In HR Dive’s 2026 Identity of HR survey, the number of respondents who named employee training their organization’s top priority jumped four percentage points year over year, from 5% to 9%. While the overall percentage remains small (recovering from a comparatively large drop after 2024), the increase is significant — especially considering artificial intelligence tools are changing how work is done, experts told HR Dive.
“The shift from 5% to 9% reflects something real happening inside organizations, and AI transformation is the primary driver,” Vishnu Shankar, chief data officer at Draup, a talent intelligence company, said in an email. “Not because companies are replacing workers, but because AI is increasing role complexity faster than existing training programs were designed for.”
The percentage of HR professionals that called training a top priority almost doubled from 2025 to 2026
AI remains a key theme for much of the change rolling through HR departments — but the shifting state of the job market also retains an influence, as do budget restraints.
How is AI prompting changes in employee learning?
In an AI-driven business environment, employers are struggling with a gap between “adoption and capability,” Chris Eigeland, CEO of Go1, a learning platform, said in an email.
A Go1 survey of more than 2,000 learning and development leaders and workers found that 7 in 10 professionals said they use AI weekly, but only 14% said they considered themselves advanced users.
In other words, if employees lack the skills to adjust to the new technology, that creates a “value realization problem” for employers, Evan Metter, HR transformation practice leader at KPMG U.S., told HR Dive. After all, ROI on tech investment is tied almost entirely on the ability of the workforce to actually use it.
“What organizations are recognizing is that they can’t hire their way out of this challenge — that everyone needs to learn together in the face of new technology and ways of working,” Eigeland said — making upskilling a “strategic priority.”
The focus on employee learning may also be shorthand for a broader push toward changing how work is done, including “how employees make decisions, collaborate, communicate and adapt alongside increasingly automated systems,” Matt Poepsel, VP of talent optimization at software company The Predictive Index, told HR Dive in an email.
Is learning investment tied to the slower job market?
Thanks in part to the state of the economy, employers are slowing hiring, meaning employers must “become more intentional about developing the talent they already have,” Poepsel said.
Training is a “more sustainable solution” than scrambling to compete for specialized AI talent, especially as the skills required continue to change at unprecedented rates, Poepsel continued.
The cost logic generally leans toward reskilling overall right now, Shankar noted, as “traditional labor-cost arbitrage has narrowed to below 20%,” meaning there’s no real cost advantage to hiring outside talent.
But these shifting budgets also reveal that, amid AI transformation, workforce capability and readiness may be the most important differentiating factors for employers seeking to stay afloat amid so much change — and that’s not exactly a new consideration for HR departments, Metter said.
Focus on the “total workforce,” Metter said, has long preceded AI, since it includes aspects of workforce management like contractors and vendors. But AI is now part of that cohort and needs to be considered as part of a workforce’s total capability. What work can it do and where is it most needed? These questions apply to all aspects of labor — and increasingly, that includes AI.
“The organizations making the strongest progress are not simply redirecting hiring budgets into incremental training. They’re treating workforce capability as a core business investment, much like technology infrastructure,” Eigeland said. “The real shift will happen when learning and workforce readiness become sustained board-level priorities, rather than budget items that fluctuate with hiring cycles.”
What kind of training is being prioritized?
Not unexpectedly, technical training remains a key priority, including aspects like machine learning, AI and other tech-heavy skills — but training budgets are also going toward “human” skills, like emotional intelligence, communication and collaboration, Poepsel said.
“Every business is a people business, and the long-term winners will be equally high-tech and high-connection,” he said.
The type of training offered — such as group learning, on-the-job training, classroom setting and the like — also remains varied, Metter said. Employers have long sought ways to hyperpersonalize learning and coaching, in part to improve engagement and knowledge retention, but it’s difficult to find the proper triggers for learning in the flow of work, for example, Metter noted. AI can potentially change that.
“We think AI is going to make all of those modalities better and accessible and timely and relevant,” Metter said.
And while it is generally cheaper to train someone than to hire them, companies remain focused on training not just because of the economic implications but in part because of a “human recognition” of the value of internal mobility and training, Metter said. That remains strong, even in the AI era.
“For whatever reason, if it is the deeply human reason to invest in [people] flourishing or a deeply economic reason, they’re both leading us in the same direction,” Metter said. “It’s good business to be investing in the people part of our businesses.”
