From administrative task to strategic seat
Eigeland said Go1’s own research had identified what looks, on the surface, like a contradiction: rising confidence in L&D teams alongside growing demand from other departments to be part of L&D’s decision-making.
“You have an increase in confidence in L&D, and you have increasing complexity combined with a longer buying cycle for upskilling and capability-enhancing tools,” said Eigeland.
The two trends work together. Two years ago, he said, L&D was still largely administrative – functional leaders would tell L&D what to train staff on, and L&D would source and run the sessions. But that has changed.
“There’s been a broader recognition that L&D is not just that – it is actually workforce capability improvement,” he said, adding that this shift has let L&D “elevate more to the strategic level, where they’ve been stuck a bit at the administrative level.”
Culture, not just tools, drives adoption
At SunRice, Garnett said the company is still in the early stages of its AI journey but has deliberately anchored it in culture rather than technology. The business has rolled out a tiered AI literacy program, starting with one-to-one coaching for the executive team through learning partner Quantium, before cascading to senior leaders and, from August, the broader workforce via a program built with a Microsoft learning partner.