AI on the Rise

“As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in talent management gains rapid momentum, organizations are scaling its powers to inspire new and personalized experiences—better connecting and engaging with their people,” notes Randstad Enterprise’s 2025 report, The Talent Multiverse. Your Choices Define Tomorrow. Companies use generative AI for a variety of processes, including to assess workforce feedback and democratize career development.

To help organizations understand the future of AI within the talent development field, ATD Research asked TD professionals their opinions on how AI will affect the profession. Respondents also provided potential action steps to contend with the technology. AI in Learning and Talent Development: A Closer Look Into Its Future Potential in the Workplace found that most professionals believe that personalized learning experiences and creating custom learning paths are most likely to improve the industry.

In his blog, “Harness AI for the Future of Recruitment,” L&D and sales enablement expert Michael Martin explains how AI analyzes data to identify candidates with the skill sets and traits that are more likely to be successful in the roles employers need. Martin shares how AI and humans can work together for recruitment practices that are flexible and effective.

The Association for Talent Development has responded to the modern technology environment by assembling an array of resources that range from workshops to blogs to TD magazine articles. The association also has a monthly newsletter, AI in Learning and Development.

One resource, for example, is the February 2025 issue of TD at Work, “Partner With AI for Instructional Design.” It provides a worksheet for a structured prompt that includes outlining an AI tool’s role and goal, the task you want the technology to fulfill, context for the challenge (such as the audience and situation), and format of the response.

ATD walked the talk by focusing on AI during its December 2024 Employee Learning Week. Debbie Richards, chief technology officer at Creative Interactive Ideas, presented a webinar, “Demystifying AI and GenAI: A Guide for Talent Development Professionals,” during which she outlined key ethical considerations, advised participants on managing potential biases in AI, and presented use cases within L&D.

“Many forward-thinking organizations are conducting basic training in AI to help de-mystify what it can and cannot accomplish,” writes Karl M. Kapp, author and speaker, in his blog about 2025 trends. “They are also establishing reasonable AI policies, rules, and regulations to guide employees.”

Has your company established AI policies? Have you begun to use AI tools in your TD work?

ATD25 is another opportunity to learn more about AI and its applications in your work. Among the sessions to consider are “Blending Creativity With AI-Advanced Story Design for Learning,” “Develop AI Literacy in the Age of Generative AI,” “Responsible AI for L&D,” and “Revolutionizing Learning: 3 Ways AI Personalizes Learning Pathways.”

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.