The global market for professional development (training, certification, and upskilling) is over $400 billion, and almost a third of this is focused on topics and technologies that aren’t company specific. During the last three decades, much of this demand has been fulfilled by training providers: online course libraries, video libraries, simulations, expert assessments, and many forms of professional certification, testing, and accreditation. It’s largely a recession-proof market, since ongoing professional development is always needed, and many companies pride themselves on being a place to develop your career, build new skills, and stay ahead in your career. That all said, the “business” of online learning is changing at light speed. Companies like Udacity (sold to Accenture), Coursera, Udemy (just sold to Coursera), LinkedIn Learning, SkillSoft, Pluralsight, and even companies like Masterclass, TEDx, and BigThink are not the darlings they once were. Recently, as Coursera “merged” with Udemy, I noted the plunging...

Read More

This week Coursera announced the acquisition of Udemy, demonstrating the accelerating collapse of the 25-year old traditional online learning industry. As I explain in this podcast, this industry is not going away but it’s being quickly and radically transformed by AI. The upside here is a new, highly personalized world of professional development ahead. While courseware, certifications, credentials, and online curricula won’t disappear overnight, the business model of providers is changing very quickly. In this podcast I explain this shift and also show you how our particular Galileo business model works. As someone who participated in the birth of this industry in 1998, I could not be more excited about this new world. If you’re a corporate HR or L&D professional, this transforms your training function. If you’re a vendor or consultant, this changes your business model. And if you’re a business person or senior leader, you have an exciting...

Listen Now

Talent Acquisition is perhaps the most important but also complex part of business. In this podcast I explain the intricate details of this $750 billion market, which is now being transformed by AI. As you’ll hear, recruitment is far more nuanced than you may think, so “experts” in HR can do some pretty amazing things. I hope this podcast helps you see the entire landscape and also understand where and why AI can have such an impact. Many tech companies have tried and failed to transform the market (Google Jobs failed, Facebook Jobs failed), yet some thrive and deliver tremendous value. As you listen to this podcast I hope you get a better sense of where this market is going and I encourage you to get Galileo and ask Galileo to explain the vendor market in detail (it is updated almost daily). As always I welcome your feedback and if...

Listen Now

Tristram Gray, Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer at Kmart Group in Australia, explains how the retail giant is revolutionizing high-volume hiring with AI. Managing 55,000 employees across 450 stores, Kmart recruits 12,000 people annually while processing hundreds of thousands of applications. Tristram shares how the company uses Sapia.ai to create a mobile-first, simulation-based AI assessment process that evaluates candidates on culture, values, and behaviors rather than traditional resumes, previous experience, or technical skills. The results are remarkable: 73% reduction in time-to-hire (from 44 days to 11 days), 2.5 times longer retention, enhanced diversity, significant cost savings, and 9 out of 10 candidate satisfaction – which translates to a better brand and customer perception of the retail company. Tristram discusses the importance of providing personalized feedback to every candidate, the transformation of recruiter roles from reactive hiring to proactive talent planning, the need for change agility with operations and HR,...

Listen Now

Today I discuss the leadership theme of Arrogance vs. Humility. It’s a big topic and covers many parts of a company’s cycle of growth and variations in styles of leadership. Without judgement, I wanted to discuss the topic in this era of massive AI investment, huge bets on the future, and many ongoing layoffs. There are good reasons for arrogance and it also has its problems, so I decided to share my thoughts. I also discuss our upcoming 2026 Imperatives research coming in January and give you some insights on the new features in Galileo to help transform the way we assess, coach, and develop our leaders. (And we’re all leaders now.) Like this podcast? Rate us on Spotify or Apple or YouTube. Additional Information Palantir CEO Alex Karp Interview w/NYT Andrew Sorkin Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Interview w/NYT Andrew Sorkin Gavin Newsom California Governor Interview w/NYT Andrew Sorkin      

Listen Now

Contributor: Jess Waldschmidt, Research Fellow Overview Drawing on insights from the 18th sprint of The Big Reset—a premier forum where global HR executives explore the most critical forces shaping the future of work—we mapped talent density drivers, explored emerging priorities in employee experience, and looked at how an AI-first paradigm is reshaping learning and development (L&D). Across five weeks, learning, talent, and organization design leaders participated in our “L&D Revolution” breakout to discuss how legacy models limit impact and how organizations can reimagine L&D’s role. This perspective examines how AI is redefining the value of L&D by shifting its focus from course delivery to performance enablement—bringing learning closer to the business, embedding skilling in the flow of work, and shortening time‑to‑impact. Key Themes Although participants represented diverse industries, their viewpoints converged on shared challenges and aspirations, highlighting five themes that define where L&D can accelerate employee and business performance: Precision...

Read More