A version of this post was originally published in Entrepreneur on February 1, 2022. I've been in the education business for decades as a senior lecturer, trainer and CEO. When people ask me about the biggest challenge that learners face, the first thing that comes to mind is that learners see training as something they "have to do." Now, let's think for a moment about this. How did we get here? Why aren't we talking about "want to do" or "happy to have the opportunity to do?"

We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. As organizations continue to migrate their workloads and shift to hybrid or remote work, cloud computing is growing at a rapid rate. Last week at the AWS Summit, according to Swami Sivasubramanian, the vice president of data, analytics and machine learning (ML) services at AWS, analysts project that between 5-15% of IT spend has moved to the cloud -- suggesting that organizations will continue to migrate even more of their workloads to the cloud in the future. The enterprise ecosystem is experiencing a disruption that's largely a result of more cloud-native applications coming to the scene. More companies are embracing a mix of both corporate devices and bring-your-own-device strategies.

AI-based learning is a game-changing approach to corporate learning because it makes an elevated risk environment safe while also adding insight, relevancy, and personalization to the learning experience. Aside from making learning more interactive, AI enables behavior to be changed via development and knowledge. The research conducted by the IE's Center for Corporate Learning Innovation, on the other hand, highlights the obstacles of AI-based learning. In comparison to conventional corporate learning, 41 percent of chief learning officers worry about a lack of methodology and poor technical infrastructure. For a long time, corporate training has been centered on older LMSs (Learning Management Systems) that have quite straightforward functions.

In December 2019, I began work on my eBook and this article on eLearning trends in 2020. This is the ninth in a series of articles and eBooks on eLearning trends since 2017. Here is my list of eLearning trends in 2020. I believe all of these will be an integral part of workplace learning in the near future. Given the large number of trends, I have logically grouped them into 3 sections.

The corporate training market is over $200 billion around the world[1] and it's going through a revolution. While we often think of training as programs or courses, a new paradigm has arrived, one I call "Learning in the Flow of Work." The corporate training industry has been around for decades and it has always been impacted by new technology. As the following chart shows, over the last 20 years we've been through four evolutions, each driven by technological and economic change. In the 1970s and 1980s, when I started my career, we learned in classrooms. The technology was slide projectors and "foils" (plastic laminated slides).

At the same time, L&D professionals are rightly wondering whether they'll soon be automated out of existence. After all, Google and YouTube are the de facto training departments for many employees: they're ubiquitous, free, and packed with seemingly limitless content. But more sophisticated technology is on the rise, too. For example, AI can determine what someone needs to learn based on their performance data and career stage, then push content to them as they need it. This leaves many corporate trainers to stake their own value on curation, controlling the quality and consistency of training resources–but that's already shrinking territory for L&D experts to stake their value on.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is neither friend nor foe – It's both! This was the feedback received following a high level panel discussion held during the Science Forum South Africa (#SFSA2017) in Tshwane, were youth members from various African states exchanged their views and ideals as to how best they, business and government need to approach the digital age. "There is a paralysing fear that jobs will be taken away and humans will become redundant and lazy", said Barbara Glover of NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency. Glover added that these fears need to be allayed by understanding how best AI can unlock enhanced potential for humans to deploy their skills in new ways. Ama Duncan of Corporate Training Solutions in Ghana agreed.

The corporate learning environment has been experiencing a great deal of development over recent years. It shows no signs of stopping as learners become more involved in their own education. Gone are the days when the organization dictated what should be learned and how. Learners are now demanding that they are educated in a way that works for them. The teams usually responsible for corporate learning within companies, human resources, are also undergoing a period of change as they identify areas where they need to come up to speed to deliver the most tangible results for their companies.