Instructional Design Isn't Dying -- It's Specialising
Aka, how AI is impacting role & purpose of Instructional Design
Over the past few weeks, I've been deep in conversation with L&D leaders across multiple Fortune 500 companies about the future of our profession. At the same time, a number of important articles have been published showing what the likely future of learning and development in the workplace will look like.
Together, these developments have revealed something important: despite widespread anxiety, the instructional design role isn't dying—it's specialising.
What we're witnessing isn't the automation of instructional design and the death of the instructional designer, but rather the evolution of the ID role into multiple distinct professional pathways.
The generalist “full stack” instructional designer is slowly but decisively fracturing into specialised roles that reflect both the capabilities of generative AI and the strategic imperatives facing modern organisations.
In this week’s blog post, I'll share what I've learned about how our field is transforming, and what it likely means for you and your career path.
Why This Conversation Matters Now
Contemporary L&D faces a striking duality: executive expectations have never been higher, yet economic and technological pressures are forcing teams to do more with less. Three datapoints illustrate this tension:
Strategic centrality. 82 percent of global executives rate HR/L&D as "mission-critical" to business agility (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2023, quoted in KPMG Pre-Read).
Financial constraint. 21 percent of L&D functions experienced budget cuts in 2023—triple the previous year (Training Magazine Industry Report 2023).
Evidence deficit. Fewer than one-third of teams can link learning to business outcomes (Fosway Digital Learning Realities 2023).
Simultaneously, generative AI has moved from threat to novelty and now to operational asset. A recent field experiment at Procter & Gamble showed that professionals equipped with GPT-4 produced solutions of comparable quality to expert teams while expressing higher engagement and lower frustration (Dell'Acqua et al., 2025).
The implication is clear: AI can both augment human capability and expose deficiencies in traditional Instructional Design practice.
The Evolving Nature of Learning & Development at Work
To understand how instructional design must change, we first need to recognise how AI is already transforming the very meaning and process of learning and development in the workplace. Here’s the TLDR:
These shifts fundamentally challenge traditional instructional design approaches that separate learning from work and focus primarily on content delivery rather than performance outcomes.
In turn, these shifts fundamentally challenge our traditional approaches to instructional design and implementation, requiring us to reimagine our core frameworks and methodologies.
ADDIE 4.0—Where Humans & Machines Collide
The classic ADDIE framework isn't obsolete, but the division of labor within the flow of work is fundamentally changing. Understanding which tasks are better handled by AI versus which demand human expertise is critical for instructional designers navigating this transition.
Here’s my take on how the process will continue to evolve over the next 1-3 years:
Four Emerging Specialised ID Roles
The evolution of what it means to learn at work and the corresponding reimagining of the core frameworks and methodologies of L&D teams inevitably has significant implications for the role, purpose and key skills of Instructional Designers.
If we look at where we are today and at what the research is telling us, the most likely future is one in which the traditional “full stack” ID role evolves into a number of distinct ID specialisms.
Based on industry trends, research and more exploration of the state and future of L&D with industry leaders, here’s my prediction of what the evolution of the ID role will most likely look like in the next 1-3 years:
As we have seen happen in other industries like Coding and Product Management, as AI becomes more capable of handling traditional routine tasks, Instructional Design professionals must develop deeper expertise in specific domains to maintain their value and impact.
Conclusion: the Professionalisation of Instructional Design?
AI is redefining not just what it means to “work” but also — and correspondingly —what it means it learn and develop.
As a result of the continued emergence and adoption of AI, the tasks that once defined our profession—content production, activity & assessment design, scripting etc—are now commodities.
But this doesn’t mark the death of Instructional Design: it marks the beginning of a more specialised and professionalised chapter in our industry.
For decades we have struggled under the weight of being “full stack”L&D professionals with a range of practical and pedagogical skills and responsibilities so broad that it was near impossible to excel, succeed and feel fulfilled.
In the new world, we are offered the opportunity to focus our efforts, define our passions and enter a new era of deep specialisation and professionalisation.
When colleagues and clients ask me, “what will be the impact of AI on L&D?” my answer is this: AI will not diminish the importance of learning professionals — it will raise the bar.
Those instructional designers who cling to traditional generalist models risk being replaced, but those who embrace specialisation, data fluency, and AI collaboration will excel and lead the next evolution of the field. Similarly, those businesses that continue to view L&D as a cost centre and focus on automating content delivery will be outperformed, while those that invest in building agile, AI-enabled learning ecosystems will drive measurable performance gains and secure their competitive advantage.
In a world where learning must move at the speed of change, it will be the specialised, data-savvy, AI-enabled learning professionals who shape not just the future of L&D — but the future of work itself.
Happy innovating!
Phil 👋
PS: If you want to hone your L&D skills for the AI world, apply for a place on my bootcamp.