corporate / business world

Three items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 05/16/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, library / librarians, organizational change, pace of change, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

LinkedIn Grad’s Guide 2026: Starting your career in the AI era — from linkedin.com by Gianna Prudente
To help you head off in the right direction, we’ve identified where those starting their careers are finding opportunity, based on data from millions of LinkedIn member profiles.

While all of this is happening, colleges are still catching up. Many students are graduating without having spent much time learning how AI actually fits into day-to-day work — even as employers seek out those exact skills.

“Colleges are moving into an era of, we’ll let the faculty decide, which leads to a very uneven experience for students because some faculty are really into AI and other faculty are not,” says Jeff Selingo, a higher education strategist. “Employers are the same; they don’t really know how to act around early careers.”

Taken together, new grads are entering a uniquely challenging environment: fewer traditional entry points, slower turnover and a workplace that’s evolving faster than the systems preparing people for it.

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I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment — from theguardian.com by Micah Nathan
The problem wasn’t just the perfectly polished, yet mediocre prose. It’s what’s lost when we surrender the struggle to translate thought into words

For a few moments, all was quiet except the classroom’s ticking radiators. Then, a teary-eyed confession: one of the ostensible authors said she only used AI because she was scared of looking stupid, of being criticized for bad writing. She said she loved writing stories and hated having used AI. But she couldn’t stop herself, recounting a sequence similar to an addict’s descent: at first she fed her story into AI for a grammar check, it suggested line edits and she accepted, then it asked if she wanted structural edits, then it offered to rewrite the entire piece.

The other would-be author admitted he had never written a short story before and he had an idea but didn’t know where to start. I asked him why he didn’t reach out to me for help. He shrugged.

One of the other students raised her hand, saying she didn’t understand why it was bad for AI to write stories as long as the stories are based on their ideas. More students spoke: one wanted to know how using AI was any different from using a human editor. Another wanted me to answer why, at a university that launched one of the world’s first AI research programs in 1959, were we even having this debate? Isn’t AI meant to make everyone’s life easier? Less stressful? Isn’t the point of AI to free humans from the tedium of rote tasks?

The conversation that followed their confessions was one of the most productive teaching moments of my eight years at MIT. Writing, I told them, isn’t supposed to be easy, and of course it can be tedious but that doesn’t make it rote. Writing isn’t just the production of sentences – it’s the training of endurance by way of sustained attention. It’s a way of learning what one thinks by attempting to say it.

This $10K AI School Promises to Future-Proof Your Career — from builtin.com by Matthew Urwin
Khan Academy, TED and ETS are starting a new program to equip students and professionals with the skills to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven economy. Here’s what you need to know.

Summary: The Khan TED Institute is a higher-education program that will teach students and workers how to use AI through interactive learning. The program’s AI-centric curriculum is an unproven approach, though, casting doubt on whether it will actually improve learning outcomes and career prospects.

This $10K AI School Promises to Future-Proof Your Career [Urwin]

On 05/12/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty/staff, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, Microsoft, pace of change, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, student-related, teaching online, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

This $10K AI School Promises to Future-Proof Your Career — from builtin.com by Matthew Urwin
Khan Academy, TED and ETS are starting a new program to equip students and professionals with the skills to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven economy. Here’s what you need to know.

Summary: The Khan TED Institute is a higher-education program that will teach students and workers how to use AI through interactive learning. The program’s AI-centric curriculum is an unproven approach, though, casting doubt on whether it will actually improve learning outcomes and career prospects.

Higher education might be on the verge of a radical overhaul to bring it up to speed in the age of artificial intelligence. At the TED2026 conference, Khan Academy, TED and ETS announced that they’re partnering to establish the Khan TED Institute — a new program that reorients the college curriculum around AI. By joining forces, the education technology trio aims to develop an alternative to traditional universities that better tracks student progress, teaches more relevant skills and provides a more personalized learning experience.

Accessibility is another major tenet of the Khan TED Institute. Its virtual nature allows anyone with an internet connection to participate in the program and makes it easier for students to move at their preferred pace. And because its curriculum prioritizes competency over course credits, advanced learners can complete the program in a shorter period. Time isn’t the only thing students can save on, either: The Institute promises a bachelor’s degree for less than $10,000, offering a much more affordable alternative to the typical four-year degree.

From DSC:
Faculty senates don’t do well with this pace of change. But to their credit, few organizations can begin to deal with this pace of change.

When anyone can build a course, the real job is deciding which ones shouldn’t exist [Hardman]

On 05/11/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, training / L&D, trends, UK, by Daniel Christian

When anyone can build a course, the real job is deciding which ones shouldn’t exist — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
Why deciding is the only L&D skill AI can’t replace.

The biggest AI risk that L&D faces isn’t that it gets left behind: it’s that we build more — and flood the organisation with meh-quality content nobody needed in the first place.

In this post, I’ll make the case that:

The L&D job has just split in two — and most of us are still working on the wrong half.
There’s a new operating model coming for the role, and it’s already running inside a lot of the companies you’ve heard of.
The smartest critique of everything I’m about to argue comes from Ethan Mollick — and I think he’s half right.

The question we’ve been asking for the last two years — “how do I get faster at building?” — was the wrong one.

The real question is: can I look at fifteen AI-generated learning assets and decide which three are worth scaling — and put my name to that decision?

Dr. Hardman’s post on LinkedIn
and/or
See Dr. Hardman’s post on substack.com entitled:

The Illusion AI Productivity Gains
Why your AI tools aren’t delivering the ROI you were promised — and what to do about it

The TalentLMS 2026 Annual L&D Benchmark Report — from talentlms.com
From year-over-year training benchmarks to learner–leader gaps, see the data that defines the new era of learning. To turn insight into action, the report lays out 10 evidence-backed interventions to hardwire development. Plus, lift the lid on Learning Debt: What it is and how to spot it.

Executive summary
The skills economy is being rewritten in real time. AI is reshaping what people need to know, do, and deliver, faster than organizational structures can adapt. The result is a workplace caught between acceleration and inertia. Companies are racing to reskill for an AI-driven future while relying on structures built for yesterday’s world.

This TalentLMS 2026 L&D Benchmark Report captures that inflection point. Based on data collected through 2025, and compared with earlier findings from 2022 to 2024, it explores how learning is evolving and what’s holding it back.

Our research integrates two vantage points: HR leaders overseeing learning initiatives and employees receiving formal training. Together, they offer a dual perspective on how learning is managed and how it’s experienced.

The analysis also draws on insights from external research and leading L&D practitioners, anchoring the report in both evidence and practice.

Combined, the findings point to a structural fault line: Learning is expanding in scope but contracting in space. Organizations are multiplying programs, tools, and ambitions, yet the conditions for learning — time, focus, and cognitive bandwidth — keep shrinking.

The data from this report underscores this critical conflict: According to half of the surveyed employees and learning leaders, high workloads leave little room for training, even when it’s needed.

Employees work inside a permanent sprint, where attention is fragmented and reflection is sidelined. The space for learning is collapsing under the weight of doing. Sixty-five percent of employees say performance expectations have risen this year, yet lack of time remains the biggest barrier to learning.

The numbers confirm what employees and learning leaders both feel: Technology can advance overnight. But people and cultures can’t.

FutureFit AI Announces Strategic Investment to Help Governments and Industries Navigate AI’s Impact on People & Jobs

On 04/27/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, corporate / business world, legislatures / government / legal, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

FutureFit AI Announces Strategic Investment to Help Governments and Industries Navigate AI’s Impact on People & Jobs — from prnewswire.com; via Ryan Craig

NEW YORK, April 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — FutureFit AI, a global leader in AI-powered workforce development technology, today announced an investment from Achieve Partners, led by investor and author Ryan Craig, to accelerate its mission of helping more people navigate to better jobs faster and cheaper at scale.
…
“For too long, the U.S. workforce system has relied on disparate and disconnected systems to try to bridge the gap between the skills workers bring to the table, and the jobs available in a fast-changing labor market. In the age of AI, the need for a better approach has only become more urgent,” said Ryan Craig, co-founder and managing director of Achieve and author of Apprentice Nation, A New U, and College Disrupted. “FutureFit AI is solving that problem by helping workforce organizations create clearer paths to career opportunity for workers and solve pressing talent gaps that hinder economic growth. Their work around the country has already demonstrated the ability to help more people get good jobs faster.”

“A mission that began with a simple question of ‘What if everyone had a GPS for their career’ has turned into years of working closely with government and industry leaders to respond to – and solve for – the impacts of digital transformation and AI on jobs and people,” added Ekhtiari. “Our partnership with Achieve will accelerate our work to build and scale the missing workforce transition infrastructure that our country and the world so badly need at this moment.”

An Attack on Sam Altman Sends a Terrifying Message [Gifted opinion article by Aaron Zamost]

On 04/27/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, ethics, intelligent systems, morals/values, platforms, society, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

An Attack on Sam Altman Sends a Terrifying Message — from the nytimes.com; this is a gifted opinion article by Aaron Zamost

Lawless political violence landed on Silicon Valley’s doorstep this month when an attacker hurled a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco compound of Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive. The incident was a disturbing sign that simmering public anger about A.I. is spilling out of polling data and social media posts and into the real world.

The attack shook many tech employees, who in quiet conversations about safety wondered whether this was a watershed moment for the industry. I believe it should be — the whole thing is disturbing and jarring, but I’m hopeful it will change how some tech leaders deal with the societal consequences of their success.
…
If these companies sold food, cars, medicine or any other consumer goods, their products would almost certainly be recalled while federal regulators investigated the allegations.
…
You would think an industry creating this kind of outrage would reflect or recalibrate. Business experts teach us that companies facing customer backlash should acknowledge the failure, change their approach and earn back public trust. But the titans of tech no longer seem interested in convincing the public.

The foundation of Silicon Valley’s appeal has always been the implicit promise that great technology serves you, and that the people behind it understand your problems and want to solve them. That promise is starting to feel broken. Fixing it requires something much of Silicon Valley has forgotten how to do: listen and learn.

A Molotov cocktail is the absolute wrong way to send a message to tech. Its leaders need to hear it anyway.

Which Jobs Are Most at Risk From AI? New Anthropic Data Offers Clues. — from builtin.com by Matthew Urwin
Anthropic set out in its latest study to predict how artificial intelligence could impact the labor market. Instead, its findings raise more questions than answers for tech workers as the U.S. government refuses to regulate the AI industry.

Summary:
In its latest labor market study, Anthropic found that artificial intelligence poses the greatest threat to software jobs, women and younger professionals. As the Trump administration takes a hands-off approach to AI, tech workers may be left to grapple with these findings on their own.

Matthew links to:

Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence — from anthropic.com

Key findings

We introduce a new measure of AI displacement risk, observed exposure, that combines theoretical LLM capability and real-world usage data, weighting automated (rather than augmentative) and work-related uses more heavily
AI is far from reaching its theoretical capability: actual coverage remains a fraction of what’s feasible
Occupations with higher observed exposure are projected by the BLS to grow less through 2034
Workers in the most exposed professions are more likely to be older, female, more educated, and higher-paid
We find no systematic increase in unemployment for highly exposed workers since late 2022, though we find suggestive evidence that hiring of younger workers has slowed in exposed occupations

What the Future of Learning Looks Like in the Era of AI [U of M’s Center for Academic Innovation]

On 04/15/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, credentialing, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, internships, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Michigan, real-world assignments, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What the Future of Learning Looks Like in the Era of AI — from the Center for Academic Innovation at the University of Michigan, by Sean Corp

AI & the Future of Learning Summit brings industry, education leaders together to discuss higher education’s opportunity to lead, what students need, and what partnerships are possible

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the nature of work and learning, speakers at the University of Michigan’s AI & the Future of Learning Summit delivered a clear message: higher education must take a leading role in defining what comes next.

One CEO of a leading educational technology company put it like this: “The only bad thing would be universities standing still.”

Universities must embrace their roles as providers of continuous, lifelong learning that evolves alongside technological change.

…
This shift is already affecting early-career pathways. Employers are placing greater emphasis on experience, while traditional entry-level roles are becoming less accessible. There is often a gap between what a credential represents and the expectations of employers.

That gap is particularly evident in access to internships. Chris Parrish, co-founder and president of Podium, noted that millions of students compete for a limited number of internships each year, making it increasingly difficult to gain the experience employers demand.

“If you miss out on an internship, you’re twice as likely to be unemployed,” Parrish said.

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning. Here’s why, and what’s replacing It [Hardman]

On 04/07/2026, in adult learning, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, productivity / tips and tricks, training / L&D, UK, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
Here’s why, and what’s replacing It

What the Bleeding Edge Looks like in Practice
So what does “the new stack” actually look like when organisations lean into this? Here are four real patterns already in play.

Engineering: from engine courses to in-workflow AI coaching.
Product development: from courses to craft-specific agents.
Compliance: from annual course to nudge systems.|
Enablement systems, not catalogues.

…

The Campus Crisis No One’s Talking About — from linkedin.com by Jeff Selingo

Sports Betting Is Now a Campus-Wide Habit

The headline number: About 60% of 18-to-22-year-olds are engaging in sports betting, a figure that climbs to two-thirds among college students specifically, according to an NCAA-commissioned study.

“It’s sort of a learned behavior for them at a very young age,” Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA’s managing director of enterprise risk management, told us on the latest episode of Future U. “I do think this could be the next big public health crisis that we’re facing as a country and particularly within higher ed.”
College-age individuals are 3x more likely to develop problematic gambling behaviors than the general population. Gambling often co-exists with other behaviors now prevalent in colleges, such as sleeplessness, binge drinking, drug use, anxiety and depression.

Gambling among college students isn’t confined to athletes. Rather, it’s embedded across campus life, and with athletes often most visible in Division III, where oversight is lighter. Gambling often coexists with—and can exacerbate—other student challenges, from mental health struggles to substance use. If this is the next public health issue on campus, it’s arriving without the same level of attention.

From DSC:
I don’t mean to be self-righteous here. But shame on the older adults who are promoting gambling in any fashion — marketing, advertising, sales, and/or whatever. It’s a cancer in our society, and it’s impacting our youth in a big way (and also older folks as well). I’m not a gambler, but I’m well acquainted with weakness. And the Bible confirms that we all are acquainted with weakness:

Isaiah 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

The adults out there know it. We are well acquainted with our sins and shortcomings.

Parents want the best for their kids. They don’t want dangerous habits being formed in their children. “Coping skills” that are majorly busted, and can lead to incredibly negative events. And the parents don’t want these habits to be formed at colleges and universities across the nation.

I wish those involved with promoting gambling could be at the dinner tables, or in the bedrooms, or in the living rooms, or in the vehicles out there when a spouse finds out that the other spouse (or significant other) has gambled away a significant amount of the couple’s savings. They no longer have rainy-day funds. They can no longer pay their bills. They no longer have the college funds for their other kids. Emotions erupt, fights begin. Relationships are threatened — and divorces sometimes occur because of this issue/habit.

So if you are involved with promoting gambling, consider reading this article from Jeff Selingo…then go take a long look in the mirror.

The Most Obvious Fix in Education — from michelleweise.substack.com by Michelle Weise
The No-Brainer Nobody’s Doing

We know what better learning looks like. We have known for a while.

Real problems. Real roles. Built-in conflict. Conditions that simulate the messiness of actual work. Reflection that asks not just what did you do but who are you becoming? These are not radical ideas. They are not untested theories. The research is clear, employers are asking for exactly this, and students consistently report that the closest they got to real work was the most valuable part of their education.

So why aren’t universities doing more of it?

That is the question worth sitting with — because the gap between what we know and what we do is not a knowledge problem. It is a design problem, an incentive problem, and if we’re being candid, a courage problem.

Because in the meantime, learners are paying the price. They graduate credentialed but untested. They enter labor markets that want proof of performance and experience, not transcripts. They lack the networks, the exposure, and the scar tissue that comes from navigating real work.

Also relevant, see:

The Apprenticeship (R)Evolution — from insidehighered.com by Sara Weissman and Colleen Flaherty
Once synonymous with hard hats and tool belts, apprenticeships are branching into health care, artificial intelligence, business services, advanced manufacturing and more.

Such programs also challenge stereotypes about apprenticeships—namely that they’re only in construction, an earn-and-learn catchall for traditionally apprenticeable occupations such as bricklayer, plumber, carpenter and electrician. In integrating robotics, automation, machining and logistics, the manufacturing development program is a bridge to understanding how apprenticeships are evolving to support some of the nation’s fastest-growing industries. These include advanced manufacturing, but also health care, information technology and other business services.

Building a Thriving Organizational Culture: Strategies for Succes [Caplette]

On 03/30/2026, in collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, culture, ideas, morals/values, organizational change, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Building a Thriving Organizational Culture: Strategies for Success — from learningguild.com by Genevieve Caplette

Characteristics of Strong Culture
Although each organization’s culture is unique, strong cultures share several common traits. They communicate openly, maintain trust across all levels, and reinforce their values through daily actions rather than slogans. Recognition is frequent and meaningful. Collaboration is encouraged over competition, and employees feel psychologically safe expressing ideas or concerns. These cultures evolve as the organization grows, ensuring alignment between stated values and lived behavior.
…
How to Strengthen Culture
A thriving environment is built through everyday habits: transparent communication, active listening, constructive feedback, and ensuring employees have the resources to grow. Embedding values into hiring, onboarding, recognition, and decision-making reinforces culture at every level. Sustaining culture requires ongoing attention—listening regularly, adjusting to evolving needs, and ensuring leaders continue to model the behaviors the organization expects.

Meta, YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction trial — from by Ian Duncan
A Los Angeles jury awarded $3 million in compensation to a young woman who alleged she had become addicted to the platforms as a child.

A Los Angeles jury found social media giant Meta and video platform YouTube negligent in a landmark trial, awarding $3 million in compensation to a young woman who alleged she had become addicted to the companies’ platforms as a child.

The verdict came at the end of a month-long trial that featured testimony by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a day after a jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million in penalties for endangering children. The twin verdicts are signs that legal protections which for decades made tech companies seem almost impervious are beginning to crack, as lawyers accuse the platforms of putting addictive or otherwise harmful features into their platforms.

With the armor of Silicon Valley companies fractured, they will now have to size up their appetite for future courtroom battles. There are thousands more lawsuits waiting to be heard, with young internet users, parents, school districts and state attorneys general all seeking to hold the industry accountable.

Learning Ecosystems

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning. Here’s why, and what’s replacing It [Hardman]

Building a Thriving Organizational Culture: Strategies for Succes [Caplette]

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