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Donald H Taylor, L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2024 1 Foreword The unsurprising survey I t is no surprise that this year's L&D Global Sentiment Survey was topped by Artificial Intelligence. AI is no longer a specialist area. Since the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022, the deluge of news, interest and opinions around AI has been inescapable. The survey has one obligatory question: "What will be hot in workplace L&D in 2024?" There could be only one answer. Two things, however, did surprise in analysing responses to the four-question survey: the sheer extent of the support for AI and also the ambivalence towards it. AI dominated voting in every region and area of work. The vote share of 21.5% on the final table for the top option was an unprecedented 9.5% higher than the previous year. At the same time, when asked to describe their greatest challenge in workplace L&D this year, more people used the term AI and its derivatives than any other. In the 11 years of the survey no option has come close to these numbers for what is hot, and none has simultaneously topped the table for being hot while simultaneously being what respondents were most concerned about. In this report, we explore what this explosion of feeling might mean for the use of AI in L&D, and for the profession itself. Inevitably, this huge interest in AI reduced the share of the vote for other options. Almost every one of the 16 options on the main question attracting a lower share of the vote than last year. Two options, however, did also manage to increase their share of the vote – Personalization/adaptive delivery and Learning analytics. Together with the vote for AI, this suggests that the trend of interest in data, first noted in 2020 and which returned last year, is no temporary blip. In contrast, interest in collaborative learning and coaching, which surged during the pandemic, continued to fall this year. If maintained in future surveys, these trends could indicate a fundamental shift in how the L&D profession sees itself and its role – shifting from the personal to the technical. Many readers use this report to stimulate discussion in their L&D teams. To help with that, this year's report also includes suggested questions to consider. Whether reading alone or with others, we hope these will provoke reflection and further thinking. As always, the results of the survey must be treated with caution. This survey is about sentiment, about feelings. Those feelings – however firmly held – neither prove nor disprove the idea that AI will take over L&D. Once again, we have included in this report a section on interpretation to stress where the survey can provide value, as well as indicating its limits. Please do read this section and approach claims made based on the survey results with informed caution. As always, I must end by thanking our sponsors. Without OpenSesame, Speexx, Netex, Learning Pool, getAbstract and Lexonis, this survey would not have been possible. Donald H Taylor London, UK February 2024

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