When budgets tighten, every line item gets scrutinized, and learning and development (L&D) is often first in the crosshairs, which is ironic given persistent talent shortages. Cutting L&D is a false economy. During disruption, capability building is the fastest, lowest-risk path to artificial intelligence (AI) return on investment (ROI), retention, and redeploying talent to growth initiatives. Here are seven board-level reasons to protect and sharpen your L&D investment now.
1) AI ROI depends on human skills.
Executives are rethinking operating models as AI moves from pilots to production. Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index shows 82% of leaders say this is a pivotal year to rethink strategy, with 81% expecting AI agents to be integrated within the next 12–18 months. Without systematic upskilling, those investments stall.
2) Digital leaders already outperform, by a lot.
McKinsey finds companies with leading digital and AI capabilities outperform laggards by 2–6x in total shareholder returns. L&D is the lever that closes your organization’s capability gap beyond IT, enabling every function to work in new, tech-enabled ways.
3) Skills disruption is accelerating, not easing.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025 report projects that 22% of jobs will be disrupted by 2030, resulting in the creation of 170 million roles and the displacement of 92 million workers; nearly 40% of the skills required on the job are expected to change. Employers say upskilling is their top workforce strategy for this shift. Cutting learning now means paying more later—via hiring premiums or lost competitiveness.
4) L&D is the #1 retention play.
LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report shows that 88% of organizations are concerned about retention, and providing learning opportunities is their top retention strategy. Companies that act as “career development champions” are more confident in profitability (75% vs. 64%) and in their ability to attract and retain talent (67% vs. 50%). Translation: career-driven learning strengthens both the profit and loss (P&L) outlook and the talent brand.
5) Internal mobility beats external hiring costs.
When people don’t see progress, they leave—and the skills you lose are strategically vital. LinkedIn’s data shows that people with hard-to-replace skills, like business strategy, are among the most likely to walk out the door; meanwhile, more than half of the companies that act as “career champions” are prioritizing internal mobility this year. Pair that with the Work Institute’s retention analysis of the direct and indirect costs of turnover (recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity), and the case for upskilling from within becomes obvious.
6) Reinvention is a CEO mandate—and L&D is how you operationalize it.
In PwC’s 2025 Global CEO Survey, 42% of CEOs say their companies won’t be viable beyond 10 years without reinvention. Many are already seeing efficiency gains from GenAI, and a large share plan to increase headcount, not cut it; evidence that tech and talent investments go together. L&D translates reinvention from slide decks into day-to-day capability.
7) Value pools are shifting toward AI-skilled talent—fast.
PwC’s 2025 AI Jobs Barometer finds workers with AI skills command a 56% wage premium, and industries most exposed to AI have 3x faster growth in revenue per employee. Upskilling is how you move your workforce into these higher-value roles and capture the productivity gains rather than watching them accrue to competitors.
What this means for the C-suite
- Treat skills as strategic capital. Allocate L&D with the same rigor as capital expenditures—focused on the capabilities that drive your growth thesis.
- Link learning to mobility and transformation. Use L&D to power internal moves into growth areas (AI, data, cybersecurity, frontline automation), measured by skill creation and redeployment velocity.
- Make leaders accountable for outcomes. Tie manager scorecards to skill acquisition, internal fill rates, and productivity improvements from AI-enabled workflows.
Bottom line: Cutting L&D may bolster this quarter’s margins, but it undercuts AI ROI, slows reinvention, increases attrition, and cedes the value created by new skills to someone else’s balance sheet. The organizations that outlearn will outperform. Now is the time to double down strategically.
Protecting L&D isn’t about spending more; it’s about funding what compounds. This is where ELB Learning® can help. In a 30-minute GenAI skills session, we’ll map your priority use cases to roles, learning paths, and near-term productivity metrics.
Plan AI Transformation and Upskilling
