See how AI and active learning are replacing passive LMS models with personalized, engaging training that drives real results.
I’ve been in the business of delivering learning for forty years. My first “learning platform” was a stack of VHS tapes paired with spiral-bound workbooks. Today, I work with adaptive, AI-driven systems that can shape a lesson in real time. It’s been quite a journey—one that has moved from rewinding tapes with a pencil to watching algorithms predict the next question a learner will ask.
The challenges we face today bear little resemblance to those of 1984. Back then, the big obstacles were budget constraints, shipping delays, and the occasional broken VCR. Now, the problem is something far more insidious: distraction. More than 90% of online learners lose focus within the first twelve minutes. Given that most of us can’t go three minutes without glancing at a phone, that’s not surprising.
I sometimes run a small social experiment. I’ll ask a group—whether it’s college students or corporate managers—if they can sit through ten minutes of training without checking their phones. Hundreds of asks later, I’m still amused by the sheepish grins and nervous laughter. The truth is, no one’s paying attention to talking-head videos or narrated slide decks anymore. They tune out. And why wouldn’t they? Those formats feel like relics from another century.
Learners today aren’t just hoping for something better—they’re demanding it. They want clarity without clutter. They want to be involved, not just informed. They want to learn on their own path, on their own devices, in ways that feel relevant and rewarding. And they want it to be seamless, safe, searchable, and stress-free.
Leaders, on the other hand, have their own wish list: fast creation, simple management, meaningful reporting, targeted interventions. They need to close skill gaps without burning time on admin work, and they need training that adapts as fast as the business changes.
Unfortunately, the learning management systems we’ve depended on for decades are failing on both fronts. They’ve become the dinosaurs of the learning world—passive, plodding, and painfully out of step. Most still operate as static repositories, designed for an era when “delivering” content was the primary goal, not sparking engagement or adapting to the learner’s needs. They track completions and test scores, but tell us almost nothing about actual skill growth, knowledge application, or business impact. In a world where work changes faster than annual course updates, that gap between what’s needed and what’s delivered is widening every month.
Today’s learning management systems are dinosaurs, delivering passive content to an audience that demands constant activity and considers traditional content – long videos and narrated slide decks – “insipid, deadly, boring.”
I’ve heard executives describe mandatory training as “torture” and admit, without shame, that some people cheat to get through it. When a valued employee spends 40 hours slogging through compliance videos just to pass the same exam every year, that’s not learning - it’s an abuse of human resources.
An SVP of a bank confided that she needs to study 40 hours of compliance videos and get 80% correct on exams in order to please bank examiners. She describes the experience as “torture” and explained how “some people cheat” to get through. It seems absurd to subject a valued leader to time wasting of this magnitude, but we hear similar stories over and over again. Today’s training methods are rightly described as “stupefying.”
We've started over with a clean sheet. We’ve taken what works - active learning, game-based engagement, real-world simulations - and built something entirely new: an Intelligent Knowledge System, anchored by REACHUM•AI.
All the games, activities, and challenges users love in REACHUM are in the new model. We’ll retain existing LMS clients and the key methods that work – microlearning, game-based learning, and achievement recognition, but by the middle of 2026 we expect that LMS as we know them will be replaced by the new, AI driven experiences.
The hot sauce is that some of the new experiences are conversational, including a personal mentor that is always ready to deliver exactly the right knowledge that is relevant to your role and responsibilities. Employees give high marks to lifelike simulations that prepare them for real world situations
You can experience the first implementations of REACHUM•AI today. Go to REACHUM•AI and get free credits to experiment with high functioning lesson planning. Describe a topic in one sentence. Choose the audience and their competence level, refine the outline, and you'll have a lesson ready to go. Paid subscribers can upload documents to a secure knowledge base for learning content. In one platform you are able to develop, refine, and launch rich learning in minutes, rather than hours, and then monitor and report learning activity.
Pretty soon, the LMS you know will be gone—replaced by a smart system that keeps evolving, capturing, and improving the knowledge your people need. We are leading the charge with both hands on the flag.
