There was a TV series on the BBC over the summer called Race Against the Tide. It was a six-part competition, pairing novice sculptors with professional artists. They had six hours to build enormous sand sculptures before the incoming North Sea tide washed them away.

The state of L&D feels a bit like this. The AI-shaped tide is coming in, and everyone is doing something different.

Some vendors are trying to ride the wave and surf.

Some are paddling in the shallow water.

Some are avoiding it and decamping further up the beach.

Organisations with sandcastles are building moats, sometimes metres wide and deep, trying to protect what they already have.

Employees are bringing their AI tools onto the beach and pouring water around the foundations.

Some consultants are selling flags. Some are selling surfboards. Some have decided the beach is too risky and are staying by the pool.

And, underneath all of that, there is a serious question.

What exactly are we trying to preserve?

Because if AI changes how people access information, solve problems, get feedback and produce work, then the issue for L&D is not simply whether to use AI in the existing model.

It is whether parts of that model still make sense when the tide comes in.