BUSINESS NEWS - The shift comes as demand for corporate e-learning continues to grow. The global corporate e-learning market was valued at US$104.3 billion (about R1.66 trillion) in 2024 and is forecast to reach US$335 billion (R5.34 trillion) by 2030, according to Grand View Research.
The market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 21.7%, driven partly by digital transformation and the growing need for businesses to continuously reskill and upskill their workforces.
South Africa is experiencing a similar trend. The country's corporate education and skills development market was estimated at US$2.055 billion (R32.8 billion) in 2025 and is forecast to reach US$3.374 billion (R53.8 billion) by 2031.
Self-paced digital learning is expected to see the strongest growth in learner numbers.
South Africa's growing skills investment
The scale of investment in skills development is already significant.
South Africa collected R24.1 billion through the Skills Development Levy in 2024/25, an increase of 7.8% in one year and 138.8% since 2011/12. Of the latest annual total, R19.3 billion was allocated to Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).
But as companies require more training, more frequently, the traditional process of developing learning material is coming under pressure.
“Companies have traditionally relied on their L&D and instructional design teams to turn subject expertise into structured learning,” says Mduduzi Sibisi, Product Head at New Leaf Technologies.
“But the people who possess that knowledge are distributed throughout the organisation. They could be engineers, sales managers, compliance specialists, operations teams or someone with 30 years of institutional knowledge who is about to retire."
AI moves training closer to the experts
Traditionally, subject-matter experts provide the knowledge while specialist learning and development teams turn it into formal training.
That process can take days or weeks, creating a bottleneck when information needs to be shared or updated quickly.
New AI-powered tools are beginning to change that model.
Global learning technology company Articulate has launched Frontline, a platform designed to allow employees and subject-matter experts outside traditional training roles to create learning content.
New Leaf Technologies, one of three Articulate distributors in Africa and its only certified training partner on the continent, is introducing and supporting the platform across African markets.
Rather than requiring users to start from scratch, the platform can work with existing material such as documents, presentations, conversations and videos.
Users can describe what employees need to learn, after which AI helps identify learning objectives and recommend suitable training assets.
The same source material can then be used to create a range of resources, including short courses, training presentations, scenarios, quizzes and other learning material.
The content can also be adapted according to practical requirements, such as how much time employees have available for training.
L&D teams still have an important role
The decentralisation of training creation does not mean traditional learning and development teams are becoming redundant, says Sibisi.
“This isn't about replacing L&D professionals with AI. It is about expanding their reach,” he says.
“If people closest to the knowledge can deal with more immediate and straightforward training requirements themselves, specialist L&D teams can concentrate their expertise on the more complex, strategic learning challenges where they add the greatest value.”
This could allow L&D professionals to spend more time on learning strategy, complex programmes and other areas where specialist expertise is needed.
Turning workplace knowledge into an asset
AI-generated training could also help companies address another longstanding challenge: the loss of institutional knowledge when experienced employees leave.
Employees with years of specialist knowledge can help turn that expertise into reusable training material before it leaves the organisation.
Once training has been distributed, organisations can also track participation, completion, quiz and knowledge-check results, as well as individual learner performance.
This provides a way to measure learning that may previously have relied on a PowerPoint presentation, Word document or email attachment with little formal tracking.
“For African businesses, where skills development is already a major investment, the opportunity is significant,” says Sibisi.
“The next evolution of workplace learning isn't simply putting more courses online. It's making it possible for knowledge to become learning wherever that knowledge sits in the organisation, and doing it at the speed at which businesses now need to operate.”
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