The 2026 Global Sentiment Survey is open, and if you work in L&D it’s worth the two minutes it takes to complete. The 2025 results told a clear story. AI didn’t fade after the initial hype. It grew again and reached the highest score the survey has ever recorded. Every country and every workspace put it at number one, with nothing else even close.

What stood out, though, was the shift underneath that headline. The top five options were all data-related and stayed exactly where they were. And the only things that rose were the ‘value trio’: consulting with the business, showing value and performance support. They were the only options to recover after the big drop last year.

That tells us something important about the mood in L&D. People are energised by AI, but they’re also under pressure to stay relevant. Budgets are tight. Expectations are rising. There’s more attention on strategy, skills and workload, and less on tools. The fastest-growing challenge last year was the strain on resources and capacity.

This is why the 2026 survey matters. It doesn’t show what people should care about. It shows what they actually care about at the start of the year, and that sentiment shapes behaviour. It affects budgets, vendor roadmaps, hiring decisions and the conversations leaders expect us to have.

If you want a clear sense of where the field is drifting, this survey is one of the few indicators that cuts through the noise.

Take it and share it, here’s the link: GSS 2026

I’ll share my take when the results land in February.