Why you need AI-powered L&D for workforce engagement strategies

Businesses worldwide are struggling with a crisis of disengagement. 79% of the global workforce are either unengaged or actively disengaged. Without clear and effective workforce engagement strategies, this number will only get worse. 

If that realization alone doesn’t disturb you, maybe it will when we point out that this equates to roughly $438 billion in annual lost productivity. It doesn’t take an economist or expert business leader to see that this isn’t sustainable, so what can we do about it? 

The engagement crisis in numbers 

As with any major problem, the first step towards a solution is to improve our understanding of the situation. That 79% disengagement figure comes from Gallup’s global indicator for employee engagement.

According to Gallup: 

• Global engagement sits at just 21%, two points lower than in 2022. 

• 17% of employees worldwide are actively disengaged. 

• Although America is ahead in terms of engagement (30-31%), US employee satisfaction is only 19%. 

• Less than a third of US employees lack someone at work encouraging their personal development. 

• A similar number (32%) reported getting L&D opportunities at work. 

Gallup isn’t the only analyst group who’ve twigged the importance of engagement. According to Gartner, 71% of HR leaders rate employee experience as “very important.” 

Similarly, Forrester has found 70% of respondents view improving employee experience as a top HR priority. Experience isn’t exactly the same as engagement. Yet it does encompass most of its aspects. This means that workforce engagement strategies are also employee experience strategies by extension. 

Traditional L&D isn’t enough for workforce engagement strategies 

Any HR leader worth their salt will tell you that learning and development (L&D) are critical for long-term employee engagement and performance. We all need certain skills to do our jobs effectively. In fact, without them we’re doomed to struggle and get frustrated in our roles. 

Fortunately, it seems like organizations realize this. According to Fosway, 53% rated upskilling and reskilling as their top priority in 2024. Similarly, 53% expected HR investment in skills and capability, along with 54% for learning and people development. 

This raises an important question, however: If so many businesses are investing in L&D, why hasn’t it had more impact on workforce engagement strategies? 

The sad truth is that too many businesses have outdated L&D strategies and platforms. Here are three of the biggest ways traditional methods fail when it comes to talent development: 

1. Lack of personalization

The one-size-fits-all approach to training and support just isn’t effective. Not everyone has the same skills gaps, career ambitions, or support needs. Unfortunately, traditional training methods don’t support effective personalization. The sheer volume of work needed without workflow automation can quickly exceed the capacity of even the hardest-working L&D team. 

Traditional engagement tools like surveys aren’t much better. They further limit your ability to gauge how employees feel about training. That’s why we advocate regular employee check-ins for real-time insights into how people are doing in training and everyday work. 

2. Disconnected training

Traditionally, organizations tend to silo L&D off from the actual flow of work. Even if you model a training environment on software your people use, it may not fully reflect real experiences. This makes learning much more theoretical, which makes it more difficult to apply in a real setting. 

3. Slow to fill skills gaps

Manual content creation and curation can be really time-consuming. This makes responding quickly to identified skills gaps or new compliance needs very difficult unless you’re willing to shell out for new, externally produced courses. Failing to address skills gaps over time will harm your workforce engagement strategies, as employees get frustrated at being unequipped for their jobs. 

Can AI enhance training and workforce engagement strategies? 

Large Language Model (LLM) AI tools have taken the professional world by storm. With software providers racing to incorporate them into their services, you might be wondering if AI could be HR’s magic bullet solution to learning, engagement, and performance woes. 

While it’s important not to view AI as some all-encompassing panacea for workplace issues, the fact remains that these tools are set to shake up how we work, learn, and grow. Here are three ways AI can support learning and development, and by extension, workforce engagement strategies in 2026: 

Adaptive learning paths 

People are much more likely to find training engaging if it interests them (or, at least, aligns with their personal ambitions). That’s why personalized upskilling is such an important part of effective workforce engagement strategies. 

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of AI is its ability to process vast amounts of data and spot trends, both on an organizational or individual level. This stands to be a game-changer for L&D. AI can analyze the needs of every individual based on their role, strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions without needing to massively expand your team. 

It starts with learning pathways. You can create these based on roles, skills needs, and promotion opportunities in your business. Beyond that, each time an employee logs onto your Learning Management System (LMS), AI can greet them with personal recommendations without the need to manually search course libraries (although that’s still an option too!) 

Employee training and workforce engagement strategies in Microsoft 365 

It’s common for modern training tools to integrate with other software. Along with various HRIS tools, you’ll find that most platforms integrate with at least some elements of Microsoft 365. In fact, we built Learn365 from the ground up to integrate deeply with Microsoft’s suite of tools, especially Teams and Copilot. 

Integrating your LMS with Microsoft 365 helps to enable training in the flow of work. That way, employees can apply new skills immediately. Instead of navigating to a separate app, employees can load up training right there in Microsoft Teams. Similarly, L&D can use our Copilot-powered AI course builder to quickly generate new content. 

AI-driven analytics 

A little while back, we sponsored a learning report from ATD, The Future of Evaluating Learning and Measuring Impact. ATD’s research for this report that L&D has a clear and pervasive measurement problem. Namely that most organizations are bad at it. 

According to ATD, only 16% of organizations rate themselves “proficient” at measuring and evaluating learning impact, while just 4% are rated “excellent.” 

In other words, most businesses can’t prove whether their training had any tangible benefits or not. This makes it an uphill battle to convince stakeholders to invest in new courses, even if you’re positive they’ll benefit workforce engagement strategies and employee performance. 

AI can make a world of difference here with real-time dashboards and reports, especially if it has your learning, engagement, and performance data. By correlating productivity trends with relevant training, you can establish a clear narrative and prove training value, as well as predict what kinds of training will most benefit the business. 

AI can also help predict and spot disengagement before it gets out of control. By regularly checking in with your people, you create a real-time stream of sentiment and engagement data which is a great source of employee insights. 

Adoption challenges 

With all the possibilities AI provides, you might think organizations are adopting it in droves. Many companies are definitely trying, but there have been plenty of false starts and obstacles to adoption. While 53% believe AI will greatly improve learning measurement, and 54% of leaders say their organization has clear plans for AI adoption, the reality looks a bit different: 

• According to Gallup, most US employees don’t use AI, and only 1 in 10 used it weekly based on early analysis. 

• This rate has crept up over the year, but as of Q3, only 10% use AI daily, and just 23% use it “a few times a week or more.” 

• 60% say their companies aren’t ready, while only 1 in 10 say they are. 

• 70% say managers aren’t supporting the use of GenAI. 

There are a couple of underlying issues here. First, a lack of AI expertise makes it harder for employees to engage with these tools. Second, apprehension around how AI will reshape work may make some employees reluctant to use them. These are complicated issues to tackle, but we’ve got you covered in the next section. 

Steps to getting started 

So, you want to get started enacting new employee training and workforce engagement strategies. But how do you do that without falling into the same traps as before? 

Here are three simple steps to help L&D and HR teams put their best foot forward and get the most out of modern, AI-powered training software: 

• Audit L&D processes: Take stock of all your current L&D workflows including course creation, training assignment, grading, and compliance documentation. You’ll most likely find lots of areas where automation can save countless work hours. 
   

• Integrate AI into your LMS: If you haven’t already, it’s time to upgrade your LMS by incorporating AI. It’ll automate critical workflows, enable personalization, and provide objective impact reporting to inform future L&D decision-making. If your current system isn’t suitable, consider an alternative with strong AI features. 
   

• AI readiness through upskilling: Employee buy-in is often the biggest barrier to tool adoption, and AI is no exception. Training employees around AI helps to demystify it, set realistic expectations around its use, and give your people the skills to engage with new AI tools as they appear. In turn, this means they’ll be better equipped for AI-powered training in general. 

By following these three steps, you can prepare your people for AI in both their training and everyday work. With a business full of skilled, informed, and AI-savvy workers, you’ll find your workforce engagement strategies that much more effective. 

Human Success is the best workforce engagement strategy 

What ultimately lets down most workforce engagement strategies is that they’re so often siloed off from learning and performance. AI is fast becoming more prominent in analytics and other areas. As a result, it’s never been easier for HR to unite these three symbiotic concepts. 

Investing in learning enhances performance. This means employees are more likely to thrive and less likely to become disengaged. Similarly, highly engaged workers will be that much more receptive to training and performance initiatives.