Augmented Workforce, Learning at the Frontline and the Destiny of L&D.

For a long stretch, you could skip Learning Technologies for a year and miss almost nothing. Not this year. AI has stopped being something L&D is piloting and started being something the field is rebuilding around — and the conversation at LT26 had a sharper edge for it. In this season finale, John brings back five voices from the show floor and the studio to map what's actually changing: the augmented workforce, the 80% of workers L&D has long ignored, the readiness question nobody wants a straight answer to, the maturing of content into context, and the generational lens of a 30 Under 30. The destiny of L&D, in other words — sketched from five different angles, while the ground is still moving.

Guests, in running order

• Giovanni Giamminola — AI advisor and author of The Augmented Manager; opening keynote speaker at LT26. The augmented workforce thesis: humans plus AI plus AI agents, and the cognitive shift that demands of management.
• JD Dillon — Founder of LearnGeek; former CLO at Axonify; author of The Frontline Enablement Playbook (out the week the episode airs). On the 80% of the workforce L&D conferences forget about.
• Alicia Sanchez — Chief AI Officer at MPF Federal LLC; LT26 panellist on future-proofing L&D. On AI readiness — organisational and workforce — and the failure modes at both extremes.
• Cheryl Clemons — CEO and co-founder of StoryTagger. On the show's themes from a vendor's chair: content to context, evidencing impact, and whether storytelling has had its day as a learning modality.
• Matt Caldwell — People Experience and DEI at Axon; LT26 30 Under 30 cohort. The generational lens: privacy, data, bias, and what younger workers actually feel about giving themselves to AI tools.

In this episode

• The augmented workforce — humans, AI, and AI agents working together, and what that means for management itself
• Why 80% of the global workforce is frontline or deskless, and almost no L&D budget reflects it
• The two-track AI readiness question — organisational and workforce — and the trap of "we're getting ready" as a permanent excuse
• Content to context: AI maturing the L&D conversation at both ends of the learning programme
• A generational read on AI, privacy and bias from inside the workforce that grew up with the technology
• The destiny of L&D, sketched from five angles while the ground is still moving

Links and resources

• Giovanni Giamminola — The Augmented Manager: How AI Makes Management More Effective, Creative and Strategic (2025)
• JD Dillon — The Frontline Enablement Playbook (2026); LearnGeek; the enabled newsletter
• Alicia Sanchez — Why Readiness Is Shaping the Future of Work (Learning Guild)
• Cheryl Clemons — StoryTagger
• Matt Caldwell — Axon; LT26 30 Under 30 cohort (Nigel Paine)

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Coming next on this feed

The Learning Hack returns for a new season in September. But the feed isn't going quiet over the summer — John launches a brand-new podcast on Tuesday 26 May 2026: The Tech Imaginarium — How Science Fiction Made the Modern World, co-hosted with writer and consultant Ezri Carlebach. Six episodes, weekly, into this same feed. More at learninghackpodcast.com/tech-imaginarium.