Performance, Skills, and AI: What Veteran L&D Leaders Agree On (And What They Don’t)

L&D leaders have spent decades refining how learning is delivered, especially with modern eLearning and LMS platforms, and pre-built content libraries. But far less time has been spent asking whether those efforts actually change performance at scale.

For all the change L&D has lived through, many of the same questions keep resurfacing: 

How do we prove impact?
How do we earn trust with the wider business?
And how do we move beyond delivering learning to enabling performance? 

These themes were front and center in our live episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, recorded in Stockholm with Bob Mosher, Elliott Masie, and Jennifer Florido. Leaning on decades of experience, the panel reflected on performance, skills, culture, and the growing influence of AI. 

What emerged was a clear message: we’re in a definitional moment for L&D. The profession can either repeat old patterns or step up as a performance and capability partner to the business.

Here are five key takeaways from the discussion.

1. Learning only matters when it improves performance

The most durable and impactful L&D initiatives drive performance, not just participation. The emergence of LXPs and modern eLearning tools in the past decade has caused many of us to lose sight of our true purpose.

“Traditional eLearning is valued by being able to tick the box from a compliance or participation point of view,” says Elliott Masie. “But I worry that people have been published at, but haven't grown from a learning experience.”

As Bob Mosher explains, the emphasis on performance isn’t new at all. But for some reason, it just hasn’t stuck. “When Gloria Geary published a book in 1991 and it still feels cutting edge today, that should tell us something.” Positioning L&D as a performance driver feels revolutionary when so many strategies are still rooted in delivering training. 

Methods that help people do their jobs better, in context, remain relevant decade after decade. But approaches focused primarily on content delivery or attendance tend to fade as soon as the next trend appears.

“The shifts that have stood the test of time were able to provide people a sense of support, of inquiry, of feedback, and the like,” says Elliott.

This performance-first lens also exposes where L&D has lost credibility in the past.

2. “Tick-the-box” learning created long-term damage

The panel feels that our reliance on eLearning tools has become a double-edged sword. On one hand, these have made delivering training easy and scalable. But too many L&D teams have made delivery the ultimate goal. 

“It's done a world of good for curiosity,” says Jennifer Florido, “to have access to all kinds of learning and open courses. It's great for people that need access. But it’s not so great for our profession, trying to target and actually see performance.”

“There’s this false sense that it protects us,” says Bob. “But how do we know that they’re even awake, until we test the competence and the performance level?”

Over time, these practices have shaped how the business views L&D. We’re increasingly seen as useful for compliance, but disconnected from real work. 

Rebuilding trust means moving beyond activity metrics and toward evidence of impact.

3. AI tooling isn’t the goal

Unsurprisingly, AI featured heavily in the discussion. But the panel consistently pushed back on the idea that AI itself is the destination, or that it will lead to major learning outcomes on its own. And they share the concern that AI tools and advancements could become a distraction, just as we saw with eLearning. 

For Elliott, the worry is “thinking that we need to be experts in AI. What we really need to be experts in is what we've always been: how do you create performance? How do you build talent? How do you retain talent?

“Let's explore AI, but let's not fall in love with it. Rather, let’s experiment our way through the bits and pieces that are good and not so good.”

Jennifer compares AI to the internet. “We have the world's information via web search, but it doesn't mean that we're closing the skills gaps at the top of the organization. AI will be very helpful with answers and skills. But we also need to figure out our role in helping the behaviors.

“There is a really important role for learning and development at coordinating this, and working on behalf of the organization.”

AI can accelerate content creation, personalization, and access. But if it’s only used to produce more learning faster, it risks reinforcing the very problems L&D is trying to escape. The real opportunity lies in using AI to support performance in the flow of work, not just to scale training.

And that same principle applies to how organizations are approaching skills.

4. Skills initiatives fail when they lack context

Skills-based strategies are gaining momentum. But the panel warned that many organizations risk repeating past mistakes. 

Bob draws a parallel with competency modeling: “In many organizations, competency modeling was a miserable failure. Not because the intent was wrong, but because we didn’t take it deep enough.”

For skills to matter, Bob says, they must be grounded in real work. “A salesperson in your organization is very different from one in mine. We have to get into the work, at the do level.”

As Jennifer says, “what is relevant at one point will be very different at another. So what a remarkable role we can play in helping navigate that.”

When skills are defined too generically or too far from day-to-day tasks, they fail to earn trust from the business. L&D’s role is not just to catalog skills, but to connect them directly to performance, context, and change.

5. L&D’s future depends on trust, not tools

The overriding theme of the session was trust. L&D teams must first earn, and then protect, their place as drivers of performance and skills development within organizations.

For Elliott, this starts by challenging traditional success measures. “The worst place to look is participation—did that person go to that course, in that setting? We need to look at what’s changing performance.”

Jennifer suggests rethinking where and how learning is delivered. And again, this isn’t a question of simply getting the newest tools. “My team is shifting away from courses and an expert telling you what to do, but rather moving more to communities and people learning and evolving much more together.” 

This collaborative learning approach is certainly empowered and accelerated with the right LMS platform, but it’s the cultural shift that really matters. 

Bob agrees that culture is key, and argues that labels matter. “My anxiety with learning culture is that it's been branded as a training culture. I prefer a performance culture. An experimentation culture. An enablement culture.”

This is the shift facing the profession: from provider to partner, from content to capability, from delivery to enablement.

“It’s not going to be the person who provides the classes. It’s going to be somebody who sits down and wants to know my department, my KPIs, my anxiety.”

Where this leaves L&D

L&D is being redefined in real time. As AI reshapes work and skills evolve faster than ever, the profession has a choice. We can continue to optimize training delivery, or we can step into a broader role as a trusted performance partner.

The path forward isn’t about chasing the next tool. It’s about understanding work, enabling people where it matters most, and earning credibility through impact. For L&D leaders willing to make that shift, the opportunity has never been greater.

About Jennifer Florido

Jennifer Florido is Group Head of Talent & Growth at Telia Company, leading strategy to develop, engage and enable talent across one of the Nordics’ largest telecommunications providers. With experience in leadership development, organisational growth and workforce transformation, she brings a practical, business-focused view of how L&D can drive measurable impact. 

About Elliott Masie

Elliott Masie is an internationally recognized futurist, analyst, and learning advocate whose work has shaped the profession for more than four decades. Founder of The MASIE Center, he has been at the forefront of innovations from CBTs and LMSs to MOOCs, VR, and now AI. He also created the long-running Learning conference series, bringing leaders together to explore how workplace learning must evolve. 

About Bob Mosher

Bob Mosher is a pioneering voice in workplace learning, best known for championing performance-first approaches that put support in the flow of work at the centre of L&D. As Chief Learning Evangelist at APPLY Synergies, Bob continues to shape how organisations think about workflow learning, change management, and scalable performance support, earning a reputation as one of the most trusted figures in modern L&D.