Podcast | How To Structure Modern L&D Teams That Drive Performance – Ross Stevenson
Author:
Gary
PUBLISHED ON:
April 14, 2021
June 26, 2023
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Podcast
Should we even be describing it as L&D? You might have more open and productive conversations with stakeholders if you ditch the jargon, and Ross explains why in this episode.
You’ll also learn who L&D should work with and how, the roles you need to build an effective L&D team today, how to communicate L&D value to the rest of the business and loads more.
Ross Stevenson is the founder of Steal These Thoughts. Senior Learning & Talent Development Manager by day, Steal These Thoughts is his vehicle for sharing all his L&D tips and experiences once he clocks off.
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Running order
1:40 > The purpose of L&D today. 2:51 > The makeup of a modern L&D team 9:06 > Skills a traditional L&D team can develop to adapt. 14:03 > How Ross built these skills himself. 15:46 > Communicating L&D’s value to the wider business. 19:37 > How L&D can become a profit centre, not a cost centre. 21:22 > Who L&D should be working with. 24:51 > How individuals can understand their skills gap. 32:06 > Quickfire questions.
Free Guide: 7 Tips For Building A Modern L&D Team
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Six takeaways from this episode
The purpose of L&D…
Is to look at the performance people in your organisation, help them get better at what they’re doing and grow their contribution to the business. Whether they’ll continue their career with you or somewhere else, L&D has a responsibility to develop people.
Structuring a modern L&D team
Content curators: people with an eye for finding the great content that’s already out there.
Learning architects: people that know a bit of everything and can strategise, build and deliver frameworks for others to tap into. Typically tech savvy, they can walk into a business and help you understand the learning tech architecture, build your culture and use tech mindfully. Because they know how product and tech work together, they’re key in building the right stack, understanding who the audience is and what they need.
Comms and engagement: You can find loads of great tools, but you need someone who can communicate the value and engage the audience around its importance. These people help you create plans and strategies where people see the value and engage.
Theskills a traditional L&D team can develop
L&D teams should position themselves more as partners than order takers. But they need consulting skills to have those conversations, ones where they can ask probing questions to get to the root cause of problems. They should also think about developing their understanding of how tech works foundationally, how to sell themselves better and how to use data effectively but in a streamlined fashion.
How to communicate L&D’s value
Don’t call it L&D! If you only had three minutes to explain what you do to your CEO, you’d be better off talking about building talent and high-performing teams that drive the business. To get stakeholders on board, you need to present the value to the bottom line and showcase how you affect performance, productivity and skills.
Who should L&D be working with?
Normally they’re trying to drive behavioural change, which requires you to work with the rest of the business. It takes buy-in from senior leaders to set examples and drive it forward and, similarly, you’d need marketing buy-in to communicate it effectively. These discussions help you understand the problem and, a lot of the time, it might not even be an L&D issue. It might just be that a mechanism of L&D is being used to fix it.
How people can find their skills gaps
Work out the what, why and where of who you are today. There’s a few questions that can help:
What are you great at and why?
What do you enjoy doing and why?
Where is that combination most-valued/what’s the right environment?
What does the world need right now and what can you be paid for?
[00:00:00] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:00:00] Work is changing. The question is, are you welcome to 99 Problems But Work Ain’t One, the new podcast series from HowNow that will help you prepare for the fast changing world of work. I’m your host Nelson Sivalingam, and I’ll be talking to disruptive startups, contrarian thinkers, global leaders, and real game changers and asking them the burning questions about the challenges we face at work from scaling cultures and adopting technology.
[00:00:28] To improving wellbeing and building fast learning organisations that are prepared for the future of work. We get the insights, tactics, and actionable nuggets of knowledge to put to work. In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Ross Stevenson. Founder of Steal These Thoughts. If you thought you were passionate about L and D wait until you hear from Ross, a senior learning and talent development manager by day, steal these thoughts is his vehicle for sharing all his tips and experience once he clocks off.
[00:00:58] Ross talks us through how you should structure your modern L&D team, how to communicate its value to stakeholders, how to work out your skills gaps, and so much more. If you want to talk about anything from this episode, you can search for Ross, myself, or HowNow on all of our socials and the links in the show notes.
[00:01:16] So without further ado, here’s my chat with Ross. I’ve been following your stuff for a very, very long time, and I’m super excited that I’ve managed to get you on our show. So welcome. Welcome to our show.
[00:01:32] Ross Stevenson: [00:01:32] Thank you for the kind words as well. That’s really, really nice to hear.
[00:01:44] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:01:44] Let’s dive straight in, a lot of the content you’ve been putting out is talking about the structure and purpose of a modern L&D team. Um, so before we dive into what a modern L&D team looks like, what do you see the purpose of L&D in today’s day and age?
[00:02:00] Ross Stevenson: [00:02:00] Yeah, it’s a good question. Um, probably controversial in some ways in my opinion, but, uh, I think, you know, L&D is for me, it’s all around looking at the.
[00:02:10] performance of people in your org. So how do you help them get better at what they’re doing in terms of the contribution to the business? And also on the side of that, I think there’s a responsibility on helping people to become better to humans and developing them in the time that they are right now.
[00:02:27] whether they continue their career with that business or whether they go on, I think there’s a responsibility of an L&D team to do that. But I think for me, it’s very, if you break it down to its bare bones. It’s really around that performance element, you know, how do we help people get better at what they’re doing, especially in that it’s a very on-trend way of saying this in their kind of daily workflow.
[00:02:51] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:02:51] And what do you see as the makeup of this modern energy team who are really focused around for, from your words, kind of driving performance and making people better at their jobs? What, what does the kind of makeup of that team look like?
[00:03:03] Ross Stevenson: [00:03:03] Yeah. So it’s always shifting for me and I don’t think. Unless someone is going to come out after this,
[00:03:12] I don’t think there’s any organisation where they’re probably kind of doing this approach with an L&D team right now. And it comes in different waves. There’s going to be people who are kind of solo teams. And then there’s a lot of individuals out there who are just the L&D team. And there are some teams that are gigantic at mega corporations, with people left right and centre, which is great.
[00:03:31] But I think for me, it kind of breaks down into four key areas. If someone was to say to me right now, go out and build me a modern L&D team. I would tell them, you know, it looks like this with these kind of four key areas of: one having people to focus on content curation. I think we’re. You know, very lucky in terms of, if I steal a line from Drake, what a time to be alive in terms of the kind of
[00:04:00] technology and the content that we’ve got.
[00:04:02] I think really now there’s so much content that already exists. So you’re not having to take this approach of 15, 20 years ago where you were saying, right. If I need to build specific resources for my business, I need to create these from scratch. You know, you’ve got YouTube, you’ve got Google, you’ve got.
[00:04:18] Social media. There’s so much stuff already out there that you can curate. And I think with curation, you really just need to find the right people. Who’ve got that eye to be able to curate the right content and they can turn into kind of learning playlists for people. I mean, that is really important.
[00:04:34] That’s kind of a foundational level of, you know, a learning team and those people bringing into curation. And then the other elements to this, you’ve got content creators people, probably a bit more familiar of that, but I’m looking more at things like individuals that can come in, you know, film and build videos.
[00:04:51] They can do podcasts. They can write blogs if need be so. Probably not, if we look at an old school L&D model, you know, it’s not the people who are
[00:05:00] writing 50 page PDFs or they’re writing, you know, massive e-learning modules. It’s very, you know, digitally focused, very quick, it might be a couple of paragraphs getting people the information they need, getting onto a hosting tool where people can pick that up and being quite easy with that.
[00:05:17] And then what I would say. And again, up for interpretation, what’s the crown jewel of this team is what I call kind of learning experience designers or learning architects. Um, and the reason why I say that they’re a crown jewel was because I see them as, this is this role I’ve played before.
[00:05:34] And as individuals where they kind of know a bit of everything and they’re able to strategise or they’re able to build and they’re able to deliver. So if I unpack that a little bit, these people are what I call individuals who are very tech savvy. They can come into a business and they can sit there and they can say, right, how do we build your learning technology architecture?
[00:05:58] How do we apply technology mindfully? How does this work with our culture and building that learning culture. So they’re kind of like this strange hybrid between kind of user experience designers, L&D people. They understand product, they understand tech, how does it all work together? How do we build the right stacks?
[00:06:19] But also they’ve got a really good understanding of the audience and what the audience needs as well, so there’s a little bit of marketing there as well. So I kind of call them architects because they kind of lay that gigantic kind of framework that then the rest of the team goes in and starts to lay down in different portions.
[00:06:38] And again, they are people who can design experiences. And when I say experiences, I don’t mean classroom learning for four or five days. And then, I mean, design in probably very short form, 60 to 90 minute experiences so they can facilitate, but they’re not facilitators. So I think, you know, really having a strong set of
[00:07:00] these people, you know, we, whether we’re going to call them architects.
[00:07:01] So I’ve seen people call them kind of learning experience consultants, individuals with that skill. And those experiences are really beneficial for the whole team. And then the last part of this is all around. Very trendy. Again, the kind of marketing side, comms and engagement. And I think this could be shared for our team.
[00:07:20] Right. And I’m happy to build upon that if you’d like me to, but the comms and engagement side is, you know, it’s been going on for years. You’ve always heard people saying L&D needs to be more like marketing and needs to get closer to marketing. You know, it’s everywhere nowadays. And, um, you know, there’s definitely truth to that, but we do that from all areas.
[00:07:36] So you can take stuff from product design, you can take stuff from UX, from tech teams and marketing. And, but I think, I always say to people, you know, if you build it, they won’t come. And I think it’s a big fade in of a lot of teams where, you know, they’ll go and buy a hundred pieces of tech or, you know, it may be a few pieces of tech and they could be great pieces of technology and they could really change what their team’s doing.
[00:08:00] But if they haven’t got a function who can clearly go out to an audience and engage them and tell them why that’s important and how it can help them, I’ve seen it fall apart so many times at so many different organisations because they’ll get something shiny new. It will go out the door. It will be a six week wonder, and then there’s no comms and engagement team to say, Oh, okay, let us develop micro campaigns, let us develop a 12 month engagement strategy.
[00:08:27] How do we embed this? And that’s where I see a lot of stuff fall down. I think even in, you know, the kind of old school L&D world, where it’s quite common to go away, build a solution for six months, throw it out, becomes obsolete in a couple of weeks and actually people never use it again. And then the company goes back and does the same thing over again, but they don’t need to do that.
[00:08:50] It’s just the fact that they’ve had no one communicate that or build a plan to say, how do we engage people with this? So those are the kind of the four
[00:09:00] key elements for me. If you were to say to me, Hey, build me a modern L& D team today. That would be it.
[00:09:09] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:09:09] So, Ross, that sounds like a complete paradigm shift from, from what we’re used to, from a traditional L&D team.
[00:09:15] Um, quite a few, you know, quite different from the days of, top down your real focus is kind of mandatory compliance training delivered through an LMS. And then your main requirement is organising classroom sessions and afternoon training sessions. So it’s quite different from that model of L&D.
[00:09:36] So what skills can teams like that? So L&D teams who’ve been doing what we would consider say that, like you mentioned, the old school way of doing L&D, what skills do you think they need to acquire to be able to, to move to what you’re talking about in terms of a modern L&D experience?
[00:09:53] Ross Stevenson: [00:09:53] Yeah. So there’s a couple of things.
[00:09:55] I mean, a lot of this model relies upon being more partners than order takers. So I think the first thing around there is a consultative approach. So looking at yourself as a bit of a consultant, and I suppose, you know, again, more trendy terminology for this is kind of, you know, user experience design and having design thinking and a design mind to that kind of thing.
[00:10:18] But the ability to have consulting conversations with your stakeholders and actually ask them probing questions to get to the real cause for a problem, you know, that’s going to be a big skill difference which L&D teams probably haven’t had to do before because it’s been very much, as you said, like a funnel where it’s, here’s a requirement go off and do it.
[00:10:39] There’s never been that: well, let me ask you a few questions as to why you need that or how that’s going to be applied and who that’s going to work for. And then the other areas I would say, you know, technology, I think, um, it still amazes me to this day in 2021, where I think there’s a real lack of understanding of basic tech and how digital technology works and [00:11:00] it’s even foundational sense of.
[00:11:01] So, you know, how does different tech speak to each other? How can you connect this piece of tech with that piece of tech? You know, what’s an API, just real basic stuff for me. Like, you need to understand that because if you’re coming into a business today and you’re leading, in most areas like that digital learning element.
[00:11:18] And you really need to understand how different bits of not only learning tech work, but how does tech like Slack or Microsoft Teams or Zoom work? How do they build into that ecosystem? I’m not saying you need to be Bill Gates, but it’s like, you need to be tech savvy to an extent. You need to understand the baseline of how things work because that’s the industry.
[00:11:37] Where we sit now, people are used to social media, they’re on their phone all the time. You know, the, the days of the classroom aren’t gone, but it’s very, very different. And so having that tech knowledge, I think is really paramount and it’s really going to help anyone in the industry really kind of set their stall and set their credibility as well, and I’m going to mention two things.
[00:11:59]that straddle along and I’ve kind of mentioned, you should have a comms and marketing person, but quite honestly, the whole team should have. Some form of marketing capability. This is not just L&D, I think, any role you’re in. You really need to understand how to sell yourself, how to sell your work, how to promote.
[00:12:14] So I think it’s not like an L&D thing. It’s in any single role you do in your career, It’s really good to understand how to be a good communicator and how to do marketing as well. And again, that’s not needing to be, you know, a marketing genius. It’s just really understanding the kind of basics of, you know, human behavior, what we’re driven to maybe bits on neuroscience for learning which out there and quite easily accessible.
[00:12:39] And then the last bit we were on data, right? Data is, um, very hot right now. It’s a bit hot right now for a while in terms of L& D using more data and being evidence led, which I think is fantastic. What I don’t think is always needed. And I see as a bit of a faux pas with a few organisations in my opinion, you don’t need to go out and recruit a [00:13:00] massive data team.
[00:13:01] You know, you don’t need people coming in and designing Tableau dashboards and all this kind of stuff. Actually, what you really need is to really understand basic data capture techniques, data interrogation techniques. So I’m talking to stuff like. Yeah, Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, asking the right questions, gathering feedback, creating basic dashboards.
[00:13:21] And again, that’s, that’s really all you need. And, you know, using Google analytics, interpreting data from there, you don’t need to be creating. Now. I’ve been in some people teams over my career where massive analytics teams create really over complicated funnels. That don’t really mean anything, but having that data and an understanding of what’s the right data to.
[00:13:43] Collect and how do I use that is incredibly powerful and those kinds of elements, they all, they all sit through together. So it’s not just choosing one. It’s about really investing in all of those different skills. And that will bring you around to, you know, what I would call a [00:14:00] modern L&D professionals kind of skill set today.
[00:14:03] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:14:03] So obviously apart from being an L&D thought leader, blogger forecaster, and your day job is as a senior learning and development manager. So I guess, how did you acquire these skills? What’s how did you go about building these skills that you referred to around? You know, where it’s the curation skills or the marketing and comms space or technology and data. How did you go about acquiring these skills
[00:14:27] Ross Stevenson: [00:14:27] realistically? I was really just practicing what I preach to an extent. And it’s using my own curiosity to go out there and say, you know, these are the things that are on the horizon, and I need to look at it in terms of my industry and invest in what I’ve always been, you know, a techie geek and, and my actual background is I was educated to be a software engineer and, you know, going into that and product designer kind of fell into the world of HR.
[00:14:51] So I’ve. Go on a little bit of a headstart where I have that head on me already. However, it was just cultivating that real [00:15:00] basic need for growth. And I, you know, I’m looking back five or six years now, when I got specifically into the world of learning from the kind of bigger realm of people development, it was saying, you know,
[00:15:13] What are the technologies that are available right now and who can I go and speak to to help me with that? So, you know, quite quickly I was able to identify, right. I need to get a marketing element to my skill set. So I went and found a head of social media at the company I was at at the time. And I had a mentoring relationship with that individual for six months to understand, you know, the ins and outs of.
[00:15:35] Social media and marketing, the kind of techniques they use for advertisements, which is fantastic. And you know, same on the data part. I sat with an analytics team for about a year.
[00:15:48] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:15:48] So just picking up from there, we come across a lot of, um, L&D teams who are trying to transform the way they drive performance in a way they develop people but often one of the major hurdles is convincing the business, um, where the business looks at L&D’s primary requirement is to make sure people are compliant. Um, and we’re doing, you know, to some extent leadership training. Um, and therefore there was an element of convincing the business that we need to change the way we’re approaching things and building that business case.
[00:16:24] How would you suggest teams can do that effectively? Uh, communicating the value of L&D to the business?
[00:16:29] Ross Stevenson: [00:16:29] Yeah, really good question. Really good question. And a consistent pain for many people. I know. I think again, it’s going to be controversial for some, but don’t call it L&D. Would be my first thing.
[00:16:43] If you need to go speak to your CEO in three minutes and you need to go and tell them what you do and the value to the business, do not mention a word about learning and development. I think for me, something that I’ve been crafting more recently is the concept of performance [00:17:00] engineering.
[00:17:00] Or some people called it performance consulting. And what I do is if I’m talking to any kind of senior stakeholders and the business is talking to them more about performance and talent, how do we help your team perform? How do we build high performing teams? How does that benefit the business? And, you know, a lot of that is disguising across the kind of banner of learning.
[00:17:22] And the way to, I found to get stakeholders on board and senior leaders on board is showing the value to the bottom line of what you’re doing, because in all businesses, you know, it is about the bottom line as, um, as rubbish that can be to say to sometimes, but it’s, yeah, it’s really around that and showcasing if we’re able to
[00:17:43] affect people’s performance and provide resources and experiences that improve their performance through the case of, you know, knowledge and skills, then actually, you know, we’ll get better productivity for the organisation. You’ll get a more engaged workforce, you’ll get a [00:18:00] better skilled workforce. And you can see in the research from organisations such as.
[00:18:04] Gardner and Deloitte and McKinsey, they’re always talking about reskilling and upskilling, and I think that performance way is a great place to do it. And if you use that kind of terminology of right, we’re focussing on your team’s performance, how do we help them build better performance? How do we help them get better themselves?
[00:18:22] And if you don’t go down that kind of, let’s say L&D terminology that I found you get far open and far more engaged conversations. Cause I think sometimes L and D can be seen as very fluffy. Very much like, Oh, well, you know, it is compliance training or it’s a day out of the office to kind of sit around and not do anything.
[00:18:40] Whereas if you show a real return on investment to the business and say, if we do X now this will produce Y which would then make help, enable our performance on, you know, building whatever it is, we’re doing whatever we’re looking to achieve as a business. You know, we can actually do that by doing this, but you [00:19:00] have to take people on that journey.
[00:19:01] And that’s where I think a lot of people fall down in that engagement with the brand of a learning team and stakeholders is to tell a story to those people, take them on that journey. So if you do this, now, this can do X, Y, and Z. If you just turn around and go, you know, we’re going to do some communications training
[00:19:21] and then that’s the end of it. I mean, they’re not really going to understand how that affects their business and affects their bottom line and affects what they’re doing. So, yeah, I think it’s more of the performance lead, I mean, they can open many doors and many conversations in real buy-in.
[00:19:39] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:19:39] I completely agree.
[00:19:40] I mean, we often talk about the idea of L&D should be positioned at the very least as a value centre, but where they should be going forward is to be a profit centre. And exactly what you said. If you’re driving performance, then you will see an impact on the bottom line. But too often, what we see happen is L and D gets stuck as a cost centre.
[00:19:58] And when you’re a cost [00:20:00] centre, Uh, you’re almost restricted by the resources that you have available to yourself. Um, and, and people were just expecting you to tick the box. So, you know, as if you were to suggest one thing that L&D teams who are stuck in that kind of cost centre, they can’t break free of that kind of positioning.
[00:20:18] What would you recommend they can do? What’s that first thing they can do to start to take that first step in the journey towards becoming a profit centre.
[00:20:25] Ross Stevenson: [00:20:25] Yeah, I’d recommend they look at the branding of their team and how they position themselves in the business. So when I say that I’m talking about how they collaborate with our teams, what is the brand proposition out there, are you going out and basically just saying where L&D come and talk to us about any training needs, you might need to request stuff from us, then you’re probably not going to get too far.
[00:20:49] It’s I always liken it to the McDonad’s Drive Thru analogy, don’t come through and have people asking you for a burger and large fries, but you, that, you know, it’d be that team is going to go out and set the stall and say, look, [00:21:00] this is what we do. We’re focused on helping the performance of your team, building high performing teams, you know, helping you to be better people in your career here.
[00:21:09] And this is how we do it. The number one thing for me is, you know, focus on that brand because if you haven’t got the right brand internally, you’re not going to get far. Because that’s the first touchpoint with people.
[00:21:22] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:21:22] You, you had a great blog post and it was, um, which was about how L and D can’t do everything alone. And what do you mean by that? When you say L&D can’t do everything alone, and if so, who should L&D be working with?
[00:21:38] Ross Stevenson: [00:21:38] Yeah. So with that, I think maybe people will understand where I’m coming from on this. I think there’s a real generic thing in businesses where they think L&D or sitting in a training program or classroom program will solve any issue that a business has, whether that’s from a cultural standpoint, a lack of.
[00:22:00] [00:22:00] Technological knowhow, anything at all. And it’s very much like, right. Well, you know, we’ll train people up and it’s like compliance as a prime example, we’re going to send people something about right. How to be security conscious at a business. This is how to do it. And people go to the session, and think, right.
[00:22:17] Everyone must know now what they’re doing and you know, that’s going to be the end of it. Whereas actually that never happens. And that L&D solution that they think is going to change the world. It means that everyone now understands how to be security conscious, never happens. I’ve been doing this for 14 years and not once have I ever seen any of that work?
[00:22:34] It’s all in my career. I think realistically, what it is is that they can’t do everything because there are many parties involved. A lot of the work that we do is around behavior and culture. If you’re trying to change behaviors, it takes buy-in from senior leadership to role model the right behaviors in that change.
[00:22:53] If you want to craft particular skills, you’re going to need help from people, you know, marketing and communication teams [00:23:00] to help you with that. And I mean, L&D actually plays a far smaller part in this, with the rest of the business. And it’s about collaborating with the rest of the business to say, all right, if we want to make this change this is actually what we need to do.
[00:23:13] We need help from all quarters. It’s not just going to be, let’s push out an email that says here’s a new learning module that you need to complete. And then we do the box ticking exercise. It really is a business-wide effort to sit there and go, right. What is the problem that we have right now? And then what are the potential solutions to that?
[00:23:33] Um, and again, this might be controversial, nine times out of 10. It’s nothing to do with L&D uh, I’ve been in many situations with, you know, stakeholders and business leaders over the last 14 years where I can clearly see, it’s not an L&D issue, but a mechanism of L&D is being used to try and solve an issue, which is not that, it’s a far wider problem there.
[00:23:58] And I mean, that’s, that’s where it falls down a lot, right? [00:24:00] I mean, L&D gets a bad rap for that because there are two loads of problems, which is just, it’s impossible for them because they need the rest of the business to do that. And it’s not a one and done event. It really is a, if we want to make true and powerful change, it takes time and it takes lots of nudging.
[00:24:15] It takes lots of effort to do that. So yeah, for me, I’d say to L&D professionals, you know, you can’t do it alone. You need to be working with other areas of the business to, um, to bring them onboard and do it. So, you know, do as much as you can to cultivate that environment and collaboration and showcase that.
[00:24:35] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:24:35] No, it makes sense. It’s almost that layer or the glue that brings the organisations together and making sure that you’re collaborating with the different functions. And like you alluded to earlier that kind of consulting approach of understanding what different parts of the business needs. Um, I just want to change tack and kind of go explore.
[00:24:56] Upskilling. And you often find us at HowNow [00:25:00] preaching about measuring skills, identifying skills, but we often talk about it from an organisational perspective. Um, but you wrote a piece about re-skilling through a new world and, and i’s actually about how individuals themselves can understand what skills they need and determine their skills gaps, and kind of make a plan for how they can close those skills gaps.
[00:25:24] So can you tell me a bit more about that?
[00:25:26] Ross Stevenson: [00:25:26] Yeah, definitely. So, um, It’s interesting. Because there’s this part to career development overall, and it’s a few things I’ve picked up from random places and my career to be fair. So it’s simple. Really. So one of the approaches is really trying to challenge yourself and understand the, kind of, what, why and where of where you are today.
[00:25:48] Pretty much. And I kind of shared these three questions even today with everyone I meet, where if they’re looking to kind of have a philosophy or really understand where can they go next in their career and what do they need to do? [00:26:00] I always say to them, so, you know, one is, you know, what are you great at?
[00:26:04] And what do you enjoy doing? You know, extremely important. And then what do you enjoy and why? So why do you enjoy it? So the first question, sorry, is what am I great at? And why am I great at it? Because I think people are very hard on themselves. I can’t do this, so I can’t do that. But you know, we’ve all got a.
[00:26:22] Select amount of skills, and there’s a reason why we’re good at that. So remind yourself of why you’re good at that. Look into what you enjoy at why and where is that combination most valued. I mean, that’s really, really important. You will not flourish unless you have the right environment and it’s very common for really talented people to be in the wrong environment and then not succeed.
[00:26:44] And it’s, you know, there’s a combination of that and you need to understand that, you know, where can you take your talents and where can you enjoy your time and where can you flourish? And that’s extremely important when you’re looking for career development [00:27:00] overall, and a flip side of that. And something that’s becoming very, very popular, I would say in the kind of coaching realm, if we look at L&D and the kind of coaching side, is that something I actually found during some.
[00:27:12] Random wandering and a kind of a Japanese adventure a few years ago. Um, another story over time in terms of how that happened, but basically there’s a concept in Japan called icky guy, think I’m saying this correctly. And it struck me because I think as a society, we’re so focused on the pursuit of happiness and the destination of happiness.
[00:27:35] And I need to have X to be happy or do Y to be happy, whereas. I think being happy is a very fleeting emotion. You get it in moments. And a lot of people attach it to their career and their work. It’s like, I need to be consistently happy in my work to be successful. And I, you know, I think for me, it’s not actually attainable and it’s not a reality in terms of always being happy in your work.
[00:27:57] There’s going to be tough times. There’s going to be good [00:28:00] times. I mean, what I came to and I talk about this a lot now and even being creative and the stuff that I do today is. Is look for meaning. So try and find your kind of meaning for being, icky guy basically means in English, a reason for being and in Japan, an icky guy is very important as effectively your purpose for getting up in the morning.
[00:28:20] I say to people now that scares the hell out of them. I say to them, you know, why do you rise in the morning if we’re having a career conversation and people are trying to understand. Why they do what they do? That kind of standard Simon Sinek why. I say to them, well, why did you rise in the morning?
[00:28:34] What, you know, what, what is it all for at the end of the day? That’s a real scary question for a lot of people because it’s quite deep, but you know, what I discover is that through that kind of coaching approach, people really start to challenge yourselves and understand, yes, why am I doing, what am I doing?
[00:28:49] And, you know, do I enjoy it, is it helping me? What’s my purpose with that. And it can be different things for different people, right? Some people want to climb the corporate ladder. Some people, you know, do stuff for their family, it’s [00:29:00] different tricks for different people, which is great. But again, the icky guy concept is very similar to the concept I mentioned before, where it’s looking at, you know, what are the things that you love?
[00:29:09] What am I good at? You know, what does the world need? So what can I actually do in the world? You know? Because I think some of the most foolhardy advice I’ve ever heard is follow your passion. And it doesn’t always work out that way. Because some people’s passion can’t actually be applied in the real world.
[00:29:25] And then the kind of final point is, you know, what can you be paid for in terms of that? So what do I love? What am I good at? What does the world actually need right now? And what can you be paid for? I think the reason why these two concepts work for me is that especially now, you know, careers are coming and going, there isn’t a job for life anymore.
[00:29:44] People were changing careers three or four times in their lifetime. So it’s really high on the agenda now to understand and consistently review. You know, where am I right now? Where do I want to go? Why am I doing it? It’s very deep questions, but you know, some of those are the things you [00:30:00] really need to ask yourselves at different stages in life.
[00:30:03] You know, even with me, what I was doing in my early twenties, to what I’m doing now, closer to my mid thirties, is very, very different and they’re different chapters. So they’ve acquire different understanding. So those two concepts for me are I think very beneficial and just a final thought on that is something.
[00:30:23] I do share with a lot people is, and it’s very, very simple. I call it the three E’s of looking at your expiring, evolving and emerging skills. So in any role that you do, you know, consistently look up. What are the skills that are expiring in my field of work? What are the skills that I need to evolve?
[00:30:44] So what do I need to get better at? And then what’s emerging in my industry. If we talk about lifelong learning quite a lot, but then I’m also looking at lifelong employability. So how do I get rid of the stuff that doesn’t help me anymore? How do I get better at the things that I know I [00:31:00] need to do right now?
[00:31:00] And what’s coming up. So what are the new things that I need to add to that kind of talent stack? So, yeah, that’s. That’s kind of my approach with that.
[00:31:10] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:31:10] So Russ, why do you rise in the morning?
[00:31:12] Ross Stevenson: [00:31:12]
You got me with a curveball there. Um, so I rise in the morning for me because I want to help people. It sounds really corny, but it’s true.
[00:31:20] I do want to help people believe in the enormity of the possible. So all the things that can be done, you know, regardless of your background, your situation and where you are now, um, and just be kickass humans, you know, just, I think that’s a big thing in L&D. It’s why I got into L &D and the world of people, because I really enjoy, you know, working with other humans of course, and really seeing people develop and thrive.
[00:31:44] And I think for me, Um, you know, even if you know my own background and where I’ve come from, I think, you know, if I can help people believe in the enormity of the possible for them and the potential and the things that you can do in this lifetime, I can rest easy at [00:32:00] night. So for me, that’s what kind of gets me up in the morning.
[00:32:02] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:32:02] I like it being a kick-ass human. Before we wrap this up, we’ve got a quick, quick fire round. Um, so I’m going to throw a few questions at you, short, succinct, to answer, are you ready for this?
[00:32:12] Ross Stevenson: [00:32:12] Go for it.
[00:32:17] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:32:17] Alright. One thing I think L&D teams can do today to improve workplace learning at their company?
[00:32:22] Ross Stevenson: [00:32:22] [00:32:24] Uh, stop calling it L&D and invest in performance engineering/consulting.
[00:32:34] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:32:34] And the trend that you’re most excited about?
[00:32:36] Ross Stevenson: [00:32:36] Uh, people making better use of digital technology in the time we are now. I think it’s great to an extent, not Corona virus. Of course, I think it’s great.
[00:32:48] We’ve had an overnight digital transformation and are really challenging people to take stock of all the great innovation we’ve got. So I’m really excited to see more people taking advantage of that.
[00:33:00] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:33:00] So you’ve got experience creating engaging content. What tips would you give others to be able to create content that genuinely captivates people?
[00:33:07] Ross Stevenson: [00:33:07]
[00:33:08] Um, I’d say, firstly, don’t be afraid. Get out there, you can’t be seen unless you’re doing stuff. Um, and just be real. Write about what interests you and, you know, get out there. You never know, right. You honestly never know who will pick it up, how it will connect with people and, um, yeah, just go from there, but you won’t, you won’t get anywhere unless you try.
[00:33:30] And my friends. So get off that starting line and see where you go.
[00:33:36] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:33:44] You regularly speak about curiosity being an important factor in learning. What’s the best way for someone to develop curiosity as a skill?
[00:33:37] Ross Stevenson: [00:33:37] Um, yeah, simply just being more curious. I think there’s more that it’s just being more open minded, I think have a, have more of an interest in terms of.
[00:33:54] You know how things work and, you know, I think you, you open yourself up, we all know about growth, [00:34:00] mind, fixed mindset, just to be a bit more open-minded in terms of things in the world and, you know, let your curiosity flow a little bit.
[00:34:08] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:34:08] What’s the one book you recommend the most to fellow people, developers, leaders, talent developers?
[00:34:18] So I’m reading a book called, um, radical candor by Kim Scott. He used to work for Google and Apple. She used to call for that kind of leadership development program. Um, it’s really great in terms of looking at how you can care personally about people, give better feedback and develop people in the business.
[00:34:37] And I think, you know, it is from the kind of world of big tech, but I think it’s a really refreshing, honest look, uh, you know, how that can be done. So I recommend picking that one up.
[00:34:50] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:34:50] One skill you’d like to develop and why.
[00:34:53] Ross Stevenson: [00:34:53]
I mean, I love to sing personally, but that ain’t going to happen anytime soon.
[00:34:59] I think my singing [00:35:00] career has gone from that, but, um, in terms of me in the kinda professional world, I think for me personally, I’m really interested in the world of coaching. Um, you know, looking at performance coaching and coaching in general, obviously again, it’s a bit of a trend, a bit of a buzzword more recently, but I think, you know, there’s some real grounding to it and I I’m really interested in my own journey on that.
[00:35:28] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:35:28] And your last one for the quick fire round what’s in store for
still with these thoughts in 2021?
[00:35:30] Ross Stevenson: [00:35:30] It’s probably well, domination, more random thoughts. Um, lots of controversial topics and, uh, yeah. Yeah, just more stuff, more kind of stuff that interests me is, again, going back to my whole kind of purpose that I said about helping people, but even though they are possible, you know, being kick-ass humans.
[00:35:57] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:35:57] Well, I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for a while and [00:36:00] it’s been worth the wait, thank you very much for your time and thanks for coming on the show
[00:36:01] Ross Stevenson: [00:36:01]. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[00:36:05] Nelson Sivalingam: [00:36:05] Alright. So there you have it. Thank you for tuning into the episode. Hopefully Ross shared some tips that you’re now itching to put into practice.
[00:36:12] You can keep up with Ross, at stealthesethoughts.com and you can also learn more about what we do at gethownowstage.wpengine.com. If you want any of the links that are mentioned in the episode, please check out the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, please do think about subscribing, sharing, leaving us a review or telling a friend.
[00:36:33] It goes a long way in helping the show grow. Thanks and see you next time.
Every enterprise learning platform now claims AI, but few build it into how skills, content and coaching work. HowNow leads this list of the top AI enterprise learning software, with a skills graph, adaptive pathways and an AI coach in one platform.
Docebo suits large organisations training customers and partners alongside employees. Absorb LMS fits teams that want AI agents grounded in their own approved content.
1. HowNow
HowNow is an AI-native learning platform that brings courses, coaching, communities and career paths into one place. It replaces the traditional LMS and personalises learning to each person's skills.
The difference starts with skills. HowNow's skills graph reads skills from real work, not a self-assessment form nobody fills in. There's no six-month taxonomy project to run first.
AI runs through every feature. Guru, the AI coach, answers questions from your own content, runs role-plays and builds dashboards on request. HowNow Plus adds 50,000+ skills-mapped resources, and it plugs into ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude so your AI tools draw on trusted content.
Key Features
AI pathway builder: Personalised learning paths built from skills gaps, role context, and business goals. Automatically.
Adaptive learning: Every learner gets a personalised path based on their role, skills, and progress. 1:1 learning at scale.
AI curation: The right content found, tagged, and organised from your internal sources and external libraries. Surfaced automatically.
Learning communities: Peer expertise made visible, structured, and searchable. Your best knowledge captured and available to everyone.
Skills graph: Every skill and every gap visible. The intelligence that connects performance gaps to the learning that will close them.
Career paths: Every employee sees their skills, their gaps, and where they can grow. Real paths that drive engagement without mandating it.
AI Performance coaching: Answers, practice, feedback, and proactive coaching, delivered where your people already work. Connected to real work signals.
Trusted content: Expert knowledge your AI can actually use. Every recommendation grounded in real expertise, not generic results.
Unified Search: Pulls any course, document, or expert answer from one search box across your tools.
In-flow delivery: Serves learning inside Slack, Teams and the browser, where people already work.
Pricing
HowNow doesn't publish a price list. Pricing is quoted per organisation after a demo, and there's an ROI calculator on the pricing page if you want to model the investment first.
Essentials - £60/user/year, Centralised learning with built-in compliance
Pro - £80/user/year, Personalised learning for every role, powered by AI, with zero admin
Plus - +£45/user/year, Curated learning from top providers, ready to use, skills-mapped, included in one subscription
Rating
G2: 4.5/5
2. Docebo
Docebo is an enterprise learning platform used by 3,500+ organisations, including PwC. Its strength is training employees, customers and partners from one system. In 2026 it bought 365Talents for skills intelligence and announced AgentHub. Our Docebo alternatives guide and Docebo vs Cornerstone comparison go deeper.
Key Features
Harmony AI: Gives learners a 24/7 tutor and conversational search across the courses they can access
AgentHub: Runs no-code AI agents on scheduled workflows such as compliance triage, launching autumn 2026
Skills Intelligence: Detects skills and gaps across the workforce, powered by the 365Talents acquisition
Skills-based internal mobility: Employees are matched to roles, projects and opportunities on verified skills rather than job titles or CVs
Pricing
Docebo doesn't publish prices. Its Elevate and Enterprise tiers are custom-quoted and billed on active users. It's aimed at organisations training 250+ learners, with a one-year minimum.
Rating
G2: 4.3/5
3. Absorb LMS
Absorb LMS is used by 3,500+ organisations, including Sony, Samsung and Toyota. It covers employee training, compliance and customer education from one system.
In May 2026, it launched Absorb Aura, a set of AI agents for learners and admins. Aura is grounded in each customer's approved content and isolated by tenant, which helps when IT asks where training data goes.
Key Features
Absorb Aura: Deploys AI agents for learners and admins, grounded in your approved content and isolated by tenant
Aura Create: Builds and updates courses through conversation instead of a blank authoring screen
Absorb Skills: Maps learning to 12,000+ job skills and 200+ competencies, for Amplify Max subscribers
AI recommendations and search ranking: The learner dashboard suggests courses based on each person's data and interests
Pricing
Absorb doesn't publish pricing.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5
4. 360Learning
360Learning is a collaborative learning platform used by 2,500+ organisations, including Cisco and Michelin. Subject-matter experts build courses directly, with L&D keeping quality control.
Its AI Companion, launched in October 2025, gives learners personalised search and recommendations on every plan. AI coaching and role-play are on the roadmap but not live yet.
Key Features
Collaborative authoring: Lets experts across the business co-author courses, included on every plan
AI Content Builder: Generates courses and questions from your existing source material
AI Companion: Gives learners personalised search, recommendations and real-time help
Agentic automation: An AI agent handles catalogue clean-up, reporting and instant course translations, with conversational BI for asking data questions in plain language.
Pricing
360Learning publishes its Team plan at $8 per user per month for up to 100 users, billed monthly with a 30-day free trial. Business and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5
5. Disprz
Disprz is an AI-native learning and skilling platform used by 500+ enterprises, including Amazon, EY and PUMA. It combines an LMS, LXP and skills engine, built mobile-first for frontline workforces.
Its Atomic Skills Model maps granular skills and proficiency levels to each role, then builds pathways and career plans from the gaps. Turo, its agentic content builder, speeds up course creation on usage-based credits.
Key Features
Atomic Skills Model: Maps granular skills and proficiency levels to every job role
AI pathways: Builds personalised learning journeys, career paths and development plans from skill gaps
Turo: Uses agentic AI to build learning content at scale, charged on usage credits
Blended learning delivery: Runs instructor-led, virtual, microlearning and on-the-job training from one LMS, with automated workflows, approvals and certification tracking
Pricing
Disprz publishes an entry price. Essentials starts at $2 per learner per month, while Enterprise, which adds skills, career paths and AI content, is custom-quoted.
Rating
G2: 4.4/5
6. Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone is one of the biggest names in enterprise learning, used by around 7,000 organisations in 186 countries. Its suite covers learning, performance, recruiting and succession, assembled through acquisitions over many years.
In May 2026 it launched Cornerstone Workforce AI, which combines workforce and labour-market data to target learning. The breadth suits HR-led global programmes, though reviewers often find the platform heavy to run.
Key Features
Workforce AI: Combines workforce and labour-market data to target learning and surface hidden talent
People Graph: Pulls signals from HRIS, ATS, CRM and project tools to build skill profiles
Readiness Agents: Runs agentic AI for workforce tasks, with links into Slack, Teams and Copilot
Personalised recommendations: The platform learns what each person knows, what they're working on, and where they're heading
Pricing
Cornerstone doesn't publish pricing.
Rating
G2: 4.1/5
7. Degreed
Degreed is a learning and skills platform with 10 million activated users in 160+ countries. It brings content from thousands of providers into one experience, with customers including HSBC and Ericsson.
Its AI coach, Maestro, works in text and voice and runs role-plays with structured feedback. Capgemini used Degreed to train 150,000 employees in 10 weeks. We've also written about Degreed alternatives.
Key Features
Maestro: Coaches people by text or voice, runs role-plays and curates pathways
Skill Review: Assesses proficiency through adaptive, behaviour-based questions developed with psychometricians
Degreed Academies: Runs cohort-based programmes for longer, structured development
Maestro Studio: L&D teams build and launch custom AI coaches, roleplays, quizzes, surveys and forms in minutes
Pricing
Degreed doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.3/5
8. Thrive Learning
Thrive is a UK-built L&D platform used by 500+ organisations and 5 million people in 60+ countries. It combines learning, mentoring, communities and internal comms, with customers including Volvo and British Airways.
Its AI agent, Kiki, comes included at no extra cost and covers coaching, content creation, analytics and admin. Mentoring is built in too, which saves buying a separate tool. Our Thrive alternatives guide goes further.
Key Features
Kiki AI agent: Works in five modes, Coach, Creator, Analyst, Admin and Assistant, at no extra cost
Mentoring: Matches mentors and mentees, sets goals and tracks impact
Skills and pathways: Maps skills to roles, finds gaps and builds pathways to close them
Pricing
Thrive publishes pricing through an online calculator, with no form or sales call needed. Larger tiers still go through a demo.
Rating
G2: 4.5/5
9. Skillsoft Percipio
Skillsoft Percipio is an AI-driven skills platform backed by one of the largest content libraries in corporate learning, with 325,000+ learning assets. Skillsoft says 60% of the Fortune 1000 use it.
Its AI role-play tool, CAISY, lets people rehearse difficult conversations and get scored feedback in Practice mode. Percipio suits organisations that value library breadth over bespoke, skills-mapped learning.
Key Features
CAISY: Lets people rehearse conversations with AI in Practice, Role Model and Guiding modes
AI Coach: Turns development needs into coaching goals, aligned to ICF standards
Skill Benchmarks: Assesses skills to show gaps across teams
AI content creation: L&D teams build custom courses, simulations and assessments in minutes, then update them as priorities shift
Pricing
Skillsoft's self-serve figures sit on its pricing page.
Individual: $25 per month, or $269 per year, with a 45-day free trial
Teams: $20 per seat per month billed annually, up to 300 seats, with a 30-day free trial
Enterprise: custom pricing above 300 seats
Rating
G2: 4.1/5
10. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning offers 24,000+ expert-led courses, backed by skills insights from LinkedIn's network of more than 1 billion members. Customers include LEGO and Siemens.
Its AI coach answers questions from LinkedIn Learning courses and links to the source course, so people can check what they're told. Many teams run it inside another platform, for example through HowNow’s LinkedIn Learning integration.
Key Features
AI-powered coaching: Answers questions using LinkedIn Learning courses, with a link to the source course
AI role play: Lets people practise workplace conversations by voice or text, on Enterprise and Premium plans
Skills insights: Draws on LinkedIn's member data to show trending and in-demand skills
AI-assisted content curation: AI-powered search helps admins and learners find the right content quickly, instead of browsing thousands of courses
Pricing
Teams: $379.88 per licence per year, for 2 to 20 licences, with a one-month free trial
Enterprise and Career Hub: no published price, contact sales
Rating
G2: 4.4/5
Looking for the top AI enterprise learning software?
Your three-year LMS contract is up for renewal, and the engagement numbers are hard to defend. Every vendor on your shortlist says it has AI. For some, that means a coach that knows your business. For others, it means a button that writes quiz questions.
Most buying mistakes happen in the gap between those two. So we compared 10 platforms on what the AI actually does, how each handles skills, cost, and G2 reviews.
Why listen to us?
We build HowNow for L&D teams who have outgrown a traditional LMS. We see which AI features change how people learn, and which only shine in a demo.
Hotelplan mapped 300+ job roles to skills in one month, reached 99% activation and saw 78% of employees feel confident in their role skills. Infinity Works hit 97% activation within four months.
Trainline halved the time its people spend on compliance training, and Operatix ramped new starters 33% faster. Radius upskilled 3,000 managers, and FitFlop took positive sentiment on access to L&D from 0 to 69%.
So we judge AI platforms the way our customers do: does the AI get people to the right learning faster, and can L&D prove it? See more on our customer stories page.
What is AI enterprise learning software?
AI enterprise learning software is a corporate learning platform that uses AI to personalise, deliver and measure employee development. It maps learning to each person's role and skills, recommends next steps and coaches people as they work.
Why is AI enterprise learning software important?
People actually engage: Generic catalogues get ignored. When learning maps to role-specific skills, people open it because it helps with this week's work.
L&D spends less time on admin: Manual assignment, completion chasing and hand-built reports eat hours every week. AI handles recommendations, nudges and dashboards instead.
Skills become visible: Most organisations can't say what their workforce can do today. Skills-aware AI builds that picture, which is why skills-first learning is becoming the default.
Compliance is easier to prove: Automated assignment, tracking and renewals keep audit evidence in one place, so nobody stitches spreadsheets at midnight.
Learning connects to business results: Leaders want proof that training moved performance. Joined-up learning, skills and performance data provides it.
Selection criteria: how we evaluated
Every vendor now calls itself AI-powered, so we looked past the labels. We scored each platform on five criteria.
AI depth: We checked whether AI runs through the whole platform or sits in one corner, and what data feeds it. AI trained on real work signals beats a chatbot added to a course catalogue.
Skills approach: Looked at how each platform builds its picture of employee skills. Skills read from real work stay current, while self-reported forms go stale the week they're filled in.
Content: We weighed the size, quality and skills-mapping of both internal and off-the-shelf content. A huge library means little if people can't find what closes their gaps.
AI governance: Asked where your data goes, whether AI answers are grounded in approved content, and how much control admins have. This matters most for regulated teams.
Pricing and proof: We rated how open each vendor is about pricing, read what G2 reviewers say, and looked for named customers showing real results.
No platform wins on every criterion. The right choice depends on which of these matters most to your team today.
How to choose
Start with the problem, not the feature list. If you're a mid-to-large enterprise that wants learning, skills, coaching, and content in one AI-native platform, HowNow is built for that. If you train customers and partners at real scale, Docebo or Absorb are worth a look.
If expert-led content matters most, 360Learning has a transparent entry price. Frontline-heavy organisations should shortlist Disprz, while global enterprises wanting recruiting and succession in one suite will lean towards Cornerstone. Skillsoft Percipio and LinkedIn Learning suit teams that mainly need library breadth.
Whatever you choose, ask each vendor to show the AI working on your own content.
Choose AI that changes how your people learn
Every platform here uses AI in some form. The real question is whether it knows your people's skills, works from your content and proves results.
HowNow was built for exactly that. Hotelplan hit 99% activation, Trainline halved compliance training time, and TomTom reached 100% onboarding completion. Each came from one platform joining learning, skills, coaching, and reporting.
Ready to see it working on your own content? Book a demo and see HowNow in action.
FAQs
What's the difference between AI enterprise learning software and a traditional LMS?
A traditional LMS hosts courses and tracks completions. AI enterprise learning software personalises learning to each person's role and skills, recommends what to do next and coaches people in the flow of work.
How do I know if an AI learning platform is trustworthy?
Check whether the AI grounds its answers in your approved content and whether your data stays within your tenant. Ask who controls what the AI can see. Then test it live on your own documents during the demo.
How much does AI enterprise learning software cost?
It varies widely. 360Learning's Team plan starts at $8 per user per month, and Disprz Essentials at $2 per learner per month. HowNow, Docebo, Absorb, Cornerstone and Degreed quote pricing based on your size and needs.
Can AI enterprise learning software handle compliance training?
Yes. The strongest platforms automate assignment by role, track renewals and keep audit trails in one place. With HowNow's compliance training tools, you can assign, track and prove completion without rebuilding spreadsheets before every audit.
The best learning experience platform is the one your people actually open, because it shows them learning that fits their role. HowNow leads this list for mid-to-large organisations that want LMS, LXP, skills and content in one AI-native platform, with skills read from real work. 360Learning is the pick if you want subject-matter experts building your courses. Degreed suits large enterprises with a mature skills strategy and the budget to match.
The 10 best learning experience platforms
No.
Platform
Best for
Pricing
G2 rating
1
HowNow
Mid-to-large enterprises wanting learning tied to real skills
Demo-led, ROI calculator on pricing page
4.5/5
2
360Learning
SME-led, collaborative course creation
From $8/user/month
4.6/5
3
Degreed
Enterprise skills strategy and assessment
Custom quoted
4.3/5
4
Docebo
Large, multi-audience enterprise training
Custom quoted
4.3/5
5
Cornerstone OnDemand
Global enterprises wanting learning and talent in one suite
Custom quoted
4.1/5
6
Thrive Learning
UK organisations wanting built-in AI, mentoring and communities
$34,000 for 100 learners
4.5/5
7
Absorb LMS
Structured training with AI grounded in your own content
Custom quoted
4.6/5
8
LearnUpon
Training employees, customers and partners from one login
Quoted, from 100 users
4.5/5
9
Kallidus
UK organisations with heavy compliance needs
Custom quoted
4.4/5
10
TalentLMS
Small teams that want to launch quickly
Free plan, paid from $119/month
4.6/5
1. HowNow
HowNow is an AI-native learning platform that brings courses, coaching, communities and career paths into one place. We built it for organisations of 250 to 5,000 people that have outgrown a traditional LMS.
The difference starts with skills. Our skills graph reads skills from real work, not from a form nobody fills in, so content stays relevant as roles change. Guru, our AI coach, runs through the whole platform, answering questions, running role-plays and building dashboards when you ask.
HowNow Plus adds a curated, skills-mapped content library that your people and your AI tools can both draw on. And because onboarding, compliance, leadership development and careers all run on one platform, your reporting stays joined up.
Key Features
AI pathway builder: Personalised learning paths built from skills gaps, role context, and business goals. Automatically.
Adaptive learning: Every learner gets a personalised path based on their role, skills, and progress. 1:1 learning at scale.
AI curation: The right content found, tagged, and organised from your internal sources and external libraries. Surfaced automatically.
Learning communities: Peer expertise made visible, structured, and searchable. Your best knowledge captured and available to everyone.
Skills graph: Every skill and every gap visible. The intelligence that connects performance gaps to the learning that will close them.
Career paths: Every employee sees their skills, their gaps, and where they can grow. Real paths that drive engagement without mandating it.
AI Performance coaching: Answers, practice, feedback, and proactive coaching, delivered where your people already work. Connected to real work signals.
Trusted content: Expert knowledge your AI can actually use. Every recommendation grounded in real expertise, not generic results.
Unified Search: Pulls any course, document or expert answer from one search box across your tools.
In-flow delivery: Serves learning inside Slack, Teams and the browser, where people already work.
Pricing
Essentials - £60/user/year, Centralised learning with built-in compliance
Pro - £80/user/year, Personalised learning for every role, powered by AI, with zero admin
Plus - +£45/user/year, Curated learning from top providers, ready to use, skills-mapped, included in one subscription
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
2. 360Learning
360Learning is a collaborative learning platform built on one idea: the people who know the subject should create the training. Its AI Content Builder helps subject-matter experts turn what they know into courses, while L&D keeps final approval.
More than 2,500 customers use it, including Cisco, Duolingo and Michelin. If you're weighing it up, our guide to 360Learning alternatives compares it with the wider market.
Key Features
AI Content Builder: Helps subject-matter experts build courses quickly, with L&D oversight before anything goes live
Learning Needs: Lets employees request training topics and upvote each other's requests, so content follows real demand
Skills library: Starts you with 20,000 standard skills, plus a free SkillsGPT to help shape your own framework
Academies: Runs dedicated learning spaces for different teams and communities
Pricing
Team: $8 per user per month. Business and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
3. Degreed
Degreed is one of the original learning experience platforms, built for large enterprises that want to connect learning to a skills strategy. It pulls content from internal and external sources into one searchable home.
The company reports 10 million activated users across 160+ countries, and Capgemini used it to train 150,000 employees in ten weeks.
Key Features
Skill Review: Assesses skill levels through an adaptive questionnaire of behavioural questions, developed with psychometricians
Four rating sources: Combines Skill Review, manager, peer and self-ratings into one skill profile
Maestro: Coaches people by text and voice, with AI role-plays scored against custom rubrics
Academies: Builds structured programmes for specific teams or capabilities
Pricing
Degreed doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.3/5.
4. Docebo
Docebo is an enterprise learning platform that now describes itself as an AI workforce readiness platform. It suits large organisations training employees, customers and partners from one system.
More than 3,900 customers use it, with over 30 million users across 70+ countries.
Key Features
AI assistant: Helps learners find answers and helps admins create course content faster
Content Marketplace: Gives access to over 30,000 courses and professional certifications
MCP server: Lets admins run Docebo tasks from Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini, generally available since July 2026
Extended enterprise: Runs separate, branded learning for customers and partners alongside employee training
Pricing
Docebo's pricing page lists two tiers, Elevate and Enterprise, both quoted by sales.
Rating
G2: 4.3/5.
5. Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone is a legacy giant in enterprise learning and talent, and it relaunched its platform as Cornerstone Workforce AI in May 2026. Its learning experience platform, formerly EdCast, is one part of a much wider talent suite.
About 7,000 organisations use Cornerstone across 180+ countries. The suite has grown through acquisitions, including Saba, SumTotal, EdCast and SkyHive, which brings breadth but also complexity.
Key Features
Skills Engine: Draws on a taxonomy of 55,000+ skills, powered by labour-market data from SkyHive
Content Subscriptions: Offers Silver, Gold and , Gold and Platinum in 10+ languages
Readiness agents: Uses AI agents to map roles, skills and future workforce needs
Compliance management: Tracks certifications and audit evidence across global teams
Pricing
Cornerstone doesn't publish pricing.
Rating
G2: 4.1/5.
6. Thrive Learning
Thrive is a UK-built platform that brings learning, communities, mentoring and internal knowledge together. It now positions itself as an AI-powered LMS, but its social feed and mentoring give it a strong LXP feel.
More than 500 organisations use Thrive across 60+ countries, including Specsavers, Volvo and British Airways.
Key Features
Kiki AI: Works in five modes, including Coach, Analyst and Content Creator, at no extra cost
Skill pathways: Maps skills to roles and builds pathways that close each person's gaps
Mentoring: Matches mentors and mentees, included at no extra cost
Content library: Includes 1,000+ ready-made resources, with 2,500+ more in the separate Thrive Content product
Pricing
Price starts at $34000 per 1-100 learners, $48263 from 501-600 learners onwards
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
7. Absorb LMS
Absorb is an LMS with strong LXP features, used by 3,500+ organisations including Sony, Samsung and Toyota. In May 2026 it launched Aura, a set of AI agents grounded in each customer's own approved content.
Forrester named Absorb a Leader in its Q4 2025 Wave for learning management systems and experience platforms.
Key Features
Absorb Aura: Runs AI agents for learners, course creation and admin tasks, grounded in your own content
Absorb Skills: Maps learning to 200+ competencies and 12,000+ skills
Absorb Amplify: Adds a library of 20,000+ pre-built courses
Absorb Infuse: Embeds learning inside the other tools your people use
Pricing
Absorb doesn't publish pricing. Its pricing form asks for your learner count.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
8. LearnUpon
LearnUpon relaunched in July 2026 as an agentic learning platform. Its biggest strength is running separate, branded portals for employees, customers and partners from one admin login.
More than 1,700 organisations use it, and its support team is available around the clock. It's a strong pick when external training matters as much as internal learning.
Key Features
Portals: Creates unique, branded learning environments for each audience from one place
LearnUpon IQ: Acts as an AI coordinator that connects every part of the platform
Create+: Builds courses with AI, which LearnUpon says is up to 90% faster
Learning Journeys: Sequences courses with prerequisites, timed release and certifications
Pricing
LearnUpon doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
9. Kallidus
Kallidus is a UK-based learning and performance provider with more than 1,000 customers and 2 million users. Its Learn LMS is built for compliance-heavy organisations, with AI recommendations and skills tools in the higher tiers.
It's more LMS than pure LXP, but it earns a place here for UK teams that need strong compliance alongside a modern learner experience.
Key Features
Learn LMS: Manages courses, compliance and instructor-led training in one system
Power BI reporting: Embeds Power BI natively for detailed reporting
Off-the-shelf content: Includes 250+ ready-made courses
Kallidus Intelligence: Adds AI to help L&D teams focus on impact rather than activity
Pricing
Kallidus doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.4/5.
10. TalentLMS
TalentLMS is a cloud LMS for small and mid-sized teams that want training live quickly. More than 70,000 teams use it.
It's one of the few platforms here with a free plan and fully published pricing. If budget is tight, it's an easy place to start.
Key Features
TalentCraft: Generates courses with AI, with credits that vary by plan
Gamification: Adds points, badges and leaderboards on every plan
Learning Playground: Gives your team a space to practise and build confidence
TalentLibrary: Offers 1,000+ ready-made courses as a paid add-on
Pricing
Free for up to 5 users
Core: $119/month (up to 40 users)
Grow: $229/month (up to 70)
Pro: $449/month (up to 100)
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
Why teams are looking for a new learning experience platform
Your three-year LMS contract is up for renewal. The engagement survey put development in the bottom three. And logins still only spike in compliance week.
If any of that sounds familiar, you're probably not short of content. You're short of a platform that knows your people well enough to show them what matters.
A learning experience platform is built to solve exactly this. It personalises learning around each person's role and skills, and it reaches them in the tools they already use. We compared 10 LXPs on skills, AI, pricing and verified G2 ratings, so you can build your shortlist faster.
Why listen to us?
We build HowNow, an AI-native learning platform, and we spend every day helping L&D teams at 250 to 5,000-person companies fix engagement. We've seen what gets people logging in, and what only looks good in a demo.
The proof comes from our customers. TomTom reached 90% learner activation and 100% onboarding completion after launching its TomTom Academy on HowNow. Hotelplan mapped more than 300 job roles to skills in a single month, and 78% of its people now feel confident in their role skills.
Trainline cut compliance training time by 50% with in-house content. Infinity Works passed 97% activation within four months. At AND Digital, 75% of employees use HowNow every working day.
A learning experience platform (LXP) is software that personalises learning for each employee. It pulls courses, internal knowledge and third-party content into one place, then recommends what fits each person's role, skills and goals.
A traditional learning management system (LMS) works the other way round. L&D assigns courses, tracks completions and reports on compliance. It's built for administrators first.
Today the line between the two is blurry. Most leading platforms now combine LMS control with LXP personalisation, so the better question is how well a platform understands your people. Our LXP vs LMS guide goes deeper on the difference.
Aspect
LMS
LXP
Built for
Administrators
Learners
Content
Courses assigned by L&D
Courses, internal knowledge and third-party content
Personalisation
The same training for everyone in a group
Recommendations by role, skills and goals
Success measure
Completions
Skills built and ongoing engagement
Why a learning experience platform matters
People come back: Generic content gets ignored. When learning maps to each person's role and skill gaps, what shows up in their feed is worth opening.
You can see your skills: Instead of guessing what your workforce can do, you get a live view of where skills are strong and where the gaps are.
Admin shrinks: Automated pathways, smart recommendations and built-in reporting let a small L&D team run learning for thousands of people.
Compliance stops being a chase: You can assign, track and prove compliance training in one place, without stitching audit trails together from spreadsheets.
Impact becomes provable: When learning, skills and performance data live together, you can show the board what changed, not just what got completed.
How to choose the right learning experience platform
Start with the problem you're trying to fix. If people aren't engaging, you need personalisation built on real skills data, and HowNow is built for that. If your experts hold knowledge that never gets written down, 360Learning's collaborative model fits.
For large enterprises with mature skills programmes, Degreed and Cornerstone cover the most ground. Docebo, Absorb and LearnUpon suit teams that train customers and partners alongside employees.
If you're a UK organisation focused on compliance, Kallidus and Thrive know that market well. And for small teams on a budget, TalentLMS is the quickest way to get started.
Whichever platforms make your shortlist, ask each vendor the same question: how does your platform know what skills my people have? The answer tells you how good every recommendation will be.
Find the learning experience platform your people will actually use
Most learning experience platforms promise personalisation. Far fewer can explain where their skills data comes from, or prove that people keep coming back after launch.
HowNow reads skills from real work and puts AI coaching into the tools your people already use. It also gives you one view of learning, skills and performance. TomTom, Hotelplan and Trainline chose it for those reasons, and their results show their people keep using it.
If you're heading into a renewal or rethinking your learning stack, book a demo and see HowNow in action.
FAQs
What is the difference between an LMS and an LXP?
An LMS is built for administrators to assign courses, track completions and report on compliance. An LXP is built for learners, recommending content based on each person's role, skills and goals. Most modern platforms, including HowNow, now combine both.
What is the best learning experience platform?
It depends on your size and goals. HowNow is the strongest pick for organisations of 250 to 5,000 people that want skills-based personalisation and AI coaching in one platform. 360Learning suits SME-led content creation, and Degreed suits large enterprise skills programmes.
How much does a learning experience platform cost?
HowNow quotes per organisation after a demo, based on your headcount and needs. Degreed, Docebo and Cornerstone also price by quote, 360Learning starts at $8 per user per month, and TalentLMS has a free plan.
Can an LXP replace an LMS?
Yes, if it includes LMS essentials like course assignment, compliance tracking and reporting. Platforms like HowNow combine LXP personalisation with those admin tools, so you can run onboarding, compliance and upskilling in one place instead of two.
What features should a learning experience platform have?
Look for skills mapping, personalised pathways, AI search and coaching, content curation, social learning and integrations with Slack, Teams and your HRIS. Most importantly, check how the platform builds its skills data.
Most online training software for employees promises personalisation and delivers a catalogue nobody opens. We compared 10 platforms on AI depth, skills relevance, engagement, reporting, pricing and G2 ratings. Below you'll find a quick comparison, honest reviews with pros and cons, and a simple way to choose. HowNow comes out on top for skills-based, personalised learning that people actually come back to.
Quick summary
Most online training software for employees promises personalisation and delivers a catalogue nobody opens. We compared 10 platforms on AI depth, skills relevance, engagement, reporting, pricing and G2 ratings. Below you'll find a quick comparison, honest reviews with pros and cons, and a simple way to choose. HowNow comes out on top for skills-based, personalised learning that people actually come back to.
10 best online training software for employees
Platform
Best for
Starting price
G2 rating
HowNow
Mid-to-large enterprises with knowledge workers and high-skilled teams
Begins at £60/user/year
4.5/5
360Learning
Collaborative course creation by subject-matter experts
$8/user/month (Team plan)
4.6/5
Docebo
Training employees, customers and partners in one platform
Custom (demo-led, typically 250+ learners)
4.3/5
LearnUpon
Training employees and external audiences with strong support
Custom (employee plans from 100 users)
4.5/5
TalentLMS
Small teams that want to start free
Free; paid from $119/month (billed yearly)
4.6/5
iSpring LMS
Paying only for active learners
$6.91/active user/month (100 users)
4.6/5
Absorb
Compliance and partner training with strong reporting
Custom
4.6/5
Thrive
Social, engaging learning with published pricing
$34,000 for 100 learners
4.5/5
Kallidus
UK organisations with heavy compliance needs
Custom
4.4/5
Cornerstone OnDemand
Global enterprises wanting a full talent suite
Custom
4.1/5
1. HowNow
HowNow is an AI-native learning platform that brings learning, coaching, communities and careers into one place. It works out what each person needs to learn, then builds a path around those gaps.
Most training platforms start with content and hope people find what's relevant. Our AI Skill Graph reads real work activity and infers the skills people actually demonstrate. It draws on a skills framework covering more than 30,000 job roles, so you won't spend months building a taxonomy before launch.
Our AI coach, Guru, answers questions from your own content and runs role-play practice with instant feedback. And because the platform covers everything from onboarding and compliance to upskilling and leadership development, you're not stitching four tools together. L&D teams can also ask Guru about their data and turn the answer into a dashboard to share with leadership.
The results show up in activation, not just completion. When Infinity Works rolled out HowNow, 97% of their team was using it within four months.
Key Features
AI pathway builder: Personalised learning paths built from skills gaps, role context, and business goals. Automatically.
Adaptive learning: Every learner gets a personalised path based on their role, skills, and progress. 1:1 learning at scale.
AI curation: The right content found, tagged, and organised from your internal sources and external libraries. Surfaced automatically.
Learning communities: Peer expertise made visible, structured, and searchable. Your best knowledge captured and available to everyone.
Skills graph: Every skill and every gap visible. The intelligence that connects performance gaps to the learning that will close them.
Career paths: Every employee sees their skills, their gaps, and where they can grow. Real paths that drive engagement without mandating it.
AI Performance coaching: Answers, practice, feedback, and proactive coaching — delivered where your people already work. Connected to real work signals.
Trusted content: Expert knowledge your AI can actually use. Every recommendation grounded in real expertise, not generic results.
Unified Search: Pulls any course, document or expert answer from one search box across your tools.
In-flow delivery: Serves learning inside Slack, Teams and the browser, where people already work.
Pricing
Essentials - £60/user/year, Centralised learning with built-in compliance
Pro - £80/user/year, Personalised learning for every role, powered by AI, with zero admin
Plus - +£45/user/year, Curated learning from top providers, ready to use, skills-mapped, included in one subscription
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
2. 360Learning
360Learning is built around collaborative learning. Subject-matter experts write and update courses themselves, and L&D reviews and approves them before they go live.
Its AI Content Builder turns existing documents into structured courses and generates quizzes in more than 10 question formats. It suits companies that want to turn internal know-how into training quickly. Our 360Learning alternatives guide compares it with similar tools.
Key features
Collaborative authoring: Experts co-author courses, with comments and L&D approval workflows
AI Content Builder: Turns documents or prompts into courses and quizzes
AI translation and grading: Translates courses and scores open-text answers automatically
80+ integrations: It includes Workday, Slack, BambooHR, and HRIS tools.
Pricing
The Team plan runs $8/user/month for up to 100 users. Business and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
3. Docebo
Docebo is an enterprise learning platform that trains employees, customers and partners from one system. Its extended enterprise setup gives each audience a separately branded portal with its own admin rights.
Docebo's AI turns prompts, PDFs, and documents into structured courses with knowledge checks, and tags content automatically. You can also add third-party libraries such as Go1 and OpenSesame. It's powerful, but reviewers regularly mention a steep setup curve. Our Docebo alternatives guide covers lighter options.
Key features
AI course creation: Builds courses from prompts and documents, with translation into 46 languages
Content marketplace: Access to third-party libraries including Go1 and OpenSesame
Extended enterprise: Separately branded portals for customers, partners, and resellers
Skills Intelligence: It infers employee skills from roles and projects.
Pricing
Docebo doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.3/5.
4. LearnUpon
LearnUpon is a cloud LMS that trains employees, customers and association members from one account. More than 1,700 organisations use it, and its Portals feature gives each audience its own branded learning space.
It now calls itself an agentic learning platform. AI agents help build and update content, surface capability gaps and take routine admin off your plate. Every plan includes an implementation consultant and 24/7 support. Our LearnUpon alternatives guide compares it with similar tools.
Key features
Learning Journeys: Role-based training paths that personalise learning at scale
Create+: AI course authoring that builds modules up to 90% faster
Portals: Separate branded learning spaces for employees, customers and partners
LearnUpon IQ: AI agents that automate content updates and flag skills gaps
Pricing
LearnUpon doesn't publish prices. Employee training plans start at 100 users.
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
5. TalentLMS
TalentLMS is a cloud LMS known for being quick to set up and simple to use. It's a popular choice for small and mid-sized businesses running onboarding, compliance or partner training.
Its TalentCraft AI generates course pages, quizzes and flashcards from a prompt, and translates content into 15 languages. The free plan lets you test it properly before spending anything. The trade-off is depth, as reporting and customisation are lighter than enterprise tools.
Key features
Free plan: Train up to 5 users across 10 courses at no cost
TalentCraft AI: Generates course content, quizzes and translations from prompts
Learning paths: Structured training sequences for guided progression
Certification tracking: Automates assignment, completion, and renewal reminders.
Pricing
Free for up to 5 users
Core: $119/month (up to 40 users)
Grow: $229/month (up to 70)
Pro: $449/month (up to 100)
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
6. iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS, formerly iSpring Learn, is a simple corporate LMS with pay-per-active-user pricing. You can register as many people as you like and only pay for those who log in during the month.
It pairs closely with iSpring Suite, a PowerPoint-based authoring tool, so teams can turn existing slides into interactive courses. The mobile app supports offline learning and syncs progress once people reconnect. This helps field and frontline teams with patchy signal.
Key Features
Pay-per-active-user: Only pay for learners who actually log in
Offline mobile learning: Download courses and complete them without internet
iSpring Suite integration: Turn PowerPoint slides into interactive courses and simulations
Personalized learning tracks and development plans: Admins combine courses and assessments into chaptered tracks, with optional locked completion order.
Pricing
Business, 100 users: $6.91 per user/month, billed at $8,286 per year
Business, 300 users: $4.46 per user/month, billed at $16,050 per year
Business, 500 users: $3.97 per user/month, billed at $23,790 per year
Enterprise: Custom pricing through sales
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
7. Absorb
Absorb, formerly Absorb LMS, is a corporate learning platform used by more than 3,500 companies. It's strong on compliance, onboarding and training for customers and partners.
In 2026 it launched Absorb Aura, a set of AI agents. They help learners find answers, build courses from documents and take routine work off admins. Reporting is a real strength, with scheduled reports and an optional analytics add-on.
Key Features
Absorb Aura: AI agents for learner questions, course creation and admin support
Multi-portal branding: Separately branded portals for different audiences
Advanced reporting: Configurable, scheduled reports plus the Absorb Analyze add-on
Scalable architecture: Handles growing learner populations without performance drops
Pricing
Absorb doesn't publish pricing.
Rating
G2: 4.6/5.
8. Thrive
Thrive is a UK-based learning platform used by more than 500 organisations, including British Airways, Burger King and Specsavers. Its social, feed-style interface feels closer to a consumer app than a traditional LMS.
Its AI agent, Kiki, creates courses, quizzes and interactive modules from a prompt or an uploaded file. Mentoring with automatic matching comes as standard.
Key Features
Kiki AI agent: Creates courses, quizzes and interactive content from prompts or files
Mentoring: Built-in mentoring with automatic mentor and mentee matching
Off-the-shelf content: A 2,500+ resource library, plus six separate sector suites
Spaces: Provide community learning areas for collaboration and peer discussion.
Pricing
Price starts at $34000 per 1-100 learners, $48263 from 501-600 learners onwards
Rating
G2: 4.5/5.
9. Kallidus
Kallidus is a UK learning and performance company whose Learn LMS is popular in regulated sectors. It suits organisations that need compliance training to stay audit-ready without much fuss.
Its AI layer, Kallidus Intelligence, generates skills frameworks, tags content with skills and helps people set objectives. Kallidus also sells performance management and 250+ off-the-shelf courses, so learning and performance can be managed together.
Key features
Compliance tracking: Automated reminders, certifications and audit-ready records
Kallidus Intelligence: AI-generated skills frameworks and skills tagging for content
Performance management: Objectives and reviews connected to learning
Automated admin: Training is auto-assigned by group and category, with scheduled reminders and role-based permissions.
Pricing
Kallidus doesn't publish prices.
Rating
G2: 4.4/5.
10. Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand goes well past training. Learning, performance, succession, recruiting and skills all come in one suite, assembled largely through acquisitions such as Saba, EdCast and SumTotal.
In May 2026 it relaunched the platform as Cornerstone Workforce AI, with a skills engine and AI agents. It's sized for large, global organisations with dedicated admin teams.
Key Features
Full talent suite: Learning, performance, succession, recruiting and core HR
Skills engine: A skills library of 55,000+ skills, powered by its SkyHive acquisition
Global compliance: Compliance and certification management across multiple regions
Talent suite integration: Connects learning to performance, recruiting, and workforce planning
Pricing
Cornerstone doesn't publish pricing.
Rating
G2: 4.1/5.
Most training software promises personalisation but delivers a course catalogue
Most L&D teams know the pattern. You launch a new platform, logins spike in compliance week, and then everything goes quiet. According to LinkedIn's 2025 Workplace Learning Report, 88% of organisations worry about retention, and learning is their top retention strategy.
So a platform nobody opens is a business problem, not just an awkward dashboard. Completion rates look fine, but ask a manager whether the training changed anything and you'll get a shrug.
Why listen to us?
We built HowNow because we kept seeing the same thing at organisation after organisation. They'd buy a learning platform, load it up, and watch engagement drop off. So we built a platform around skills instead of catalogues, and our customers' results show the difference.
TomTom reached 90% activation across 3,500 people and 100% onboarding completion. Orbus cut a two-day training process down to 2.5 hours. At AND Digital, 75% of employees use HowNow every working day.
We also talk to L&D leaders every week who are replacing a platform that didn't work out. So we know the questions worth asking.
What is online training software for employees?
Online training software lets you deliver learning content digitally, and at its simplest it's just a course library with a login. The more advanced platforms map training to skills, so each person sees content that's relevant to their role.
You'll see it sold under a few labels. A learning management system (LMS) focuses on assigning and tracking courses. A learning experience platform (LXP) focuses on discovery and personalisation.
Why is online training software important?
Skills needs are changing faster than most organisations can keep up. In a 2025 Gartner survey, 48% of HR leaders said demand for new skills is evolving faster than their talent structures can support. Good training software helps you respond without doubling the size of your L&D team.
Onboarding is faster and more consistent. Every new starter gets the same baseline, wherever they join.
You can track compliance properly. Assign mandatory training, set deadlines, and pull an audit trail in seconds.
You can see where the skills gaps are. Good software shows you where the gaps are across your organisation, not just who finished a course.
You can train more people without growing your L&D team. The platform assigns courses, sends reminders, and pulls reports for you, so your L&D team doesn't have to do it manually.
Learning reaches people where they work. The best platforms deliver training inside Slack, Teams or the browser, so nobody has to remember another login.
Selection criteria: how we evaluated
We scored each platform on six things that matter most to L&D teams at organisations of 250 to 5,000 people.
AI depth: Does AI adapt learning to each person, or just recommend popular courses?
Skills relevance: Can the platform connect training to the skills each role needs?
Engagement: Will people use it, including inside the tools they already work in?
Admin and reporting: How much manual work does it remove, and can you prove impact?
Pricing transparency: Is pricing published, and how does it scale as you grow?
User ratings: We checked G2 ratings and common review themes in September 2026.
How to choose
Start with the problem you most need to solve. If it's making training relevant to each person's role, HowNow and Sana Learn both personalise learning around skills rather than just delivering courses.
If you need to train employees, customers, and partners from one system, Docebo and Absorb both offer separately branded portals. Cornerstone makes sense if you want learning, performance and recruiting in one enterprise suite.
For smaller teams watching their budget, TalentLMS has a free plan and iSpring LMS only charges for people who log in. If compliance is the main driver, Kallidus keeps it simple.
Whatever you shortlist, run a trial with real employees, not just the L&D team. Features and pricing matter, but your team won't use a platform that doesn't feel relevant to them.
If you want one that maps learning to skills from day one, book a HowNow demo and bring that manager who shrugged.
FAQs
How much does online training software cost?
Costs vary widely. Tools with published pricing, like iSpring, run roughly $4 to $7 per user per month, while most enterprise platforms use custom quotes. HowNow prices through a demo based on your team's size and needs.
Do i need an LMS or an LXP?
An LMS is where you store and assign courses. An LXP puts learners in control and recommends content based on their role and skills. Most modern platforms, including HowNow and Sana Learn, now do both.
Can online training software replace in-person training?
It covers most needs, including onboarding, compliance, product knowledge and skills development. It's less effective for hands-on skills or sensitive conversations that need a facilitator in the room. So most organisations end up using a blended approach.
How long does online training software take to implement?
It depends on the platform, your integrations and how much content you're moving. Simpler tools can be running within weeks, while enterprise suites often take months. Hotelplan mapped 300+ job roles on HowNow in one month.
Can online training software integrate with our existing tools?
Most platforms connect with HRIS, single sign-on and communication tools. HowNow syncs with your HRIS to enrol people automatically and delivers learning in Slack, Teams and Chrome.
IT skills have a short shelf life. The right LMS maps technical skills automatically, plugs into the tools your engineers already use, and makes compliance straightforward to prove.
We compared 10 platforms on what matters most to IT companies: skills tracking, AI capabilities, integrations, compliance, and pricing transparency. HowNow came out on top for AI-driven skills mapping, followed by 360Learning, Docebo and others.
10 best learning management systems for IT companies
No.
Tool
G2 Rating
Best For
Pricing
1
HowNow
4.5/5
AI-driven skills mapping and personalised learning
Begins at £60/user/year
2
360Learning
4.6/5
Peer-led collaborative technical training
From $8/user/mo
3
Docebo
4.3/5
Enterprise IT with large content needs
Custom
4
LearnUpon
4.5/5
Multi-portal training for employees and customers
Custom
5
Thrive
4.5/5
Engagement-driven learning with published pricing
$34000 per 1-100 learners
6
Cornerstone
4.1/5
Large enterprise compliance and content
Custom
7
TalentLMS
4.6/5
Small IT teams, fast and affordable
From $119/mo
8
Absorb LMS
4.6/5
Scalable platform for growing teams
Custom
9
Degreed
4.3/5
Enterprise-scale skills intelligence
Custom
10
Litmos
4.3/5
Global teams, fast deployment
Custom
1. HowNow
HowNow is an AI-native learning platform that connects what your people learn to the skills they need. For IT companies, that matters because the skills your team needs change with every framework update, cloud migration, or security patch.
The Skills Graph maps every employee to skills and proficiency levels using job-market data across 30,000+ job roles. You don't need to build a taxonomy from scratch or ask engineers to self-report. The AI handles the mapping, and managers refine it with Focus Skills and peer endorsements.
Guru is HowNow's AI coaching agent. It teaches, quizzes, and runs scenario-based practice sessions, all grounded in your company's own knowledge. It cites its sources, so your technical team can verify every answer. In environments where accuracy matters, that's not optional.
HowNow Plus adds 10,000+ curated learning resources mapped to skills. You get relevant technical content on day one without building a single course. Publishers include Packt, iHasco, and McKinsey.
Hotelplan mapped 300+ job roles in one month and hit 99% activation within three months. Operatix reduced ramp time for new hires by 33%. And Infinity Works, a UK IT consultancy, hit 97% activation within four months.
Key features
AI pathway builder: Personalised learning paths built from skills gaps, role context, and business goals. Automatically.
Adaptive learning: Every learner gets a personalised path based on their role, skills, and progress. 1:1 learning at scale.
AI curation: The right content found, tagged, and organised from your internal sources and external libraries. Surfaced automatically.
Learning communities: Peer expertise made visible, structured, and searchable. Your best knowledge captured and available to everyone.
Skills graph: Every skill and every gap visible. The intelligence that connects performance gaps to the learning that will close them.
Career paths: Every employee sees their skills, their gaps, and where they can grow. Real paths that drive engagement without mandating it.
AI Performance coaching: Answers, practice, feedback, and proactive coaching — delivered where your people already work. Connected to real work signals.
Trusted content: Expert knowledge your AI can actually use. Every recommendation grounded in real expertise, not generic results.
Unified Search: Pulls any course, document or expert answer from one search box across your tools.
In-flow delivery: Serves learning inside Slack, Teams and the browser, where people already work.
Pricing
Essentials - £60/user/year, Centralised learning with built-in compliance
Pro - £80/user/year, Personalised learning for every role, powered by AI, with zero admin
Plus - +£45/user/year, Curated learning from top providers, ready to use, skills-mapped, included in one subscription
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5.
2. 360Learning
360Learning is a collaborative learning platform where your subject-matter experts create the training, with L&D overseeing quality. For IT companies, that model works well. Technical knowledge lives in your engineers' heads, and 360Learning gives them AI authoring tools to turn it into courses quickly.
The platform supports 80+ integrations, including Workday, Slack, and BambooHR. The Team plan covers up to 100 users and comes with a 30-day free trial, which makes it easier to test with a small group first.
Key features
AI Content Builder: Helps experts create courses quickly with L&D oversight and quality controls.
Collaborative authoring: Lets multiple contributors build and review courses together.
80+ integrations: Connects to Workday, Slack, BambooHR, and other HRIS tools.
Compliance management: Automates assignments, tracks completions, and generates audit-ready reports.
Reaction-based feedback: Surfaces content gaps through learner responses so you can fix them fast.
Team: $8 per user per month. Business and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted.
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5.
3. Docebo
Docebo is an enterprise learning platform with a 30,000+ course marketplace and an AI layer called Harmony. For large IT organisations, that catalogue saves your team from building courses from scratch.
AgentHub lets you build no-code AI agents for compliance triage and skill gap scouting. Skills Intelligence, powered by 365Talents, can infer skills from roles, projects, and learning activity. It's a paid add-on, which means it's not included in the base price.
Key features
Harmony AI: Provides tutoring, copilot features, and personalised content recommendations.
Content Marketplace: Offers 30,000+ courses from third-party providers.
AgentHub: Builds no-code AI agents for compliance, onboarding, and admin tasks.
Skills Intelligence: Infers employee skills from roles and projects.
Extended Enterprise: Supports multi-audience training for employees, partners, and customers.
Pricing
Custom pricing based on active users.
G2 rating
4.3 out of 5.
4. LearnUpon
LearnUpon is a multi-portal LMS built for organisations that need to train employees, customers, and partners from one platform. For IT companies running customer education alongside internal upskilling, that flexibility is a real advantage.
The platform supports SCORM and xAPI content, automated enrolments, and SSO. LearnUpon's strength is simplicity. You can get a portal live quickly without heavy IT involvement.
Key features
Multi-portal architecture: Lets you run separate training environments for employees, customers, and partners from one account.
Automated enrolments: Triggers learning paths based on role, team, or custom rules.
SCORM and xAPI support: Lets you import existing technical courses without rebuilding them.
Salesforce and HubSpot integrations: Connects learning data to your CRM for customer education tracking.
24/7 support: Comes with a dedicated customer success team for every account.
Pricing
Custom pricingbased on user count. Minimum 100 users for employee training, 300 for customer education.
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5.
5. Thrive
Thrive is an AI-powered LMS and LXP focused on engagement-driven learning. Thrive's AI agent, Kiki, handles coaching, content creation, and analytics in one tool. Skill Pathways map learning to skills with clear progression routes, and Spaces provide community areas for peer collaboration.
Key features
Kiki AI agent: Covers coaching, content creation, and learning analytics in one tool.
Skill Pathways: Maps learning to skills with visible progression routes.
Spaces: Provides community learning areas for collaboration and peer discussion.
Topics: Offers 2,500+ curated learning resources from external publishers.
Published pricing: Lets procurement teams build a business case without a sales call.
Pricing
Price starts at $34000 per 1-100 learners, $48263 from 501-600 learners onwards
G2 rating
4.5 out of 5.
6. Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone is one of the largest enterprise learning platforms, trusted by 7,000+ organisations across 180+ countries.
Workforce AI, launched in 2026, adds a skills engine covering 45,000+ skills. Cornerstone suits enterprises with dedicated rollout teams and the patience for a longer implementation cycle. It has been assembled through several acquisitions, and the interface reflects that history.
Key features
Workforce AI: Covers 45,000+ skills with recommendations and career pathing tools.
Compliance management: Includes deep tracking, audit tools, and regulatory reporting.
Talent suite integration: Connects learning to performance, recruiting, and workforce planning.
Global scale: Supports 7,000+ organisations and 50 languages.
Pricing
Custom pricing. No public rates. Quotes are based on organisation size and selected modules.
G2 rating
4.1 out of 5.
7. TalentLMS
TalentLMS is a lightweight, affordable LMS serving 70,000+ teams. It's one of the few platforms on this list with a free plan, and small IT teams can get running in a day.
The trade-off is depth. TalentLMS doesn't offer AI skills mapping, adaptive learning paths, or advanced analytics. It handles basic course delivery, quizzes, and certification tracking well, which is enough for small teams with straightforward training needs.
Key features
Quick setup: Gets you live in a day without dedicated IT resources.
Course builder: Supports drag-and-drop multimedia, quizzes, and surveys.
Integrations: Connects to Slack, Zoom, Salesforce, and 200+ apps via Zapier.
Certification tracking: Automates assignment, completion, and renewal reminders.
Pros
Affordable and fast to deploy for small IT teams.
Free plan lets you test with real users before committing budget.
Clean interface with minimal training needed for admins or learners.
Cons
No AI skills mapping, adaptive learning, or intelligent recommendations.
Limited for mid-market or enterprise IT companies that need depth.
Reporting stays basic compared to platforms like Absorb, Docebo, or HowNow.
Pricing
Free for up to 5 users
Core: $119/month (up to 40 users)
Grow: $229/month (up to 70)
Pro: $449/month (up to 100)
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5.
8. Absorb LMS
Absorb serves 3,700+ companies and millions of learners. The platform is built for organisations that are still growing and need admin tools and reporting that scale with them.
Intelligent Assist surfaces relevant content through AI recommendations. Custom reporting lets admins build compliance and skills dashboards. Absorb Infuse lets you embed learning directly into your existing tools, which is a strong fit for IT teams that live inside internal portals.
Key features
Intelligent Assist: Surfaces relevant content with AI-powered recommendations.
Custom reporting: Lets admins build compliance and skills dashboards to their specs.
Scalable architecture: Handles growing learner populations without performance drops.
Absorb Infuse: Embeds learning into your existing apps and internal portals.
Integrations: Connects to HRIS, CRM, and collaboration tools out of the box.
Pricing
Custom pricing. Contact sales for a quote.
G2 rating
4.6 out of 5.
9. Degreed
Degreed is a skills intelligence platform with 10 million+ activated users across 160+ countries. The focus is on skills development rather than traditional course delivery.
For large IT organisations, Degreed offers Skill Review assessments, career mobility tools, and an AI agent called Maestro. The platform pulls content from internal and external sources into one experience. You need a rich content ecosystem to get the most out of it.
Key features
Skill Review: Assesses and tracks skill levels with structured peer and manager ratings.
Maestro AI: Personalises learning paths based on individual goals and skill gaps.
Content aggregation: Pulls internal wikis, external courses, and articles into one feed.
Career mobility: Maps current skills to internal roles and progression opportunities.
Partnerships: Covers 30+ content providers, including Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning.
Pricing
Custom pricing.
G2 rating
4.3 out of 5.
10. Litmos
Litmos is a cloud-based LMS serving 11,000+ organisations across 150 countries. The platform is built for fast deployment, which suits IT companies with global teams that need to get training live quickly.
The platform handles course delivery and compliance tracking well, but it doesn't include AI skills mapping or adaptive learning paths.
Key features
Fast deployment: Gets training live across global teams in days, not months.
Three-tier structure: Lets you scale feature depth as you grow.
Built-in content library: Sits alongside your custom courses for a blended approach.
Compliance tracking: Automates assignment, tracking, and reporting.
Pricing
All three tiers are custom-quoted.
G2 rating
4.3 out of 5.
Why IT companies need a purpose-fit LMS
Technical skills change faster than you can build courses for them. Cloud platforms release updates weekly. Security frameworks evolve with every new threat. A platform that mapped your team's skills six months ago is already out of date if it relies on manual input.
Integrations decide adoption. If the LMS doesn't plug into Slack, Teams, Jira, or your HRIS, nobody will open it. Your engineers spend their day in code editors and project boards. The learning platform needs to meet them there.
Developer onboarding sets the tone. New engineers need to ramp on your tech stack, codebase, and internal processes in weeks, not months. A purpose-fit LMS delivers structured onboarding paths mapped to role-specific skills, so new hires know exactly what to learn and in what order.
Why listen to us
HowNow is an AI-native learning platform built for companies where skills move fast. We work with IT and tech organisations every day, from consultancies to product companies to global enterprises.
Here's what they've achieved with HowNow:
Infinity Works, a UK-based IT consultancy, hit 97% learner activation within four months.
Trainline cut compliance training time by 50% after switching to HowNow.
TomTom reached 90%+ engagement and saw a 7–10% increase in internal mobility.
AND Digital achieved 75% daily platform use and 95% workforce engagement with their AI Ignition programme.
Hotelplan mapped 300+ job roles in one month and hit 99% activation within three months.
We build for this problem. We also reviewed every platform on this list. When another tool fits your situation better, we'll say so.
What to look for in an LMS for IT companies
Not every LMS is built for technical teams. Here's what to prioritise.
Skills tracking: Can it map and track technical skills automatically? Or does it only log course completions? IT companies need a platform that understands cloud certifications, programming languages, and security frameworks at the role level.
AI features: Does the platform use AI for personalisation, content recommendations, or skills mapping? Surface-level AI won't cut it. Look for a platform where AI runs through coaching, content creation, and analytics.
Integrations: Does it plug into the tools your engineers already use? Slack, Teams, Jira, your HRIS. If people have to leave their workflow to learn, they won't.
Compliance automation: Can it automate certification tracking, renewal reminders, and audit evidence? SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance require ongoing proof, not a one-off tick box.
Pricing transparency: Can you build a business case without sitting through a sales call first? Check whether skills intelligence, AI features, and content are included or sold as paid add-ons.
How to choose the right LMS for your it company
Start with what you're tracking. If you need to map cloud certifications, programming languages, and security frameworks to each role, you need AI-driven skills mapping. Not every platform here does that.
Think about integrations. Your engineers live in Slack, Teams, and Jira. If the LMS doesn't connect to those tools, adoption will stall from day one.
Factor in your compliance burden. SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR all need ongoing evidence. Pick a platform that automates tracking and reminders rather than relying on spreadsheets.
Consider your team size. A team of 30 has different needs from one of 3,000. TalentLMS fits small IT teams on a budget. Cornerstone and Docebo make more sense at enterprise scale. HowNow covers mid-to-large organisations where skills mapping and AI coaching matter most.
Check what's included in the price. Skills intelligence, AI coaching, and content libraries are often sold as paid add-ons. Those costs add up at renewal, so get the full picture before you sign.
Your IT team deserves a learning platform that keeps pace
Technical skills don't wait. New frameworks ship, security threats evolve, and cloud platforms push updates faster than any course catalogue can track. Your learning platform needs to move at the same speed.
That's why we built HowNow around a Skills Graph that maps skills from real work, not self-assessment forms. Guru coaches your team with answers grounded in your own documentation and cites its sources.
IT companies like Infinity Works, Trainline, and TomTom already use HowNow to connect learning to the skills their teams need. Infinity Works hit 97% activation in four months. Trainline halved compliance training time. TomTom saw 90%+ engagement and a measurable increase in internal mobility.
If you want to see how the Skills Graph and Guru work with your team's data, book a demo.
FAQs
What's the best lms for IT companies?
HowNow is the strongest option for AI-driven skills mapping tied to job-market data. 360Learning suits teams that want peer-led technical training. Docebo fits large enterprises with broad content needs.
Do IT companies need AI features in an lms?
AI skills mapping and personalised learning paths save significant time when technical skills change fast. Without them, your L&D team manually updates taxonomies. That doesn't scale.
How much does an LMS for IT companies cost?
LMS pricing varies by vendor. HowNow is quoted per organisation, starting from £60/user/year. Self-serve options include TalentLMS ($119/month), 360Learning ($8/user/month), and Skillsoft Percipio ($20/seat/month).
Can an LMS track technical certifications?
Most platforms on this list track certifications and send renewal reminders. HowNow, Cornerstone, and Litmos offer the deepest compliance automation, including audit evidence and automated assignment.
What's the difference between an LMS and an LXP?
An LMS delivers and tracks structured courses. An LXP aggregates content from multiple sources and lets learners explore. HowNow combines both with AI-driven skills intelligence.
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