To answer these questions and streamline skill development, L&D and HR leaders must focus on three things:

1. Defining expectations clearly for every role 
2. Communicating those expectations
3. Connecting employees with the right information to fill gaps

With new Degreed functionality, you’re equipped to accomplish this, guiding employees to develop the skills needed to be successful in their roles. 

How Employees Can Leverage Role Expectations for Better Skill Development

Let’s use Cynthia, a fictitious Software Engineer, as an example. Cynthia just started at Acme, Inc. She held a similar engineering role at her previous company, but she’s curious how expectations differ at Acme. 

When Cynthia logs into Degreed, her profile automatically includes the skills that Acme prioritized for her role, along with the target proficiency level for each skill. There’s also a description for each skill and proficiency level, so she can understand the behaviors she should exhibit to reach the target level. She can then use this information, along with a Maestro Skill Review Coach, to identify and set her current proficiency level in her profile. 

Once she establishes this baseline, Cynthia can focus her development on filling any gaps. Degreed makes this process straightforward by creating a dynamic skill plans for Cynthia which is automatically populated with content targeting skill gaps for her priority skills. The plan is unique to her current proficiency levels and displays content that will help her progress to the next skill level.  

And when she searches for additional resources, she won’t lose any more time sifting through content that is too basic or too advanced. Instead, she will quickly find content that matches her specific proficiency level and where she is in her development journey. 

As a result of this process, Cynthia now knows what skills are expected of her, where she needs to improve, and what resources will help her grow the skills that matter most. This certainty and access to right-sized development resources will accelerate her skill development and increase engagement. 

How Admins Can Automate at Scale

Personalized learning experiences used to be an exclusively manual process that was too time-consuming to scale. Now, AI handles the manual work so L&D and HR leaders can focus on more strategic work, like defining which, role-based skills are required to align to business objectives

In Degreed Learning, the admins can upload a list of organizational roles, which skills are associated with those roles, and what target proficiency levels are for each. They can also set the priority skills they want to appear on employees’ profiles to target skill development.

In Degreed Skills+, admins harness AI to amplify the impact of the work they have done in associating skills to roles. For example, AI generates proficiency level descriptions for each skill, providing precision on what proficiency means at each level. This information guides employees when reviewing skills, so they can select the right proficiency level according to the organization’s definition. 

Admins are also empowered to use AI to automatically tag content in their catalog with proficiency levels. Admins can review and approve these skill proficiency tags as well. This helps match employees to the right content for their skill level.

How the Role-to-Skill Workflow and Tagging Creates Business Value

Administrative efficiencies and personalized experiences translate directly into powerful, scalable applications that drive business value. Core use cases that deliver immediate impact include:

• Strategic asset management: Identify gaps and eliminate redundant or outdated resources.
• Onboarding: Automatically serve new hires content tailored to their specific proficiency level in required skills, accelerating their time to readiness.
• Search and Discovery: Deliver search results personalized to each employee’s needs and skill level.
• Career Pathing and Internal Mobility: Clearly map out the skills needed to move up in seniority or from one department to another, creating a win for employees and organizations. 

Implement AI for Workforce Development

There are a lot of promises that AI will improve the learning experience and reduce admin workload. With Degreed Skills+, AI can do both. 

With our role-to-skill workflow, dynamic skill plans, and automatic proficiency tagging for content, organizations can now deliver highly personalized, meaningful development opportunities at scale—and without added work. Clearer role expectations and tracking mean businesses can speed up skill development to better match the pace of change.

*The functionality discussed in this blog is scheduled to be generally available in April 2026.

The post Accelerate Skill Development with Clear Role Expectations appeared first on Degreed.

That is how Degreed Founder and CEO David Blake set the scene for Vision 2025, our annual, product-focused event. And it’s true. This rapid tech evolution doesn’t just change the way we work and live, it changes the way we learn now and in the future. 

To adjust to the scope of the AI transformation at hand, learning needs to become as adaptive as your people and your technology. It needs to be personalized and relevant to maximize skill-building. It has to be responsive to the needs of your people and your business at scale. That learning and adaptive resilience is going to be critical for the AI era. 

“As we navigate the shift, there are going to be consequences—winners and losers—and we want to make sure that we all end up on the winning side,” Blake said.

What is Adaptive Learning?

Adaptive learning is highly personalized and responsive. It’s customized with learner-specific paths and real-time feedback, making it highly interactive and tailored to individual work.

“[Adaptive learning] is learning that adjusts automatically to the needs of the individual based on their skills, their role, their level of proficiency, and their goals,” says Nicole Helmer, Chief Product Officer at Degreed. “It’s contextual, it’s dynamic, and most importantly, it eliminates waste. So every moment of development is useful.”

Here’s what we’re doing inside Degreed to make that happen:

Automatic Quiz Generation

Skill-building in the age of AI can’t only be about efficiency, it also has to be about effectiveness. It’s no longer just about content completion, it’s about content comprehension.

Are your people really learning and able to apply new skills? Where are the gaps? Now, Degreed Maestro will be able to automatically generate quizzes so learners can test their knowledge. 

With quiz results, admins and leaders can also see summaries of the results to pinpoint, then target, critical skill gaps.

Skill Proficiency Tagging and Role-to-Skill Mapping 

For personalized learning to be effective, it needs to consider skill proficiency, not just what skills are on an employee’s profile. 

That’s why we’ve enabled bulk skill proficiency tagging, which lets users automatically tag a large volume of content with specific skills and proficiency levels. AI will analyze content titles, descriptions, and metadata, then combine it with your company’s skill taxonomy to ensure tagging accuracy.

From there, the new role-to-skill workflow will come into play. It offers a simple, scalable way to define role expectations and suss out skill gaps. It provides a structured, easy way to map skills and target proficiency levels for every role, and then it uses that data to guide employees toward targeted learning.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) 

AI that’s operating without context is about as useful as your favorite maps app without the GPS. In a learning system, it’s the context (e.g., skill data, organizational goals, role details) that will take AI from offering generic information retrieval to providing personalized learning experiences.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) gives AI a consistent, governed way to tap into the right context from Degreed and connected systems wherever those AI models live, whatever platform they’re built on (yes, including other MCP-enabled tools like Gemini and Copilot). Through MCP, AI has access to the skill data, roles, learning history, and guardrails that matter. That way, it can better personalize development and guide your people to what’s next.

Experimental Innovation

In the face of AI, learning will continue to evolve rapidly and the Degreed AI Experiments Lab is already prototyping the development of the future. 

Among these experiments are several multi-step, AI-native learning experiences, including mini coaching moments, AI scoring on learner practice projects, and even smart questions and feedback loops that are woven into learning and aggregate response data.

On top of that, we continue to refine Maestro for real, in-the-flow-of-work learning experiences. We’re also growing Degreed Open Library, our repository of learning pathways on the most in-demand skills in the market. These pathways come at no extra cost to Degreed Learning clients. 

All of this is only the beginning of an era of dynamic and responsive learning that’s personalized like never before. You can lean into these adaptive learning experiences to prepare your workforce for the AI transformation and beyond. 

The post The First Steps to Dynamic, Adaptive Learning at Work appeared first on Degreed.

The first was the printing press, which codified and spread knowledge at a scale the world had never seen.

The second was the industrial school system, which was built to skill up entire generations for factory and office work.

The third was the internet, which unlocked access to knowledge for billions. It took learning beyond traditional classrooms—into the workforce, into your homes, across your lifetime.

Now, we’re entering the fourth moment: The rise of AI.

Efficiency Isn’t Everything

AI is already embedded in our meetings, documents, and systems. But just because AI is infused into the work, it doesn’t mean people are learning. If anything, so far, AI has made people more efficient, but not more capable. Yet.

That’s a problem. Because most organizations are using AI for one thing: efficiency. That’s great, but speed does not equal skills.

Infrastructure Still Matters

We’ve seen this pattern before. When YouTube arrived, it revolutionized content distribution. It made countless learning resources available everywhere.

But it didn’t solve organizational learning. It didn’t create more capability. It also didn’t solve organizations’ needs for managing employee learning.

Why? Because infrastructure still matters. We need systems, context, feedback, and outcomes. 

That applies to AI too. A chatbot on your company portal is not a learning strategy. A CoPilot that summarizes meetings and HR policy documents will not build your bench strength in those topics. Answers don’t build capabilities.

What separates serious, successful AI learning systems isn’t going to be the model, it’s going to be the infrastructure behind it. It’s going to be the foundation that the AI is based on, including:

• Learning science
• Verifiable skill data
• Integration into systems
• Organizational context aligned to strategic goals

If your AI tools don’t have that, they will not be optimized for learning. That structure is what makes the difference. That’s what will determine the learning impact of this moment.

The Challenge to Upskill Better and Faster at Work

Let me be direct: According to WEF and Accenture, 60% of the world’s workforce need to upskill in the next five years. That’s an increase of 10 percentage points from 2020. And only about 40% of C-suite leaders say they are prepared, which is down 10 percentage points from 2020. 

We knew this skill gap was coming five years ago, and leaders are even less prepared for it now. This means that more people need learning and more skills, quicker, now than ever before in history. 

The concept of “just-in-time learning” was built in the third wave, the internet wave, and it was all about connecting people to content when they need it. But now, work itself is changing. Tasks are being automated. Roles are more fluid. Knowledge has become cheap, yet judgment, adaptability, and creativity are not.

We need a new model for learning. One that matches the pace of change and the reality of today’s AI world. That future looks something like this:

• Adaptive learning skips what people already know and targets the exact skills they’re missing.
• Real-time skills intelligence lets you close gaps before they slow you down. 
• AI helps people get smarter and better at their work, not just faster.

And that future? It’s here.

The post Why AI Infrastructure is a Learning Differentiator appeared first on Degreed.

What happens when one of the world’s most trusted financial institutions decides it’s time to realign its skill development strategy?

At State Street, the answer was clear: Build an enterprise-wide, data-driven, executive-backed foundation for workforce agility and internal mobility—embedded in the company’s annual business strategy and talent action plans.

With more than 50,000 employees globally and 11% of the world’s financial assets flowing through its systems daily, State Street needed a more strategic approach to skill development, one that could keep pace with evolving business demands and employee expectations.

“The business came to us and said, ‘We have no way of seeing what skills employees have. We have no way of understanding where our skill gaps are, where we need to upskill, where we need to reskill,’” said Laura Sullivan, Vice President, Talent Development.

That challenge sparked the launch of SkillsFIRST. More than an HR initiative, it’s a key lever putting skills at the core of performance, retention, and career advancement. Powered by Degreed and integrated into Workday, SkillsFIRST is helping leadership align talent supply with business critical needs—and empowering employees to take ownership of their skill development.

From Limited Insight to Connected Capability

Before launching SkillsFIRST, State Street lacked a unified view of its workforce capabilities, while employees sought greater clarity around growth paths and more targeted development support.

Rather than licensing costly inference tools, State Street used Degreed and Workday to build its own Skills Library, customized using a blend of industry benchmarks and internal expertise. With input from subject matter experts, learning teams defined seven core skills for each role and created tailored Role Plans in Degreed.

How the Degreed–Workday Integration Functions at State Street

At State Street, the integration between Degreed and Workday forms the backbone of the company’s skills-first strategy—bridging employee development with strategic talent planning.

The process begins in Degreed, when employees explore curated learning content and engage with the personalized Role Plans. Employees are encouraged to assess their proficiency using the Degreed eight-point scale, and then to initiate structured career development conversations by requesting manager input on their ratings.

Skills will ultimately be moved to Workday to power a range of critical HR capabilities including skills matching for open positions, internal job recommendations, and strategic workforce planning—all grounded in real-time evidence of capability from Degreed.

This integration ensures that career development isn’t just aspirational—it’s operational, measurable, and deeply connected to business outcomes.

Strategic Impact That Scales

In just the first year of implementation, State Street has seen meaningful results:

• Millions of dollars saved avoiding costly, third-party skill inference and talent marketplace tools.
• 50% of employees onboarded into SkillsFIRST
• 1,200 additional internal promotions in six months
• 11% increase in employee engagement scores tied to career development
• 34% of internal hires supported through SkillsFIRST data, avoiding costs of external hiring
• 21,000+ monthly skill ratings generating rich talent insights for planning and learning

These outcomes reflect more than a technology shift—they signal a cultural commitment to transparency, growth, and mobility.

Key Lessons for Talent Leaders

For HR, Talent, and L&D leaders looking to operationalize skills, State Street’s journey offers proven strategies:

• Begin with clear business objectives, not just system capabilities.
• Build shared language through a unified skills library and role plans.
• Integrate platforms to turn skills data into workforce intelligence.
• Empower employees to participate in—and benefit from—the process.

By positioning skills as the connective tissue across performance, planning, and development, State Street has redefined how a complex global organization can unlock potential and stay future-ready.

Learn more.

SkillsFIRST didn’t just transform learning at State Street—it improved retention, boosted engagement, enabled internal mobility, and delivered measurable cost savings.

Find out how a similar approach could accelerate outcomes at your organization. Let’s talk.

The post Skill Development at Scale: What State Street Is Doing Differently appeared first on Degreed.

While the Degreed partner ecosystem includes a wide range of innovators, eight stand out for how they bring a skills-first strategy to life. Each played a visible role as a Degreed LENS 2025 sponsor. And importantly, each addresses a distinct and urgent workforce challenge.

From labor market insights to learning infrastructure, these partners help us turn vision into execution. Collectively, they embody the power of an integrated ecosystem—accelerating impact, removing friction, and driving measurable outcomes for every Degreed client.

Pearson: Future-Proofing Learning with Market Intelligence

Pearson brings together the power of its Faethm workforce analytics and its Credly digital credentialing. Combined with Degreed, these tools help organizations move from insight to execution—pinpointing future skill needs, delivering targeted development, and validating results in measurable ways.

At LENS, the Pearson executive breakfast roundtable, the Pearson session Future-Proofing HR: The Impact of AI and Emerging Technology, and other discussions showed how organizations can align learning with business goals, predict and proactively solve for skill gaps, make workforce development an executive-level initiative, and more. And in conversation after conversation, Pearson demonstrated how our partnership benefits talent leaders looking to scale outcomes-driven strategies.

The upshot? Connecting predictive intelligence with learning programs and verified achievement is a roadmap for transformation backed by proof of impact.“We really do work in a ton of different ways, and also integrate in a ton of different ways, with the the talent ecosystem across the whole skilling journey, which really starts with, ‘How do you plan for the future and the talent that you want in your organization?’” Melissa Matlins, Global Head of Workforce Solutions at Pearson, told the LENS audience.

Workday: Empowering Smarter Skills Development

The bi-directional Workday integration with Degreed Skills+ turns static skill data into a dynamic asset. How? By providing a seamless way to exchange, enrich and act on skill data across systems. Skill profiles stay up to date automatically. Learning progress feeds directly into talent systems. And business leaders gain clearer visibility into workforce capabilities—without relying on disconnected reports.

For shared clients like Citi and BP, this interoperability supports faster talent mobility, smarter workforce planning, less manual work, and a more agile approach to managing change. For HR IT teams, the Workday-Degreed integration eliminates data silos and reduces manual upkeep—ensuring more accurate skill visibility across talent systems.

The joint mainstage LENS session Maximizing Impact Together, featuring Workday and SAP SuccessFactors, delivered a standout moment. Panelists encouraged attendees to focus on impactful skills, embrace open tech partnerships, experiment, and boldly take next steps with AI.

“Whatever problem it is you’re trying to solve, have a plan, put it in place, document it,” said Michael Goldberg, Principal Outbound Product Manager at Workday. “What are the outcomes? What are the metrics? How are you going to measure that value? … Make it very clear who owns what, who’s responsible for what, and who are ultimate decision makers.”

Michael Goldberg, Principal Outbound Product Manager at Workday (left), Josh Gosliner, VP Product Strategy at SAP SuccessFactors (middle), and Ashley Gammie, VP Partnerships at Degreed (right),on the Degreed LENS 2025 main stage

CredSpark: Embedding Assessments to Personalize Learning

CredSpark moves skill measurement beyond theory and into action. By embedding assessments directly into the Degreed platform, CredSpark enables learning teams to continuously measure skill growth, personalize learning based on real-time performance, and generate data that feeds seamlessly into BI tools and reporting systems.

Credspark came to LENS with a clear message: For business leaders tasked with demonstrating program effectiveness, the company delivers the skill-level data needed to prove impact and align learning with business goals. The LENS welcome reception Credspark co-hosted with Degreed Key Account Directors drove the message home—providing an energizing kickoff.

Lightcast: Grounding Strategy in Labor Market Data

Lightcast brings real-time labor market intelligence into the heart of workforce strategy. Through its integration with Degreed, Lightcast helps organizations understand which skills are emerging, which are in demand, and how internal capabilities stack up against fast-changing industry needs.

At LENS, one question in particular from Lightcast resonated: If nearly half your industry’s skill requirements are about to change, wouldn’t you want to know how?

Ethena: Reinventing Compliance With Engaging Content

Ethena is proving that compliance training doesn’t have to feel like a checkbox exercise. Built on behavioral science and designed for meaningful employee engagement, Ethena content helps companies drive lasting behavior change, not just completions. 

Fully integrated with Degreed, Ethena makes it easy to deliver mandatory training in a way that makes it relevant to broader learning goals. 

At LENS, Ethena Chief People Officer Melanie Naranjo joined leaders from Ericsson and Truist for a dynamic panel on The AI & Skills-Powered Shift: Redefining Leadership. 

People respond to learning that’s approachable, Naranjo said. “Make it something empowering instead of something terrifying.”

LearnUpon: Connecting Formal Learning to Growth

LearnUpon brings structure and scalability to learning—especially in industries where compliance, certification, and audit readiness are non-negotiable. Through the LearnUpon LMS integration with Degreed, organizations can manage formal training requirements while still supporting personalized development. 

For learning teams, the unified approach reduces administrative burden while improving visibility into both regulatory and strategic learning goals. The result? A smarter, more balanced approach to compliance—one that drives accountability and growth.

Learnexus: Scaling Learning With On-Demand Talent

Learnexus gives organizations fast and flexible access to learning expertise they need—without the typical hiring delays or resource constraints. Whether it’s instructional designers, learning consultants, or project managers, Learnexus connects companies with vetted talent on demand, so critical initiatives don’t stall due to internal bandwidth.

The Learnexus message at LENS was clear: When you need support at scale, access to expert talent shouldn’t be a barrier.Ideal for HR and learning leaders facing headcount or bandwidth limits, Learnexus offers rapid access to vetted talent—accelerating program launches and transformation initiatives.

SPA: Benchmarking Progress With a Skills-First Lens

SPA (the Skill Professionals Association) is helping organizations navigate the shift to a skills-first strategy with clarity and confidence. Its newly introduced skills-first maturity framework gives organizations a structured way to benchmark capabilities, identify gaps, and prioritize what comes next.

At LENS 2025, the SPA executive track session Setting a New Workforce Standard: How Skills-First Certification Can Drive Results and Competitive Advantage challenged attendees to lead change, not just react to it—and framed skills as a strategic advantage.

Collaboration is a catalyst for change.

The message from our Degreed LENS sponsors was clear:

Workforce transformation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It isn’t about one tool, one vendor, or one idea. It’s about an ecosystem.

At LENS, these eight partners stood shoulder to shoulder with Degreed—to help organizations everywhere turn the talent they have into the talent they need. We’re proud to work alongside them and excited for what’s ahead!

The post Why Everyone’s Talking About These 8 Degreed Partners appeared first on Degreed.