In our recent leadership development effectiveness survey, we asked HR and L&D leaders what they’re doing to develop leaders, what’s working well, how they’re measuring impact, and why, despite everything, leadership programs still fail.

The resulting insights allowed us to identify 10 leadership development trends worth paying attention to for the rest of 2026, especially as learning leaders continue to evaluate where to integrate AI for improved program performance.

View our key findings below or download the full report to see all 10 trends.

How AI is being used in leadership development

L&D leaders report that AI adoption is real, but still emerging. While 81% of learning teams are actively using AI in their programs, the majority of them are using the technology for content creation or translation, not application, practice, personalization, or analytics.

L&D teams are becoming comfortable using AI for getting more done with less, but the next opportunity is using it to provide richer capability-building experiences. AI has opened a new world of learner centricity; from system-integrated skill evaluation to personalized coaching and roleplay. The survey findings indicate that there is still plenty of room to grow in this area as L&D teams