Hey there 👋,
Welcome to Q2’s edition of The Drop.
This is the market intelligence arm of Steal These Thoughts where I share a monthly roundup of the biggest stories, releases and movements across the learning tech market.
Before we begin…I can’t be everywhere, so if you’ve seen news I should share here next month, send your stories to me directly.
Here’s what you need to know this quarter ↓
1️⃣ AI-native learning platforms gather pace
Last time, I said it felt like every LMS and LXP was using an LLM as its new entry point.
The lines are blurring, and we’ve seen plenty of integrations hit the market including:
Workday Learning powered by Sana dropped in late July combining Workday's people and skills data with Sana's superb AI-native learning experience.
Cornerstone launched their AI workforce product in mid-May. There was a lot of lengthy and confusing corpo speak in their press releases. My TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) summary is you can take advantage of CS vast amounts of data on skills and capabilities, and use a suite of AI agents for lots of tasks across the platform.
Docebo has pushed it’s MCP (which we covered last time) into full launch as of July, along with AgentHub, which lets you build AI agents and their take on an AI Tutor.
Not to be left out, Absorb dropped “Aura” in June which is its own coordinated system of AI agents.
Note to any marketing or PR people for learning tech companies reading this… make your damn news releases shorter and make sense to a human. Like, who are you writing for?
2️⃣ Are we finally ready to change how we assess learning?
Long time readers will know I hate quizzes and end of course assessments.
They’re useless and are really a game of who has the best memory. Let me be clear, they neither measure intelligence nor capability. You may fight me on that.
This quarter brings some positive signs that we’re heading in the right direction with:
Perceptyx launching “Develop” a multi-agent system that assesses comprehension as learning happens rather than testing afterwards, producing a record of proven capability. I’m keeping an eye on this one as I find it most intriguing if it can be pulled off.
Microsoft launching a capability verification system without a test. You can earn credentials from how you use tools within Microsoft’s tech stack thanks to their new tool which watches how you complete tasks (freaky, I know). This is coming to GitHub first but I’m sure we’ll see more to come.
Docebo’s AI powered roleplays now let you design and benchmark against your own criteria. Plus, you can add human reviewers for those important scenarios.
Synthesia dropping their version of AI roleplays to practice high-stakes conversations. In a nutshell, these are interactive avatars that can coach, practice and measure your performance.
So, it looks like things might really be changing.
Watch this space…
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👀 Market Moves
Who’s moving and shaking in the learning tech scene.
Handshake acquires Uplimit: The early-careers network bought one of the sharper AI-native learning platforms and is folding it into a new "AI Skills Studio".
CMI rolls out Thrive learning to 280,000 members : The Chartered Management Institute chose Thrive to support learning across its UK and international membership.
LearningPool acquires Confirm: The fourth acquisition in a run that already includes WorkRamp, Elucidat and WorkStep. Confirm uses Organisational Network Analysis to map who's actually driving impact versus who's just completing courses folded into what Learning Pool calls a "Talent Flywheel."
Truth of the month
You know it’s what’s really happening 😏
🙋♀️ Got a story for next month? send it to me.
Till next time, you stay classy, learning friend!
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