instructional designer will have a different approach to emerging technologies, but one thing's for sure: We must evolve our workflows, processes, and learning philosophies as technology changes, or we risk falling behind. As Professor Joseph Devlin put it in his talk about the mind, "AI is here to stay. The technology is not going anywhere. The question is, what will we do about it?"