The latest learning news and research compiled by TJ’s editorial team

Leadership reacts to the use of generative AI

IBM launched its new report ‘Leadership in the Age of AI’, which found that nearly 80% of senior UK businesses leaders surveyed are deploying generative AI, or are planning to, with half of respondents primarily motivated by enhancing customer experience.

Based on a survey of 1,600+ senior business executives across the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Sweden, the report explores how leadership is transforming as the region’s businesses embrace generative AI.

The report also found that 97% of UK respondents who have or plan to deploy generative AI are actively engaged in shaping new ethical and governance frameworks.

As executives across the UK seek to untap the potential of AI while navigating growing security threats and an evolving regulatory and ethics landscape, the report explores what leadership in the age of AI truly entails.

Read more here.

Is digital transformation creating too much waste?

New research explains alarming waste levels in digital transformation and the hefty price global businesses are paying for neglecting people in the process.

Digital transformation, often hailed as the panacea for business growth and innovation, is continuing to be a risky investment for businesses both in the UK and worldwide – according to a new report by 438 Marketing.

Global investment in digital transformation is expected to almost double between 2022 and 2025 (according to Statista) but given that many major business consultancies estimate the failure rate for digital transformations at 70% and based on their calculations of previous losses, the price of wastage through digital transformation programmes not meeting their objectives could be around $2 trillion by 2026.

On the back of these startling statistics a recent study by leading strategic brand communications business 438 has revealed that often organisations forget the ‘people part’ in digital transformation. Recent studies have found that – of the 70% of enterprises that fail to create real value from their digital transformation efforts, 62% cite culture as the number one hurdle (McKinsey). A further study also found that 47% of digital transformation failures were attributed to employee resistance and a lack of change management (by Prosci).

Read more here.

Poor experiences with digital adoption and support

The 2023 State of Digital Adoption Report UK from Userlane surveyed 250 business leaders and 250 employees at large enterprises to take a snapshot of Digital Adoption in today’s fast-paced business landscape. Key themes that emerged include:

• Digital transformation ambitions are falling short: Over 90% of business leaders say at least one of their software investments has failed outright.
• Digital friction: the impact on employee experience and productivity: Just over a third of employees are left disappointed by the level of IT help they receive when addressing software challenges.
• Software adoption challenges are universal: 96% of businesses have experienced challenges resulting from poor digital adoption.

Download the report here.

Call to contribute to research

Watershed and GP Strategies have partnered for their eighth annual Measuring the Business Impact of Learning survey.

Since launching at the end of 2016, the survey has reached more than 2,600 global L&D leaders and professionals, providing insight into a range of learning measurement topics, including:

• Executive pressure to measure the business impact of learning
• Budgets, tools, and capabilities
• Barriers to effective learning measurement
• The type of metrics used and when they are set
• Analytics capability within L&D and recruitment plans

Last year’s report took data analysis to deeper levels than ever before, as it explored the traits that set strategic partner L&D teams apart from the rest.

The report found strategic partners were more closely aligned with the business on a number of measures – from the way they set a budget to the way they measure success. Strategic partners were, for example, 25% more likely to assess their learning programmes by business impact.

Read more about the survey here.

Have a conversation with YouTube content

YouTube is testing two experiments that integrate generative AI into the YouTube viewing experience. To help easily understand and participate in comment conversations, YouTube is experimenting with AI that organises large comment sections of long-form videos into easily digestible themes.

For those in the learning industry, YouTube’s experiment to help dive deeper into content with a tool that gets answers to questions about the video, recommendations for related content, and more, all without interrupting playback will be interesting. For certain academic videos, the tool can aid learning journeys by providing quizzes and responses that encourage deeper understanding.

Read more here.