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

% of HR professionals that called training a top priority in the Identity of HR survey by year.

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.

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