ATD Research: TD Professionals Use a Variety of Skills to Align Learning Technologies With Goals

New research by the Association for Talent Development finds that most organizations align the implementation of new learning technologies moderately or very well with learning and organizational goals.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TD professionals should have the skills necessary to conduct organizational needs assessments, define functional requirements for learning technology projects, and select the tools, platforms, systems, applications, and software used to create and deliver learning projects, according to new ATD research.

According to Selecting and Implementing Learning Technologies: Methods and Skills Used by TD Professionals, survey respondents indicated that the learning technologies organizations most commonly use are learning management systems, e-learning authoring tools, and assessment tools. TD professionals greatly consider user experience and ease of integration with existing systems when identifying and selecting new learning technologies.

Identifying and selecting learning technologies "has never been a part of the talent development skill set. It's normally been driven by IT and HR operations," Johann Laville, chief learning officer at Merck, explained in the report. "However, the goal of learning technology is really to serve the best interest of the organization and its people. If we have not evolved as TD professionals in the selection of technology, and if we don't develop the adjacent IT skills to help make those decisions, someone else will make those decisions for us."

Other key findings in the report include:

• Most organizations have not yet implemented artificial intelligence-enabled learning technologies, but most have at least started exploring. Many use or plan to use AI for learning content development.
  
  
• About 60 percent of TD professionals are skilled in conducting organizational needs assessments to explore the potential need for a new learning technology.  Nearly half of TD professionals find it difficult to conduct these assessments.
  
  
• Nearly two-thirds of TD professionals are skilled in defining functional requirements for a new learning technology. TD professionals find that documenting functional requirements helps maintain the scope of learning technology projects.

ATD surveyed 362 talent development professionals across a variety of industries to learn more about how they identify and select learning technologies, as well as their skills in conducting organizational needs assessments and defining functional requirements for learning projects.

ATD is hosting a free webinar on the report on October 16, at 2 p.m. ET.

About ATD

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world's largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD).

ATD's members come from more than 100 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led US chapters and international member networks, and with international strategic partners.

For more information, visit td.org

SOURCE Association for Talent Development (ATD)