How CIOs are turning L&D into a strategic tech lever

Time of India

3 days ago

In a world where technology evolves at breakneck speed, it's no longer the tools but the talent that determines how far a company can go. The CIO's dashboard has traditionally been filled with systems, platforms, and infrastructure. Today, one more strategic lever is gaining prominence: Learning & Development.As industries confront the dual challenges of technology acceleration and talent shortages, a clear shift is underway. Eventually, organizations are faced with real questions about what right or perhaps wrong they are doing to address the unforeseen challenges of balancing workforce readiness and revenue expectations
'To build an AI generation,
CIOs
must leverage
learning and development
as a strategic engine that fuels digital fluency, mindsets, ethical innovation, and a culture of continuous transformation,' says Kishore, CIO at Amara Raja Group. 'Seventy percent of AI success hinges on people.'
According to a 2024 Deloitte study, 94% of business leaders say they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job. Yet fewer than half believe they are ready to support this learning at scale. The gap presents both a risk and an opportunity. For CIOs, the imperative is clear: L&D must evolve from a checkbox to a change maker.
This shift is already underway in forward looking organizations. Modern L&D is being infused with the same innovation mindset that CIOs apply to product development or customer experience.
'Modern L&D is evolving beyond static courses to immersive, hands-on experiences,' says Vishal Bhatia, Digital and Innovation Leader at Canada Bank. 'AR/VR simulations are being used for onboarding and scenario-based compliance training, while L&D hackathons enable teams to co-create real-world digital solutions. With AI-led personalization and cloud based LXPs, learning is becoming adaptive, engaging, and truly aligned to business outcomes.'
Tech-driven, Human-centered
The shift isn't just about flashy tools. It's about making learning real and relevant to the job, personalized to the learner, and integrated into the work flow. With AI and data-driven learning experience platforms (LXPs), organizations can now tailor content not just to a role, but to the individual's learning style, pace, and career path.
At Yatra, this philosophy is already embedded into the company's learning DNA.
'We're leaning towards hyper-personalized learning where content is adjusted as per user needs,' shares Shakti Goel, CDO at Yatra. 'We're exploring both LMS and LXP systems to facilitate self-paced, remote learning. This is anytime, anywhere learning. Mobile-first delivery and microlearning formats, like one–three minute videos, are fostering a continuous learning culture.'
Interestingly, Yatra is also extending these capabilities to educate customers, blurring the line between workforce enablement and customer experience.
The CIO's new mandate: Talent intelligence
For CIOs, the next competitive advantage lies in linking workforce capability data directly to technology outcomes. Today's intelligent learning platforms offer more than engagement metrics - they provide skill proficiency scores, learning velocity insights, and predictive indicators of transformation readiness. This means CIOs can now do three critical mandates in their organisation:
De-risk major tech rollouts by mapping learning data to project teams. For instance, if a cloud migration is scheduled, CIOs can evaluate which teams have completed the necessary architecture, security, or DevOps training and delay or recalibrate deployments if gaps exist.Target reskilling investments based on real-time capability heatmaps. Rather than relying on manager feedback or lagging performance indicators, CIOs can now identify which business units or roles are falling behind on AI literacy, cybersecurity protocols, or agile methods and intervene early.Integrate learning signals into workforce planning. Smart CIOs are feeding L&D data into broader workforce models to support succession planning for digital critical roles, assess readiness for cross functional deployment, and even inform hiring strategies when internal capability ceilings are reached.
As digital disruption accelerates, the CIO's true differentiator won't just be uptime, security, or scalability, it will be how fast their teams can learn, adapt, and innovate. In this new paradigm, Learning & Development isn't a support function - it's a strategic engine of transformation. For forward thinking CIOs, investing in talent intelligence and immersive, tech enabled learning isn't optional, it's mission critical.