How companies train millions of employees while continuously shipping their products.

      The information regarding workforce development presents a mixed narrative. While 85% of companies intend to focus on upskilling their staff through 2030, 63% of employers still perceive skills gaps as the primary obstacle to business transformation.

      This contradiction arises because the framework most organizations rely on to train their employees was designed for a slower pace and has not adapted effectively. The processes involved in creating, reviewing, localizing, and publishing learning and development content are extensive.

      Even in large, well-funded organizations, this process can take several weeks. By the time training reaches employees, the product it was intended to clarify may have undergone two updates, the compliance processes might have changed, and the sales strategies may have already been altered by the field team.

      Many employees have experienced mandatory corporate training that feels more like a mere formality than a true learning opportunity. To enhance the relevance of learning and development, companies are altering both the formats and the timelines for delivery.

      The New Role of the Chief Learning Officer

      Jayney Howson, the Chief Learning Officer at ServiceNow, is exploring what an improved model might entail. The company's initiative, ServiceNow University, aims to upskill over three million individuals by the end of 2027 and has recently been redesigned to be AI-native.

      Her team encountered challenges that many learning and development leaders can relate to: a business continuously releasing AI products, a global workforce that needs to remain updated, and a content creation process that couldn't adapt swiftly enough to meet those needs.

      To address this, Howson's strategy involved revamping the infrastructure around AI, including the introduction of AI-generated videos, which has reduced course production time by approximately tenfold.

      Her team utilized Synthesia to produce over 5,000 videos in just 18 months, with programs like Sales Academy for their global sales team and partner enablement running consistently on a global scale. Learning materials now accurately represent the current state of the business rather than being outdated.

      According to Howson, “It resembles a Netflix experience, providing personalized recommendations for each employee. It can also identify that for the current job I’m in, my skills proficiency is a one when it needs to be a four, and thus offers that training as well.”

      Production Constraints Resolved

      ServiceNow’s experience illustrates a broader trend in enterprise learning and development. Research indicates that 87% of learning professionals are already integrating AI into their workflows, with 72% anticipating that the most significant future benefit of AI will be delivering more personalized learning closer to the point of need, rather than merely reducing production costs.

      These two aspects have always been interconnected. For years, large-scale personalization has been a goal of corporate learning, yet it has repeatedly fallen short. Creating individualized learning pathways for thousands of employees isn't feasible when it takes weeks to produce a single course.

      However, with video content now being created, updated, and translated in a matter of hours, this situation changes. Tailored programs can be developed for specific roles, regions, and stages in a person's career, instead of being generalized for the entire workforce and proving irrelevant to most.

      Implications for Learning Leaders

      Organizations that address production capacity issues through AI allow their learning departments to concentrate on more complex questions.

      Which skills genuinely enhance business performance? What constitutes excellence in specific roles, and how can it be achieved? How do you assess whether learning has influenced behavior, rather than merely tracking which employees clicked through a module?

      These inquiries connect learning and development to business outcomes in ways that completion percentages never could. Organizations making strides in closing the skills gap are often those where learning leaders have the authority to rethink operational models and utilize AI to bridge the gap between the timing of knowledge needs and delivery.

      For Howson, the changes to the infrastructure are crucial, but the surrounding environment is equally important. She envisions ServiceNow University not just in terms of outputs but ensuring that the learning experience feels like a safe space for individuals to take risks.

      “We all can remember being kids and feeling safe,” she remarked. “This needs to feel like a space where you can challenge yourself and not get it right on the first attempt.”

      This combination of accelerated, relevant learning in a psychologically safe environment distinguishes organizations that are successfully addressing the skills gap from those still attempting to tackle a 2026 issue with a 2016 approach.