The final part of the year is always an invitation to synthesis: changes are observed, gaps are measured, and future trajectories are tentatively discerned. In this sense, we can say that 2025 was not a simple time interval but a true turning point in the culture of learning. The traditional idea of a training pathway has given way to a much broader and more layered conception, in which the learning journey becomes a dynamic, adaptive ecosystem, connected to real behaviors and supported by a technological infrastructure that is growing exponentially.
The mature entry of artificial intelligence into educational practices has redefined the very vocabulary of knowledge: no longer accumulation, but relationship; no longer linearity, but interconnection; no longer memorization, but the ability to question, interpret, and negotiate meaning. In a context where content supply grows beyond the threshold of cognitive sustainability—not by chance this year saw the coinage of the term “infobulimia”—a latent risk emerges, making a more intentional design necessary, less oriented toward quantity and more tied to value.
The change is technological, but above all cultural. International research confirms a shared urgency: organizations must maintain competitiveness, people must continuously update their skills, and L&D teams must demonstrate the tangible contribution of learning to business results.
La formazione come leva strategica
Companies that have stopped viewing training as a cost to be rationalized are better coping with the economic instability arising from the international political scenario. In these organizations, over the past five years there has been steady growth both in investments and in strategic awareness. Training has become a tool for competitiveness and innovation, capable of impacting processes, performance, and internal culture.
This change is not the result of a passing trend, but the outcome of technological and social transformations documented by recent research, such as those reported in the 2024 LinkedIn Learning report and in Josh Bersin’s analyses dedicated to the impact of artificial intelligence on training practices. According to the findings, this is a revolution driven first and foremost by need, even before technology: the need for organizations to remain competitive, for people to stay up to date, and for L&D teams to demonstrate the real contribution of learning to business objectives.
Learning journey equitable by design
The training architecture of 2025 definitively abandons the idea of a one-size-fits-all curriculum. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has accelerated this shift, introducing a cultural rather than merely regulatory principle: training must be accessible, equitable, and designed to include the diversity of needs, not to work around them. This is not just about compliance with international guidelines, but about a vision in which plurality becomes a design criterion (learning journeys equitable by design).
Personalization is no longer limited to content, but also concerns timing, pace, and modes of interaction. Modern Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs), enhanced by AI algorithms, are able to suggest resources, modulate difficulty, reconfigure sequences, and predict behaviors. A well-designed learning journey follows the worker as they navigate variable workloads, motivational fluctuations, and changing professional contexts. It is a continuous, distributed, multimodal experience.
Learning analytics: non solo misurare, ma prevedere
2025 also marks a turning point in the measurement of learning. In a previous contribution, we explained that traditional indicators, such as simple course completion, are now inadequate to represent the complexity of digital experiences. Learning analytics today embraces more nuanced data: frequency of content revisits, signals of cognitive fatigue, concentration patterns, time spent, and early system interventions.
Such metrics are not only used to read what has happened, but to predict what may happen. Artificial intelligence identifies at-risk behaviors, anticipates potential dropouts, and suggests personalized interventions.
The learning journey also shifts its center of gravity and no longer resides solely within platforms and virtual classrooms. It enters workflows and interacts seamlessly with operational tools, AI plugins, intelligent repositories, and conversational agents. Learning becomes a subtle thread running through everyday work, connecting tasks, reflections, and immediate feedback—and it is in this direction that Viasky is guiding its R&D teams.
The boundary between formal, informal, and on-the-job learning becomes thinner and more porous, suggesting that learning is not an isolated act, but a continuous process that bounces between observation, experimentation, and interpretation.
Next-generation platforms also recognize the centrality of cognitive well-being. Through multimodal analyses, they interpret indirect cues of emotional states and adapt pace and levels of complexity. Interfaces become lighter, activities more micro and varied, and timing more respectful of the physiology of attention.
An effective learning journey does not merely deliver content: it must create the conditions for learning to consolidate without friction, without overload, without dispersion. The real challenge of the coming years will be the management of cognitive energy.
Le traiettorie future
Cos’altro ci aspetta nel panorama futuro? Guardando ai prossimi tre anni, immaginiamo alcune traiettorie che tenderanno a consolidarsi e a trasformare ulteriormente il learning journey.
We believe that the path of convergence between generative artificial intelligence and advanced predictive systems will continue to consolidate, making learning increasingly proactive. Content will not only respond to an expressed need, but will anticipate difficulties and propose compensatory pathways even before the learner perceives the need to explore a topic further. Interaction with intelligent agents will become increasingly natural, almost conversational, transforming every work activity into a potential entry point for learning.
We also believe that a new form of digital experiential learning will mature, integrating augmented simulations, immersive environments, and lightweight sensory tools. This will not be about invasive virtual reality, but rather micro-experiences embedded in everyday workflows, capable of enhancing situated perception and improving skill transfer. It is likely that biofeedback devices will find broader application, helping to calibrate the intensity and pace of learning in real time, so that each journey respects the individual’s cognitive load and emotional state.
Finally, it is likely that we will increasingly talk about ecological learning, fueled by a dual intelligence: artificial intelligence that analyzes data and contexts, and human intelligence that assigns meaning to experiences. Organizations will adopt “learning sustainability” approaches, designing less intensive but more meaningful pathways that focus not on the quantity of content but on the depth of transformation. The idea of learning communities as a permanent infrastructure will be strengthened, where individual journeys intertwine within networks of exchange, distributed mentoring, and shared narratives.
From this perspective, the learning journey will no longer be perceived as a sequence, but as a living organism, made up of cycles, returns, improvisations, and new forms of shared knowledge. The learning of the future will not be merely personalized, but integrated, dialogic, and cultural; less dependent on technology in a purely instrumental sense and more capable of using it to expand the boundaries of what is possible.
Conclusion
The transformation of the learning journey in 2025 represents only the first movement of a broader symphony. Artificial intelligence, learning analytics, integration into workflows, and attention to cognitive well-being are redefining the relationship between individuals and learning. It is a fascinating, yet fragile process, one that requires awareness, design, and responsibility. The future awaits individuals capable of learning with rhythm, meaning, and autonomy. If well governed, the learning journey can become a space of possibility in which technology extends human capabilities without replacing them, and in which learning becomes not only a means to work better, but a form of meaningful experience.
