The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation: A field guide to the new future-focused L&D.

By Lori Niles-Hofmann

As organizations look to transform in the face of increasing change, the technology used needs to similarly mature. In this forward-thinking book, leading learning strategist Lori Niles-Hoffman provides us with a tested approach to guide our implementation of technology to support learning. She takes us through eight well-considered perspectives that together make a coherent way to look at how we can facilitate learning across the organization. She considers the strategy shift necessary to support learning and takes a holistic approach to the environment in which such solutions may live. Lori helps us align stakeholders, data, and other knowledge sources to yield an integrated and effective whole. With wit and grace, this book provides the tools you need to make sense of technology as we move to the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 16, 2025
• ISBN: 9798990634831

Lori Niles-Hofmann

Lori is a senior learning strategist with over 20 years of L&D experience across many industries, including international banking, management consulting, and marketing. She specializes in large-scale digital learning transformations and is passionate about helping companies navigate through the ambiguity of change.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

THE JOURNEY OF MISTAKES AND LESSONS LEARNED

This book is the culmination of a lot of mistakes. My career has been quite the rollercoaster ride through the complex terrain of EdTech, filled with unexpected turns, exhilarating highs, and yep, some stomach-churning lows. The lessons here are from the snafus that have gifted me gray hairs and kept me awake at night.

Throughout the years, I've encountered numerous pain points in EdTech transformations. Organizations often struggle with a number of factors, such as misaligned strategies, poor stakeholder management, lack of integration with existing systems, insufficient data literacy, and more. These challenges can derail even the most well-intentioned efforts, leading to frustration, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. I have also stumbled upon serendipitous successes as well as shining moments of hurdles overcome. Those are captured in this book, too.

That said, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing that a new learning management system or the latest EdTech tool will solve every problem. EdTech is a very broad term, especially now. It used to be the infrastructure to manage learning. Today, it can be everything from simulations to evaluations, AI role-plays to self-study digital flashcards.

Then there is the flipside of HR or PeopleTech to consider. There’s a lot to be tantalized by. However, my experience has shown that the real transformation lies beyond technology alone. Sure, new technology might make some processes more streamlined or yield a better UX, but that’s not a transformation, nor does it solve real business problems.

The strength of The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation is in the strategic approach to learning and development.

The Challenge Ahead

To anyone connected to this quirky industry, it’s no secret that L&D is usually the first office to be downsized in a recession or economic downturn. More often than not, I believe that some fat can be trimmed from our teams (sorry, not sorry). However, self-preservation is definitely not the reason for reading this book. I would honestly prefer L&D not to exist as a function if they aren’t delivering value. It's like watching a snake swallow a large animal; it's slow, painful, and exhausting for both.

Organizations that fail to transform their approach to upskilling their people risk falling behind in a world where skills become obsolete at an alarming rate. The repercussions of inaction are severe: decreased competitiveness, reduced employee engagement, and ultimately, a workforce ill-equipped to face future challenges.

Feel as though you’ve heard this a million times before, especially from vendors peddling fear for panic purchases? Let's look at some concrete examples. The urgency for upskilling is evident across various industries worldwide.

Starting with the automotive industry in Germany, the shift toward electric vehicles is the initiation of a massive reskilling effort. Mercedes-Benz will invest more than $2.2 billion by 2030 to train employees as data and artificial intelligence (AI) specialists.⁠ ¹

Not convinced? Look at India's IT sector. The demand for AI talent is expected to grow from 600,000–650,000 to over 1,250,000 between 2022 and 2027, at a 15% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate).⁠ ² That’s a near doubling over five years. Contrast this with an AI market projected to grow at a 25–35% CAGR,⁠ ³ there's a potential demand-supply gap in the talent pool, necessitating significant upskilling.

Major IT companies are already responding to this challenge, with TCS training 350,000 employees on AI during 2023–24⁠ ⁴ and Wipro training 220,000 employees on AI during the same period.⁠ ⁵ These are historically high numbers, and L&D had better be prepared to respond at scale.

Doing Nothing

So, what if we just did nothing? It's an alluring thought. After all, the corporate learning landscape has been chugging along for decades without any major upheavals, save for online learning options that came out in the early 2000s. We've got our learning management systems, our e-learning modules, our instructor-led training sessions. We run our annual compliance courses, roll out leadership development programs, and offer a splendid smorgasbord of online courses for employees to pick from. It's comfortable. It's familiar. It's safe. It ensures a consistent, albeit sometimes lean, budget.

What are we risking by maintaining the status quo?

First and foremost, we risk irrelevance. Here is where I insert the obligatory phrase, The world of work is changing at an unprecedented pace. It's a cliche pulled right from ChatGPT, but true. Technological advancements, shifting market dynamics, and evolving consumer behaviors are constantly reshaping the skills and competencies our organizations need to thrive. By standing still, we're essentially moving backward.

Moreover, by doing nothing, we're perpetuating a system that, if we're honest with ourselves, hasn't been serving our colleagues as well as it could. Looking at ourselves in the mirror: How many of us can say with certainty that our current learning initiatives are truly moving the needle on organizational performance? How many of us can point to concrete, measurable outcomes that directly link our learning programs to business results? Some do, and I sincerely applaud you. However, if I were to make a bold statement about the de rigueur of our industry, I would say that today’s L&D doesn’t function properly.

We need to think differently.

The uncomfortable truth is that for too long, we in L&D have operated on assumptions and gut feelings rather than hard data. We've created beautiful courses, filled our learning libraries with modules, and won awards for high completion and engagement rates. But have we really been making a difference? In pockets, yes. But are we consistent? In my experience, no.

This brings us to a crucial point: measurement. Or rather, the lack thereof.

One of the most significant risks of maintaining the status quo is that we continue to operate in a world where our impact is neither quantified nor truly measured with precision. We've become comfortable with proxy metrics—course completions, satisfaction surveys, maybe even the occasional knowledge check. But these barely scratch the surface of what we should be measuring.

And yes, I understand all too well the challenges with measurement. It’s very hard to tease apart cause and effect when there are so many factors influencing learning behavior. Did the sales team meet their targets for selling snowblowers because of the e-learning module? Or was it the historical snowstorm that pushed up purchases?

However, imagine if other departments operated the way we do. What if Sales couldn't tell you exactly how many deals they closed or the revenue they generated? What if Marketing couldn't provide concrete data on campaign performance and ROI? They'd be laughed out of the boardroom. Yet somehow, L&D has managed to fly under the radar, avoiding the same level of scrutiny and accountability.

By doing nothing, we're allowing this inefficiency to continue. We're wasting valuable resources—both in terms of the direct costs of learning programs and the indirect costs of employee time and lost productivity—on learning initiatives that may or may not be aligned with our organization's true needs.

Finally, and this is the uncomfortable truth, this state can only last for so long. We are absolutely at a disrupt-or-be-disrupted point in time and can no longer fly under the radar. Change is inevitable. Automation of workflows performed by agents will soon be the norm. We can either be an active part of shaping the future, an unwilling passenger dragged along, kicking and screaming, or left in the dust on the side of the road, clutching our job aids.

The Future of L&D

So, what's the alternative? What's my vision for the L&D of the future?

First and foremost, it's important to understand what it's not. It's not another destination platform or vanity project. We don't need another standalone LMS or content library that sits separate from employees' day-to-day work.

What we need is a learning ecosystem that's deeply integrated into the flow of work, that's invisible yet omnipresent, that's personalized yet aligned with organizational goals. The L&D function of the future operates with precision. It doesn't just offer learning opportunities; it tackles the skills to enable the tasks we need when we need them.

This is where AI and skills intelligence systems change the playing field. These technologies have the potential to map the skills landscape of our organization in real time, identifying gaps and predicting future needs with unprecedented accuracy.

Think about what it would mean to be able to say, These are the skills our organization needs to develop in the next six months to achieve our strategic objectives. And not just at an organizational level, but at a team and, most importantly, an individual level. These are the skills Jameel needs to develop to be ready for his next role. This is the learning path Sina should follow to close the skill gaps in her team. It's defining whether we need 17 or 18 people with a particular skill.

Likewise, we can predict how long it will take to upskill those 17 or 18 people. We know exactly how much it costs, the impact on the business, and what resources will be required. We can then balance this against the implications of hiring these skills on the market.

This level of laser-focused precision allows us to move beyond the spray and pray approach of traditional corporate learning. No more pushing out generic training pathways and hoping they stick. Instead, we can offer highly targeted, personalized learning experiences that directly address identified skill gaps.

In this future state, the formal learning platform as we know it today will likely cease to exist. In its place will be an invisible LMS, a middleware seamlessly woven into the fabric of the workday. Think about it. When you're browsing the internet, a bell doesn’t chime, alerting you to the time to be marketed to by Google. It happens organically as you go about your online activities. We can apply the same principle to learning.

As we make the case for transformation in L&D, it's crucial to remember that we're not just changing systems or processes—we're actually changing mindsets. We're moving from a world of passive, one-size-fits-all learning to an ecosystem of active, personalized, and continuous development. It's a shift that requires investment, both in terms of resources and organizational culture.

This type of transformation is not easy. It requires us to challenge long-held assumptions about how learning happens and how it should be managed. It requires us to embrace new technologies and gamble with nascent ways of thinking. It requires us to get comfortable with data and analytics in a way that many in L&D haven't before.

But the potential rewards are immense. By creating a learning environment that's precise, personalized, and seamlessly integrated into the flow of work, we can drive real business impact. We can help our organizations adapt more quickly to change, close critical skill gaps, and create a workforce that's not just prepared for the future, but actively shaping it.

The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation

So, how do we do it? This question is what led me to develop the concept of the Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation. These levers represent the key areas I know from experience that organizations need to address to truly transform their learning functions:

A New Target Operating Model (TOM)

Data

Content Strategy

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Knowledge Management and Marketing

Ecosystems Thinking

Strategic Alignment with the Business

Each of these levers plays a crucial role in the success of an EdTech transformation, and the neglect of just one of them can derail even the most well-intentioned efforts. And while AI will augment each of these levers and perhaps even automate most of them, this won’t happen overnight, but it will be faster than we can imagine.

Right now, many enterprises are still skirting the possibilities of AI alongside managing the risks, while others are running full steam ahead. It is my current experience that the priority for AI implementation in companies is mostly contained within business units such as IT, Sales, and Product Development. This is absolutely not to say nothing is happening in AI and L&D. Rather, that our neck of the corporate woods may not be