My head is still spinning from ATD in May. Everywhere you turned, there was another AI announcement, another product launch, or another promise about how AI was going to transform learning. It was exciting, but also a little overwhelming.

A few months later, the picture is becoming much clearer. Organizations are moving beyond experimenting with AI and beginning to identify where it delivers real value. Rather than asking, "Should we use AI?" the question is becoming, "Where should we use AI first?"

As we head into the second half of 2026, here are five trends I believe will have the biggest impact on talent development.

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I have a prediction.

Over the next decade, AI won't just change the way we work. It will fundamentally change what we expect from one another at work.

And in doing so, it will redefine the concept of emotional intelligence.

That may sound strange coming from someone whose career has been built around developing business leaders through digital, hands-on business simulations and role-plays to build emotional intelligence. After all, emotional intelligence has long been considered one of the defining characteristics of effective leadership. The ability to read the room, adapt your communication style, build trust, navigate conflict, and motivate different personalities has become the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar leadership development industry.

Those skills are still incredibly important. But I believe we're about to add another dimension to emotional intelligence, one that AI is quietly teaching us every day.

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Over the past few months, we've noticed an interesting trend. More organizations are beginning to shift portions of their learning portfolios back to virtual delivery. Unlike during COVID, this isn't being driven by health concerns. It’s most likely being driven by economics.

Travel costs continue to rise. Airfare, hotels, meals, and meeting expenses have all increased significantly over the past few years. Add in continued global economic uncertainty, and many organizations are tightening travel budgets or asking learning leaders to accomplish more with fewer resources.

I don't believe we're headed back to an all-virtual world. Face-to-face learning still has tremendous value, especially for strategic planning, leadership development, and team building. What I do believe is that organizations will become much more selective about when they bring people together. That creates an opportunity to rethink how virtual learning is designed and delivered.

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Every year, organizations invest hundreds of thousands, and often millions of dollars, bringing people together for leadership summits, national sales meetings, annual kickoffs, functional conferences, and customer events. They reserve hotels, book flights, bring in keynote speakers, and spend months planning every detail.

Those meetings are designed to communicate strategy, launch new initiatives, celebrate success, and align the organization around what's next. Those objectives are important, but I believe many companies are overlooking one of the greatest opportunities these events provide.

If you're investing in bringing people together, don't miss the opportunity to develop them while they're there.

Most corporate meetings are built around presentations. Executives share the vision, business leaders provide updates, and subject matter experts introduce new products, initiatives, or processes. While those sessions are necessary, they're often passive experiences for the audience.

Imagine replacing just one presentation with an interactive business simulation.

Instead of listening to someone describe a business challenge, participants experience it. They analyze information, debate alternatives, make decisions as a team, and immediately see the impact of those decisions. The conversation becomes richer because participants have applied the concepts instead of simply hearing about them.

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Wasted energy, resources, time, or cash will eventually destroy even the best business strategy.

Every dollar spent on unnecessary work, every hour lost to poor coordination, and every decision delayed by incomplete information creates friction inside the organization. Over time, that friction compounds, reducing profitability, slowing innovation, frustrating customers, and ultimately diminishing shareholder value.

The antidote is operational efficiency.

When most leaders hear the term "operational efficiency," they immediately think about cost reduction. They picture lean operations, lower headcount, tighter budgets, and squeezing expenses wherever possible.

But the most successful organizations understand something different.

Operational efficiency is not simply about lowering costs. It is about creating a system where people, processes, technology, and resources work together to deliver maximum value to customers. When done well, operational efficiency improves quality, accelerates innovation, strengthens customer relationships, increases profitability, improves cash flow, and creates sustainable competitive advantage.

In other words, operational efficiency is one of the most important enablers of business strategy.

And today, artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful tools available to improve operational efficiency across the enterprise.

Based on our recent work helping organizations build business acumen and leadership skills in the age of AI, here are five practical ways AI can improve operational efficiency while supporting the execution of business strategy.

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