Protecting The Learning and Development Budget in a World of AI

“Can’t We Just Use ChatGPT?” – Protecting The Learning and Development Budget in a World of Easy Answers

 

Contents

The Challenge With Evaluation

Is Evaluating ROI Really Too Hard?

Protecting The Learning and Development Budget From AI

You Can Ask ChatGPT – But Should You?

What Human-Centred Training Still Does Best

L&D’s Smart Play: Use AI to Strengthen The Learning and Development Budget

A Strategic Inflection Point for L&D

Final Thoughts on Protecting The Learning and Development Budget

 

The Challenge With Evaluation

 

Trying to quantify the return on investment for any training spend, and protecting the learning and development budget, is a challenge that has plagued our profession from the very beginning, and it’s a pernicious issue.

Identifying the right metrics, understanding cause and effect, while attempting to discount other factors that may muddy the return on investment (ROI) waters, is notoriously difficult.

As a result, we fall back on measuring Level One ‘reactions’ as proposed by Don Kirkpatrick in the 1950s.

While this does provide some data, it isn’t particularly effective as it does not record the transfer of learning.

Despite this, it continues to be used (or overused), and numerous studies, including those from the Association for Talent Development and the CIPD, provide insight as to why.

These surveys suggest the main blocker is the time and cost involved in measuring a learning intervention at Kirkpatrick’s next three levels: learning, behaviours, and results.

Robert Brinkerhoff added further criticism to the ‘Level One happy sheet’ by suggesting it’s hard to identify a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a training intervention and improvements in performance. It was this critique that led to the development of his Success Case Method.

Brinkerhoff also created an amusing, yet accurate, analogy for Level One assessment when he said that measuring the satisfaction of a learning event is akin to predicting the satisfaction and longevity of a marriage based on the quality of the wedding reception!

 

Is Evaluating ROI Really Too Hard?

His criticism is one reason many L&D interventions still lack proper evaluation, which can leave the function looking overly defensive when it comes to protecting the learning and development budget.

We tell ourselves, and our key stakeholders, that measuring the ROI of learning and development isn’t that straightforward.

We revert to the same narrative that you can’t measure the ‘intangible benefits’ of training.

This is no criticism of the profession; it’s my profession too.

I can write this with conviction because it was my own experience while employed in the corporate world, and over the past 13 years, I’ve sat with my clients, trying to help them justify the return on investment (ROI) internally.

Business is like a merry-go-round. The economy has always had ups and downs and will continue to do so. Arguably, the frequency of those ups and downs has changed, and the periods of stability in between seem to be getting much shorter.

This means the learning and development budget is often the first to be cut when an organisation needs to reduce costs. We know it’s a short-sighted, false economy, but it’s also our reality.

We can allow ourselves to get stuck in victim mode, or we can really take a step back to identify the things we can control and those that we can influence.

 

Protecting The Learning and Development Budget From AI

 

The rapid development and proliferation of artificial intelligence provides the cost-conscious CFO or CEO with a new line of questioning:

“Do we really need to invest all of this money in getting people together in a room and paying for training?
Can’t they just use ChatGPT or our internal version to get the tools they need?”

It’s a fair question.

And in part, the answer is yes.

But it’s far from the whole picture.

 

You Can Ask ChatGPT – But Should You?

Recently, I put myself in the shoes of a busy team leader who suddenly needs help preparing for a difficult conversation they’ve been avoiding.

Here’s the exact question I plugged into ChatGPT:

“I have a 25-year-old team member who is always coming into work late. I need to tackle it, but I’m worried about how they’ll react. They are generally quite resistant to feedback and have strong opinions on many things.”

ChatGPT’s response?

It wasn’t bad. It was polite, structured, and broadly sensible.

There were also a number areas where it fell short.

1. It was generic.

The response sat comfortably in the middle of the bell curve: safe and risk-free, but lacking any real insight into the subtleties of a difficult conversation.

It was the kind of advice that works in theory but often falls short in the messy reality of leadership, where tone, timing, and trust are everything.

2. It lacked context.

AI is only as good as the information it’s given. If we don’t provide a full background, including the individual’s history, team dynamics, and cultural nuances, we can’t expect an answer that’s truly useful or relevant.

Often, we don’t even realise what vital context we’ve left out.

3. It’s a thinking shortcut.

And this might be the most concerning point. Good leadership requires reflection, judgement, and emotional preparation. If we outsource the thinking to a machine, are we really ready for the unpredictability of a live conversation?

ChatGPT can give you a script, but it can’t build your confidence or sharpen your instincts.

 

What Human-Centred Training Still Does Best

This is where high-quality, human-led L&D still stands apart. It offers something AI simply can’t replicate.

1. Reassurance & Connection

Being in a room, real or virtual, with peers facing similar challenges helps you feel less isolated. It creates a sense of shared experience that’s becoming increasingly rare in our disconnected working world.

2. Different Perspectives

Group training doesn’t offer just one answer, it offers many. You get to learn from colleagues with different styles, backgrounds, and solutions. That diversity helps sharpen your thinking and broaden your toolkit.

3. Cultural Relevance

When you’re discussing challenges with people from your own business, there’s a shared understanding. You don’t have to explain the unspoken norms, the politics, or the pressure points. It’s immediately applicable.

4. Confidence Building

Practice, feedback, and honest discussion create belief in your own ability. That’s often the key difference between someone who acts on what they know versus someone who just files it away for later.

5. Stronger Networks

The relationships you build in training sessions often turn into broader internal connections. These informal networks are a powerful and often unexpected source of support and collaboration.

 

L&D’s Smart Play: Use AI to Strengthen The Learning and Development Budget

I’m by no means anti-AI.

The impact that it can have on politics, global security and the ability for us to connect on a human level with each other does worry me – deeply.

And on the other hand, its ability to increase productivity and elevate what an experienced L&D professional can do is incredibly exciting. This is, in part, why I built Ben AI.

I absolutely believe it has a clear role to play in helping us raise the bar across L&D, but only when used wisely.

AI can help us handle the tactical work more efficiently. Especially with tasks like creating learning materials, generating case studies, and designing role-play scenarios (if you’re into that kind of thing).

When we use it well, we free ourselves up for the work that really matters: engaging with the business, understanding strategic goals, and measuring real impact.

Because here’s the truth: if we want to protect the learning and development budget, and more importantly, our credibility, we do need to get better at evaluation.

We need to demonstrate how our interventions link directly to business outcomes.

We need to demonstrate that we’re not just order-takers, but strategic partners.

Used intentionally, AI gives us back the time and space to do exactly that.

 

A Strategic Inflection Point for L&D

A recent Kearney study found that while most business leaders recognise the transformative potential of AI, many are still feeling their way forward.

In fact, 89% of CEOs acknowledged the strategic importance of leveraging AI for business transformation, but only one in four feel fully prepared to integrate it across their organisations.

This paints a clear picture. In some organisations, confident leaders are driving top-down AI adoption.

In others, senior leaders are looking to functions like HR and L&D to bring forward thoughtful proposals, and, perhaps more importantly, to provide reassurance that the risks are manageable. Think: data security, privacy concerns, and even fears around corporate espionage.

This is a huge opportunity for us in L&D.

But it also means we must do more than protect our learning and development budget.

We must get ahead of the conversation, ahead of our CEOs and CFOs, and offer a clear, strategic view of:

• Where AI can be effectively used on its own in learning.
• Where traditional, human-led development still delivers the best outcomes.
• How AI can enhance everything we already do, from needs analysis to evaluation, from content design to post-programme reinforcement

Our focus should shift from “how do we protect the learning and development budget?” to “how do we use AI to transform our value and impact?”

Because when we lead that conversation, we’re not just defending our function, we’re elevating it.

 

Final Thoughts on Protecting The Learning and Development Budget

So next time someone says, “Can’t we just ask ChatGPT?”, take a breath.

Then use it as an opportunity to start a more strategic conversation about what learning really is and the value the L&D funcions provides.

A conversation about what it truly takes to build capability and confidence.

A dialogue about why, now more than ever, the learning and development budget deserves protecting.

And if you’re facing those conversations right now, let’s talk.

Whether you’re defending your budget, designing more effective interventions, or figuring out how to use AI, I’d love to help.

 

Your partner,

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