The Hackett Group, Inc., a leading Gen AI consulting and enterprise digital transformation firm, has released its latest Digital World Class® Matrix, focusing on the learning and development software marketplace. The report examines how enhanced employee engagement, strategic upskilling and advanced technologies – such as AI-powered content generation – are impacting learning strategies.
The research comes at a time when organizations are struggling to understand their current workforce’s skills and how to elevate learning initiatives to meaningful strategic impact. According to The Hackett Group’s 2026 Human Resources Key Issues Study, 76% of organizations plan to use Gen AI solutions to document skills across their organizations – up from 40% in the previous year. With that greater understanding of existing skills, human resources (HR) leaders are now tasked with extensive upskilling powered by advanced learning and development software solutions.
The Learning and Development Software Digital World Class® Matrix provides an in-depth guide to the market’s most impactful learning technology providers, including how their solutions enhance learning through advanced content generation, content curation, automation and more. The report evaluated 19 providers based on their capabilities and the value they deliver to customers, using vendor briefings and extensive customer interviews across 28 criteria.
Capability ratings assess a vendor’s capacity to provide learning solutions across critical operational areas, including automation, skills mapping, learning modalities, content creation and analytics. They also assess core platform functionalities such as user interface quality, platform structure and data integration.
Value realization ratings assess a vendor’s impact across key metrics for learning performance, including implementation experience, cost reduction, workload reduction, automation improvement, employee engagement, content delivery, performance improvement, business value and pace of innovation.
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The findings are clear: HR organizations engaging with advanced software providers are realizing significant value. End users report that on average 58% of their learning processes are fully automated, dramatically reducing workloads for payroll HR administrators. Additionally, end users report an average of 50% in cost reduction for learning processes.
Leading learning and development vendors are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to speed content generation and consumption across workforces. Using AI-guided solutions, end-users are creating hyper-specific learning content that strategically targets critical skills to drive their businesses forward. Advanced analytics are capturing skills from across the employee life cycle and providing competitive benchmarking intelligence to guide business strategy.
“Learning and development software providers are making large strides in AI utilization to improve outcomes,” said Matthew Merker, senior research director for HCM Market Intelligence at The Hackett Group®. “Through advanced content generation and curation capabilities, HR professionals are enhancing the relevancy of learning content to employees’ roles and improving alignment with overall business strategy, further elevating their role as strategic advisors to their businesses.”
Using this comprehensive analysis, learning and development professionals can make informed purchasing decisions that align with the strategic priorities and workforce upskilling outcomes they seek to impact.
Source: BusinessWire
