For all the hype about artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping everything, the most surprising reaction so far isn’t fear—it’s hunger. Not for efficiency or smarter tools but for one another.
At Training’s recent TechLearn 2025 Conference, I saw Learning and Development (L&D) professionals treating AI less like a threat and more like a catalyst for connection. During sessions, in hallways, and over coffee, people weren’t chasing the perfect prompt. They were seeking perspective from others who are living through the same uncertainty and possibility.
THE ACT OF UNLEARNING
I hosted two of the conference dinners, and the conversations added a layer the formal agenda couldn’t. To get things rolling, I used a prompt from the team at the Learning Innovations Lab (LILA) at Harvard: “I used to think ____. Now I think ____.” The question works because it surfaces how our assumptions evolve, often without us noticing.
A few of the answers:
- I used to think AI would take my job. Now I think AI will be my partner.
- I used to think I’d never work with AI. Now I’m writing AI agents all day.
None of that sounded rehearsed. It sounded like people catching themselves in the act of unlearning.
REACHING FOR EACH OTHER
Maybe I’m tuned into that shift because I just finished kayaking 50 miles across Portugal. The nature was stunning and the physical challenge satisfying. But the real highlight was spending a week with the group of remarkable women on the trip. COVID may have left a permanent imprint on us—isolation taught us how much we treasure finding kindred souls.
One writer captured this moment well, predicting: “AI will throw us back into the arms of humanity.” The more powerful the technology becomes, the more we crave what it can’t imitate—trust, curiosity, shared uncertainty, that feeling of being understood by real people in real time.
If TechLearn is any indication, the future of learning won’t be machines replacing humans. It will be machines beside humans, with humans reaching for one another to make sense of the noise. AI may speed the current, but connection is how we’ll steer.