What topic most commanded our attention in 2025?
Hint: It rhymes with “shmartificial shmintelligence.”
While AI was certainly the year’s most hotly discussed topic, investment in leadership, future-proofing skills development and tying learning to business outcomes also garnered much attention.
Following are CLO’s top 10 most-read articles of 2025.
1. “Building a learning ecosystem that drives business results”
By Nick Romanowski
How SAX combined adaptive e-learning and experiential workshops to accelerate capability development and impact the bottom line.
2. “Retention strategies to identify, engage and empower top talent”
By Tracy Duberman
A three-pronged approach to retention includes identifying, engaging and empowering high-potential leaders. These elements form the foundation of effective leadership development strategies that drive individual and organizational success.
3. “Invest in leaders, not just skills”
By Gabriel Angemi
Lessons from the American fire service for every learning organization.
4. “Bridging the AI skills gap in your organization”
By Jessalin Lam
Talent leaders and executives have a responsibility — and an incredible opportunity — to upskill existing talent, develop the workforce and prepare the next generation of leaders to play an active role in shaping the future with AI.
5. “How strong is your organization’s leadership bench?”
By Mohamed H. Ameen
To continuously improve leadership bench strength, organizations must shift their practices from a traditional pipeline management approach to a business context management approach.
6. “The COPA learning framework: A practical model for impactful learning”
By Treca Bourne
Training is too often reduced to information transmission. Learners are told what to do but not given the clarity or opportunities to internalize why it matters, how it works and where it applies.
7. “AI is rewiring how we learn, and it’s a game-changer for L&D”
By Josh Bersin
As AI becomes central to learner engagement, L&D leaders are being urged to fundamentally rethink corporate training, says global industry analyst Josh Bersin.
8. “Voices of CLO Podcast: Danielle Hart and Kelly Lake of SweetRush”
By Ashley St. John
In this episode of Voices of CLO, SweetRush’s Danielle Hart and Kelly Lake talk about future-proofing skills development, promising applications of AI in L&D, and the biggest challenges in linking learning to employee engagement.
By Jess Jones and María Luisa García Underwood
Research shows that organizations that actively promote inclusive practices are better able to handle crises.
10. “Everyone is thinking about AI — here’s what you can do about it as a CLO”
By Doug Lynch and Ron Guerrier
Instead of treating AI as a passive assistant, companies should integrate it as an active team member — a collaborator embedded into workflows, decision-making and strategic execution.
To all our friends and readers, CLO wishes you a happy new year and great things to come in 2026!
