From Sugar Pills to Strategy: L&D's AI Wake-Up Call

Harald’s Curious Corner

May 14, 2026•17 min•Ep. 25

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Episode description

Most L&D teams are using AI to go faster. The best ones are using it to ask harder questions.

Egle Vinauskaite joins me for a conversation that sits at the intersection of AI, performance, and the evolving identity of Learning & Development. Fresh from the keynote stage at Docebo Inspire, she brings both an evidence-based and practical lens to what separates high-performing L&D functions from the rest.

That perspective comes through in everything we discuss. In this episode, we look at why so many L&D teams are still treating AI as a small tweak rather than a wholesale shift in how work gets done. Egle reflects on why performance is a systems problem, not a content problem, why the highest-performing L&D leaders think like business leaders first, and what it means for our field when organisations start rolling out AI strategies without us in the room.

Some curious takeaways:

AI is changing the work L&D supports, not just the tools L&D uses
The highest-performing L&D leaders think like business leaders, not learning leaders
Solving the obvious problem is often solving the wrong one

Episode highlights:

(00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner

(00:47) What genuinely excites Egle about L&D right now

(02:25) How AI tools are enabling deliberate practice

(04:41) Moving from course builder to learning architect

(05:28) What the organization actually expects from L&D

(07:42) The danger of treating AI as just a small tweak

(09:36) L&D as investigative journalist and problem solver

(10:23) The diagnostic mindset and holistic performance

(11:29) What separates high-impact L&D teas in 2-3 years

(14:23) The pharmacist vs doctor approach to L&D

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