Expert Insights: Why Learning Administration Matters More Than Ever

By Priyesh Mistry, Head of Shared Services EMEA, VPS

Learning Administration is rarely the most visible part of Learning and Development, yet it is one of the most critical. When administration works well, learning feels effortless to the business and to the learner. When it does not, even the best-designed programmes struggle to deliver value. As we look ahead in 2026, Learning Administration is evolving from a transactional support function into a strategic capability that underpins performance, compliance, and employee experience.

The Changing Expectations of Learning Administration

Historically, Learning Administration focused on coordination: scheduling, enrolments, logistics, and reporting. Those responsibilities remain essential, but the expectations placed on administration teams have increased significantly. Organisations now expect faster turnaround, greater flexibility, and clearer evidence that learning activity contributes to business goals. CIPD research consistently highlights the pressure on L&D functions to be more agile, data-informed, and closely aligned to organisational priorities. Administration sits right at the centre of this challenge.

AI and Agentic AI: Freeing Time for Higher-Value Work

One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is the move from “supporting learning” to “enabling learning at scale”. This requires not just efficient processes, but robust systems, clean data, and people who understand both technology and the realities of the business.

Artificial Intelligence, particularly agentic AI, is becoming a practical tool rather than a future aspiration. In Learning Administration, its impact is most powerful when applied to repetitive, rules-based, and decision-supported tasks. Agentic AI can manage automated enrolments, trigger reminders, monitor compliance, generate reports, and continuously cleanse and validate data. It can act autonomously within defined guardrails rather than simply executing pre-set scripts.

The real benefit, however, is not automation for its own sake. By removing administrative friction and intelligently handling routine decisions, teams gain time to focus on higher-value activities such as supporting stakeholders, improving learner journeys, and proactively identifying issues before they escalate. Brandon Hall Group research shows that organisations using AI-enabled automation effectively in L&D are not simply faster, but better able to support strategic, data-informed decision-making.

Crucially, technology must support, not replace, human judgement. Learners still want responsive communication, empathy when things go wrong, and confidence that someone understands their context. The best Learning Administration models use agentic AI as a silent enabler, handling complexity in the background while keeping human interaction front and centre.

Translation in Learner Care, Not Just Content Conversion

Translation is increasingly central to learner care in global organisations. For many learners, access to timely support, clear communications, and learning materials in their own language directly affects confidence, engagement, and completion rates. Agentic AI can support scalable localisation by coordinating translation workflows and flagging issues, but quality and cultural sensitivity still rely on human oversight. Poor translation creates friction and increases support requests, while well-managed localisation reduces confusion and builds trust.

Advances in translation technology now allow organisations to streamline workflows significantly. Rather than relying on full human translation for all content, many Learning Administration teams use AI-driven translation for standard materials, communications, and system content. Human expertise is then focused where it adds most value: specialist or regulatory content, nuanced messaging, and quality assurance through proofreading and localisation.

This approach reduces cost and turnaround time, while improving consistency across languages. Native speakers play a crucial role, not just in correcting language, but in adapting tone, terminology, and cultural references so that learners feel supported rather than simply processed. From an administrative perspective, this model enables scalable learner support without losing quality, and ensures that learner care remains central even as volumes increase.

Demonstrating ROI: From Learning Activity to Business Confidence

Demonstrating return on investment remains one of the most persistent challenges in L&D. Course completions and satisfaction scores are no longer sufficient. Business leaders want confidence that learning is contributing to capability, performance, and long-term resilience.

New technology is helping Learning Administration teams support this shift. By integrating learning data with HR systems and performance indicators, it is increasingly possible to track patterns and relationships between learning participation and business outcomes. McKinsey research points to the growing importance of linking capability building directly to organisational performance, rather than treating learning as a standalone function.

For administrators, this places renewed emphasis on data quality, consistency, and governance. Accurate reporting and well-defined metrics allow L&D teams to have more credible conversations with the business about impact and value.

Looking Ahead

As we move into 2026, Learning Administration will continue to grow in strategic importance. The most effective teams will be those that combine automation with empathy, scale with care, and design processes around the learner experience as much as operational efficiency. Administration may sit behind the scenes, but its influence on learning effectiveness and business confidence has never been greater.

If your organisation is ready to transform the way learning operates, VPS is here to help. We support businesses that want to reduce administrative friction, improve learner experience, and unlock the full value of AI enabled Learning Administration.
Whether you need help with:

• Streamlining global learning operations
• Using AI and automation safely and effectively
• Strengthening learner care and multilingual support
• Improving data quality, reporting, and compliance
• Scaling Learning Administration while maintaining quality

You can rely on VPS for practical expertise and measurable impact.

Get in touch with our team to discuss how VPS can support your learning ecosystem and help you achieve your goals.

References

1. Changing Expectations of Learning Administration

CIPD – Skills, agility & data demands on L&D (2025)

CIPD’s Lifelong Learning in the Reskilling Era report (Aug 2025) highlights increasing pressure on learning functions to adapt to technological change, build future skills, and align with organisational priorities. https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/reports/2025-pdfs/8930-lifelong-learning-in-the-reskilling-era-report-web.pdf

2025 L&D trends showing strategic shift

The 2025 Organizational Learning & Development Report shows L&D is becoming more strategic, with workload pressure, ROI measurement, and alignment with business goals as top challenges. https://www.olxd.org/report-files/2025-organizational-learning-development-report.pdf

2. AI & Agentic AI in Learning Administration

Rise of agentic AI as a central 2025 trend

MIT Sloan Management Review identifies agentic AI as a top trend, with autonomous AI agents increasingly used to perform structured internal tasks and collaborate with humans.https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/five-trends-in-ai-and-data-science-for-2025/

Enterprise adoption of AI agents (McKinsey, 2025)

McKinsey reports widespread experimentation with AI agents across organisations in 2025, with 62% testing agentic AI and many restructuring workflows around automation. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/quantumblack/our%20insights/the%20state%20of%20ai/november%202025/the-state-of-ai-2025-agents-innovation_cmyk-v1.pdf

AI as a strategic amplifier, not replacement (Brandon Hall Group, 2025)

Brandon Hall Group’s 2025 Transformative Year for L&D highlights that 90% of organisations expect AI to significantly impact L&D, with AI acting to amplify human decision‑making and enhance analytics. https://brandonhall.com/2025-a-transformative-year-for-learning-development/

Automation Enabling Higher-Value Work

AI reshaping corporate learning operations (2025 CLO Report)

Chief Learning Officer’s AI in 2025 report emphasises that AI is shifting L&D roles from delivery support to strategic capability building. https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2025/10/27/ai-in-2025-the-turning-point-for-learning-development/

4. Translation & Localisation in Learner Support

AI transforming translation/localisation (SEAtongue, 2025)

Shows how AI-powered translation, NMT improvements, and contextual LLMs deliver faster, scalable multilingual support, while still requiring human oversight for quality. https://seatongue.com/blog/business/how-ai-is-transforming-translation-localisation-in-2025/

Industry-wide adoption & trust issues (TTI Report, 2025)

Translation Technology Insights 2025 shows 60–80% adoption of AI translation tools but highlights that accuracy, nuance, and cultural sensitivity still require human review. https://slator.com/five-ways-ai-reshaped-translation-industry-2025/

5. Demonstrating ROI & Linking Learning to Business Outcomes

McKinsey 2025 organisational development insights McKinsey’s Development in the Future of Work (2025) stresses linking capability-building to organisational performance and adopting integrated, data-informed models. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/people%20in%20progress%20blog/learning%20trends%202025/2025_mckinsey%20learning%20perspective.pdf