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Rich St. Denis is president of St. Denis Training and Consulting, and serves as a trainer and consultant for the American Management Association (AMA). He has written and delivered 10 national programs for AMA, and has trained more than 20,000 professionals and consulted more than 50 companies during the past 23 years. Previously, Rich served 22 years as an army officer. In that role, he led organizations large and small through a variety of changes—structural, procedural, and technological. Rich has a BS in engineering, an MA in English, and an MBA in management.

Rich Denis

How to Communicate Effectively During Change

Rich St. Denis

In a recent ATD webinar that I hosted—Mastering Emotional Intelligence Training With J&J and Amazon—L&D leaders from both companies shared advice on how to successfully roll out EI training at an organization. Here are their expert tips.

Emotional Intelligence Training: Where to Begin

The pace of innovation is rapidly accelerating, and artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to redefine how we work, learn, and connect with technology in surprising ways. From empowering new roles and fostering inclusivity, AI is on the brink of reshaping entire industries. As the year comes to a close, CYPHER Learning shares its predictions for how AI will continue to evolve in 2025. 1. A news-worthy blunder courtesy of AI oversightA Fortune 500 leader will deliver a high-profile keynote containing uncorroborated passages produced by generative AI—and regret it. Someone somewhere is going to embarrass themselves in 2025—probably someone we’ve all heard of, too—by inadvertently relaying plagiarized or inaccurate AI-generated content. Content sent up to the executive suite, unproofed, by a team that ought to know better. AI’s role is best governed by an 80-20 rule: Let it handle 80 percent of routine and tedious tasks, but human oversight is essential for the remaining 20 percent, which includes fact-checking, editing, and managing content. Left to its own devices, AI is still young and imperfect enough to mess up. It’s hard to imagine a time when it—and we—won’t need human overseers. While AI has sparked fears of workforce disruption, especially in creative fields, the reality is that it empowers talented professionals—writers, teachers, designers—by taking on routine work, allowing them to focus on the creative and strategic judgment that will be even more valuable in the years to come.2. Prompt engineering will no longer be crucial2024 conventional wisdom: mastering AI requires mastering prompt engineering. 2025: never mind. Not long ago, we were told that to use AI effectively, users would need to master complex prompt design. But this idea is quickly proving outdated. Generative AI is increasingly embedded as a user-friendly, intuitive feature in everyday applications, and soon, any app without AI will seem behind the curve. The belief that specialized skills are required for AI is fading, which is a positive shift since this notion could have limited AI’s potential and widened existing digital divides. Just as previous tech revolutions succeeded by being accessible to all, AI is evolving to understand natural language, user intent, and behavior, allowing a broader range of people to harness its power. Far from deepening digital divides, AI is poised to bridge them as it continues to develop.3. AI breaks into the C-suiteWe’ll see the emergence of a new, immediately vital C-suite position: CAO. Meet the Chief AI Officer (CAO). Much like CIOs and CISOs before them, who spent years pushing for a voice in corporate strategy, CAOs will now take a leading role as AI becomes central to modern business—bringing both vast potential and unique risks. Unlike past oversights that delayed cybersecurity’s rise to a top corporate priority, the importance of AI won’t be overlooked. The CAO will provide broad oversight across technical and ethical domains, integrating AI into key processes like product design, security, and communications. Not every task will need AI, though, and a high-ranking officer will be essential to set boundaries and make strategic decisions. As AI rapidly evolves, organizations will rely on the CAO to establish guidelines to ensure that AI is used responsibly, aligning with corporate goals rather than posing risks.4. AI-enhanced customer service for allUser satisfaction with retail customer service channels will do something incredible: go up. Customer-service horror stories about incoherent chat agents or frustrating voice recognition systems may soon be history. By 2025, generative AI and AI-driven analytics are set to transform automated customer service, creating friendlier, more efficient customer interactions. Imagine a voice agent that truly understands your request—whether it’s for a flight change or a prescription refill—rather than just parroting account details. Even better, advantages like these won’t be limited to massive corporations and Fortune 500 companies. Small businesses can join in, using AI to create high-quality, personalized customer service with less effort, reduced costs, and wider reach. If there’s any downside to all this, it’s that consumer expectations for responsive, intelligent service will rise, with companies that fail to catch the AI wave risking being left in the dust.5. Personalized workplace development displaces old-school trainingPersonalized workplace development will become the new standard, displacing old-school, one-size-fits-all training. With hang-onto-your-hat speed, personalized training is accelerating rapidly, becoming more feasible both economically and logistically for large enterprises with thousands of employees. Modern learning platforms, powered by conscientiously deployed AI, drive this shift, allowing companies to provide dynamic, on-demand upskilling tailored to individual needs. By 2025, we’ll see bite-sized lessons seamlessly fitting into unique workflows, empowering companies to reduce worker-error rates, boost competitiveness, and turn workplace development from a cost center into a value-generating engine. The outdated, linear training approaches—often disruptive and off-target—will be replaced by a hybrid model, blending still-relevant traditional coursework with rich, interactive experiences. As AI enables companies to create targeted, context-appropriate training regimes for everyone, employee satisfaction will grow, turning previously tedious tasks into engaging, job-relevant learning opportunities.How can you leverage AI going into 2025?As AI continues to evolve in 2025, its potential to boost productivity, streamline customer experiences, and drive innovation will only grow. By embracing AI thoughtfully—focusing on responsible use, clear oversight, and leveraging its strengths for routine tasks—users can maximize its benefits while minimizing risks. Whether you’re a leader looking to integrate AI into strategic initiatives or a professional aiming to enhance daily workflows, now is the time to explore how AI can elevate your future. 

5 Bold Predictions for AI in 2025

Barry Altland is a writer, speaker, thought leader and published author of the book, Engaging the Head, Heart and Hands of a Volunteer, a simple guide for feeding the passion of those who serve.Barry blends world-class leadership principles from the for-profit world with his own numerous experiences as a volunteer and leader of volunteers to offer a fresh perspective on volunteer engagement.In his professional life, Barry has cultivated talent strategies in a variety of industries, ranging from the theme parks of Central Florida to agribusiness, supply chain logistics, financial services and healthcare. He has invested fifteen years developing talent and leadership across all levels of organizations. Barry has served as a collaborative partner to teams and leaders to assess performance inhibitors and devise creative solutions that optimize people, passion and performance. Mr. Altland has designed and facilitated hundreds of workshops and interactive learning experiences.Barry’s volunteer life spans faith-based service, homeowners association leadership, professional association leadership at the local and national level, working with youth, athletics, education-based volunteerism and social impact organizations. Barry has even designed and led corporate social responsibility strategies in multiple companies.The result of these experiences is content-rich guidance for leaders of volunteers to help them lead with Otherliness. As leaders embrace Barry’s unique perspective, they develop into leaders better prepared to touch the hearts of volunteers by engaging them . . . one person at a time.

Barry Altland

Laura Middlesworth is an instructional design consultant with more than a decade as an L&D practitioner helping to transform workplace learning in industries ranging from aerospace to health insurance to travel and hospitality. A problem solver with a passion for helping people, Middlesworth specializes in results-focused and people-centric solutions and recently founded IndieLo Design. With a PhD in economics from the University of Washington, she is endlessly curious about human behavior, decision making, and incentive structures, and workplace learning and development provides a rich environment for practical application and continuous learning around behavior change.

Laura Middlesworth

Credit Or NonCredit an Executive Decision

It is time now to take advantage of the inclusionary thinking traits that women bring to leadership roles.

Female Leadership Is Key to High Performance

Don’t unnecessarily invest time, energy, and money in a new tech tool; instead, start with the behavior.

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