An article by Instinct‘s Director of Learning Solutions, Andrew Welsh.
I’ve now spent fifteen years recruiting in L&D. Countless conversations about SCORM, 70:20:10 and whether the LMS is dead. I’ve watched the rise, fall and rise again of gamification and witnessed Instructional Designers rebrand themselves as LXD’s and IT Trainers as AI Trainers (many without actually changing their day job.)
Until recently, the roles we recruited looked much like they did in 2011. Over the past two years, AI has started to change things. It’s perhaps not as ‘big bang’ as some might think, but the direction of travel is clear.
When Articulate released its AI-powered Frontline tool in September, it felt like the whole Learning Design community was thinking out loud on my LinkedIn feed.
None of this is really a surprise. AI is reshaping most industries, and L&D was always going to be part of that. I read a comment from Tim Slade which nailed it; if your job was simply ‘moving rectangles around a screen,’ that’s no longer where the value lies.
I wanted to share Instinct’s own insight, mostly based around early shifts we’re seeing in demand from our clients;
1. Learning technology and platform work
Perhaps unglamorous but all of the major LXP’s (Cornerstone, Workday, Docebo) have AI features which are only as good as the data underneath them. The LXP is alive and in demand, as are the specialists in these platforms for implementations, integrations, and data cleanups. We’ve currently got more vacancies for Docebo Technical consultants than people to fill them with, globally!
2. Skills and data management
Platforms can now infer skills from people’s work, map gaps across a workforce and link learning to performance data. But someone still has to build the skills frameworks, set up the platforms and make sense of what the data says. That’s creating demand for skills taxonomy designers, skills-intelligence specialists and learning analysts. These are niche, senior roles
3. Learning Designers becoming Performance Consultants
LDs need to move ‘upstream’ and get better at analysing and influencing the business need. Take a look at the 5DI toolkit as a useful start point. Also, designers need to increase the quality of their output rather than just use AI tools to design the same thing quicker. Using AI for personalised pathways, live feedback or AI role play.
4. AI Training and Adoption
Two years ago, we’d never placed an AI Trainer. Now we’re being asked for them every week.
The demand is for facilitators, AI curriculum designers and tool specialists. We’re also seeing a growing need for Adoption Consultants who support an organisation’s wider use of AI (although that doesn’t always sit within L&D).
(Yes, some of those AI Trainers used to be IT Trainers. The good ones changed more than their job title.)
5. Human-led delivery: facilitation, leadership development, coaching
We expected demand to grow here, and it has. As content becomes cheaper and quicker to produce, the value shifts to live experiences: leadership programmes, cohort-based learning, facilitation and coaching. AI can generate a course in an afternoon, but it can’t hold a room or read the mood and react. Yet.
6. Enterprise systems adoption training
Every big systems change needs end-user training and adoption support; SAP S/4HANA migrations. Workday HCM, Salesforce, ServiceNow etc. This means trainers, training leads, digital adoption specialists (WalkMe/Whatfix), and change or adoption managers. We’ve had continued demand in this space
7. QA, review and proofreading
This one still surprises me. This year, we’ve placed more proofreaders than at any point in our history. It doesn’t command the highest day-rates; however, companies creating content “AI first” still need a human to comb through, catching errors and inconsistencies.
None of this is happening overnight, and plenty of organisations still need exactly what they needed in 2011. But the direction is clear. The L&D professionals who thrive will be the ones who move upstream, embrace AI as part of their craft, and keep the human judgement that no tool can replace. That applies at every level. Heads of L&D who don’t stay close to this may find the decisions made for them by IT…
We’re trying to be proactive too, building networks in these areas before the demand peaks. But if fifteen years have taught me anything, it’s that our clients usually spot what’s coming first, and the briefs they bring us shape where we go next. So if you’re seeing a need we haven’t mentioned, I’d love to hear about it.
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