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AI is no longer the new kid on the block; far from it. With the tail-end of 2022 serving as Chat GPT’s debut to the mainstream, 2023 and 2024 were the years that the then-novel technology spread throughout the public consciousness – sparking conversations about ethics, intellectual copyright, and responsible usage as it went.
Today, it’s an everyday fixture in all of our lives, including and especially within the world of work. 2025 is poised to be a landmark year for AI, a paradigm shift that will have a ripple effect throughout arguably every single industry. Learning & Development is far from exempt, so let’s explore how these 2025 AI trends will impact the profession.
2025 is predicted to be the year in which true democratisation of AI will take hold. What exactly do we mean by this? Individuals all over the world are already using Large Language Models in their daily tasks, so aren’t we already experiencing democratisation of AI?
Not exactly. When we refer to democratisation of AI in 2025, we’re talking about the fact that businesses of all sizes will have access to advanced AI tools like predictive analytics, AI assistants, and AI collaboration tools.
This is good news for L&D departments, whose consistent pursuit of Continuous Professional Development will be bolstered by these tools; helping them create personalised learning journeys that are tailored to each individual.
We’re already seeing the impact here at Thrive: We’ve recently unveiled our Winter Release and Product Roadmap, which includes a whole host of AI features including AI search, AI content curation and AI chatbots – and our customers are reaping the benefits.
L&D at large will reap plenty of other benefits from this democratisation. In 2025, AI is going to be faster than ever before – meaning it’ll also be more agile than ever before. One of the key roles of L&D is to adapt their learning programmes to changing business needs, and agile AI will help us do just that.
Of course, there’s another side to this coin. If you’re keeping up with the latest AI news, you’ll know that (ironically) OpenAI has raised copyright concerns about DeepSeek, a Chinese app that emulates ChatGPT’s performance at a lower cost. This has the potential to dethrone ChatGPT, and shake up the status quo of the AI landscape as a whole. From the BBC:
‘"It is unclear whether DeepSeek really trained its models from scratch," [Naomi Haefner, assistant professor of technology management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland] said.
"OpenAI have stated that they believe DeepSeek may have misappropriated large amounts of data from them. If this is the case, then the claims about training the model very cheaply are deceptive. Until someone replicates the training approach we won't know for sure whether such cost-efficient training is really possible."
… However, it is not clear how problematic the idea of "building on" the work of others is.
This is especially true in AI, where the accusation of disrespecting intellectual property rights has been frequently levelled at major US AI firms.’
As we’ve seen with Kier Starmer’s AI Action Plan, governments are taking a more active role within the landscape of AI. Whereas prior to this year AI as an industry has gone larger unregulated (leading to a slew of lawsuits), 2025 is the year that new regulations will take hold.
Across the world, governments are increasingly viewing AI through the lens of national security, resulting in stricter regulations in every industry. We’re quite obviously big proponents of Compliance here at Thrive, and the new wave of AI governance will bring the next era of this type of training. L&D teams will need to keep abreast of any changes in AI governance and regulation, ensuring that training programmes are up-to-date. (If only there was a learning content team who could stay up-to-date on those changes for you…)
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to a type of AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks, similar to human cognitive abilities. Unlike narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks, AGI aims to perform any intellectual task that a human can. It’s specifically designed, slightly terrifyingly, to mimic the cognitive abilities of the human brain.
While it’s not certain that AGI is coming to the masses this year, OpenAI’s Sam Altman has hinted towards its imminence. As summarised by Techopedia, from Sam’s Reflections blog:
“As we get closer to AGI, it feels like an important time to look at the progress of our company.
“We started OpenAI almost nine years ago because we believed that AGI was possible, and that it could be the most impactful technology in human history.
“We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.
“We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies.”
So what does all of this mean for L&D? As you might be able to predict, there's a whole host of implications for our industry when it comes to AGI. Much like the democratisation of AI we mentioned in our first point, chief among them is the potential for personalisation in learning. AGI can analyse individual learning needs and preferences to create tailored learning experiences for each individual learner.
It’ll also have implications for automated content creation. AGI can automate the process of creating and updating training materials, which has the dual benefits of reducing L&D’s workload while continuing to keep their output as relevant as possible.
AGI can also facilitate better communication and teamwork among employees, making it easier to share knowledge and learn from each other (something L&D is always advocating for!)
As AI spread throughout the mainstream over the course of the past three years, one of its innovations came in the form of AI agents. Many of us probably only know these as infuriating, faceless faux-helpers in the corner of our screen – who, let’s be completely honest, are simply leading us around in a circle as we beg for them to transfer us to a human.
But all that is set to change in 2025. It’s predicted that “Agentic AI” will become more sophisticated, more advanced and more, dare we say, human than ever before. Over the course of the next year, we’ll see AI agents come to possess deeper reasoning capabilities, with the ability to communicate via voice and video.
What does this mean for L&D? From where we’re sitting, a few things. Firstly, we’ll start to see benefits to training. Where agentic AI can be implemented, training sessions will become more dynamic and effective without the constant need for human intervention – meaning L&D teams are freed up to continue developing their strategies. We’re of course not advocating for a complete removal of human intervention from the process, but this is simply a way for L&D to save some much-needed time. (Watch this space, as Thrive is preparing to release something extremely exciting within the world of agentic AI…)
Another upshot of this advancement is that L&D will have to adapt to evolving roles. As agentic AI begins to take over routine, mundane tasks, roles throughout the business will begin to shift. L&D needs to be prepared; not just for their own roles to change, but for those of their employees to change as well. This evolution calls for an ever-evolving L&D strategy – something that can arguably be bolstered by AI.
As we look ahead to 2025, it's clear that AI will continue to be a game-changer for L&D. We hope our 2025 trends round-up has you feeling more prepared, but if you’re still curious about how you can use AI to its fullest potential in 2025, tune into our webinar on Thursday, 13th February.
Our Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, Josh Devanny, will be joined by Scott Dudley-Jones, L&D Specialist at Interpath Advisory. Together, they’ll discuss how Scott and his team are using Thrive’s AI features to save time and boost efficiency, tailor learning for their people, and create engaging content in a matter of seconds.
Does this sound like something your business needs? Book a Thrive demo today to see how our AI features can help your team.
Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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AI is no longer the new kid on the block; far from it. With the tail-end of 2022 serving as Chat GPT’s debut to the mainstream, 2023 and 2024 were the years that the then-novel technology spread throughout the public consciousness – sparking conversations about ethics, intellectual copyright, and responsible usage as it went.
Today, it’s an everyday fixture in all of our lives, including and especially within the world of work. 2025 is poised to be a landmark year for AI, a paradigm shift that will have a ripple effect throughout arguably every single industry. Learning & Development is far from exempt, so let’s explore how these 2025 AI trends will impact the profession.
2025 is predicted to be the year in which true democratisation of AI will take hold. What exactly do we mean by this? Individuals all over the world are already using Large Language Models in their daily tasks, so aren’t we already experiencing democratisation of AI?
Not exactly. When we refer to democratisation of AI in 2025, we’re talking about the fact that businesses of all sizes will have access to advanced AI tools like predictive analytics, AI assistants, and AI collaboration tools.
This is good news for L&D departments, whose consistent pursuit of Continuous Professional Development will be bolstered by these tools; helping them create personalised learning journeys that are tailored to each individual.
We’re already seeing the impact here at Thrive: We’ve recently unveiled our Winter Release and Product Roadmap, which includes a whole host of AI features including AI search, AI content curation and AI chatbots – and our customers are reaping the benefits.
L&D at large will reap plenty of other benefits from this democratisation. In 2025, AI is going to be faster than ever before – meaning it’ll also be more agile than ever before. One of the key roles of L&D is to adapt their learning programmes to changing business needs, and agile AI will help us do just that.
Of course, there’s another side to this coin. If you’re keeping up with the latest AI news, you’ll know that (ironically) OpenAI has raised copyright concerns about DeepSeek, a Chinese app that emulates ChatGPT’s performance at a lower cost. This has the potential to dethrone ChatGPT, and shake up the status quo of the AI landscape as a whole. From the BBC:
‘"It is unclear whether DeepSeek really trained its models from scratch," [Naomi Haefner, assistant professor of technology management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland] said.
"OpenAI have stated that they believe DeepSeek may have misappropriated large amounts of data from them. If this is the case, then the claims about training the model very cheaply are deceptive. Until someone replicates the training approach we won't know for sure whether such cost-efficient training is really possible."
… However, it is not clear how problematic the idea of "building on" the work of others is.
This is especially true in AI, where the accusation of disrespecting intellectual property rights has been frequently levelled at major US AI firms.’
As we’ve seen with Kier Starmer’s AI Action Plan, governments are taking a more active role within the landscape of AI. Whereas prior to this year AI as an industry has gone larger unregulated (leading to a slew of lawsuits), 2025 is the year that new regulations will take hold.
Across the world, governments are increasingly viewing AI through the lens of national security, resulting in stricter regulations in every industry. We’re quite obviously big proponents of Compliance here at Thrive, and the new wave of AI governance will bring the next era of this type of training. L&D teams will need to keep abreast of any changes in AI governance and regulation, ensuring that training programmes are up-to-date. (If only there was a learning content team who could stay up-to-date on those changes for you…)
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to a type of AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks, similar to human cognitive abilities. Unlike narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks, AGI aims to perform any intellectual task that a human can. It’s specifically designed, slightly terrifyingly, to mimic the cognitive abilities of the human brain.
While it’s not certain that AGI is coming to the masses this year, OpenAI’s Sam Altman has hinted towards its imminence. As summarised by Techopedia, from Sam’s Reflections blog:
“As we get closer to AGI, it feels like an important time to look at the progress of our company.
“We started OpenAI almost nine years ago because we believed that AGI was possible, and that it could be the most impactful technology in human history.
“We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.
“We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies.”
So what does all of this mean for L&D? As you might be able to predict, there's a whole host of implications for our industry when it comes to AGI. Much like the democratisation of AI we mentioned in our first point, chief among them is the potential for personalisation in learning. AGI can analyse individual learning needs and preferences to create tailored learning experiences for each individual learner.
It’ll also have implications for automated content creation. AGI can automate the process of creating and updating training materials, which has the dual benefits of reducing L&D’s workload while continuing to keep their output as relevant as possible.
AGI can also facilitate better communication and teamwork among employees, making it easier to share knowledge and learn from each other (something L&D is always advocating for!)
As AI spread throughout the mainstream over the course of the past three years, one of its innovations came in the form of AI agents. Many of us probably only know these as infuriating, faceless faux-helpers in the corner of our screen – who, let’s be completely honest, are simply leading us around in a circle as we beg for them to transfer us to a human.
But all that is set to change in 2025. It’s predicted that “Agentic AI” will become more sophisticated, more advanced and more, dare we say, human than ever before. Over the course of the next year, we’ll see AI agents come to possess deeper reasoning capabilities, with the ability to communicate via voice and video.
What does this mean for L&D? From where we’re sitting, a few things. Firstly, we’ll start to see benefits to training. Where agentic AI can be implemented, training sessions will become more dynamic and effective without the constant need for human intervention – meaning L&D teams are freed up to continue developing their strategies. We’re of course not advocating for a complete removal of human intervention from the process, but this is simply a way for L&D to save some much-needed time. (Watch this space, as Thrive is preparing to release something extremely exciting within the world of agentic AI…)
Another upshot of this advancement is that L&D will have to adapt to evolving roles. As agentic AI begins to take over routine, mundane tasks, roles throughout the business will begin to shift. L&D needs to be prepared; not just for their own roles to change, but for those of their employees to change as well. This evolution calls for an ever-evolving L&D strategy – something that can arguably be bolstered by AI.
As we look ahead to 2025, it's clear that AI will continue to be a game-changer for L&D. We hope our 2025 trends round-up has you feeling more prepared, but if you’re still curious about how you can use AI to its fullest potential in 2025, tune into our webinar on Thursday, 13th February.
Our Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, Josh Devanny, will be joined by Scott Dudley-Jones, L&D Specialist at Interpath Advisory. Together, they’ll discuss how Scott and his team are using Thrive’s AI features to save time and boost efficiency, tailor learning for their people, and create engaging content in a matter of seconds.
Does this sound like something your business needs? Book a Thrive demo today to see how our AI features can help your team.
Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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