Learning budgets are often bogged down by overlapping libraries, under-used subscriptions, and content that no longer aligns to today’s skills needs. The result is high-cost, low-signal skill development, and growing frustration from learners and leaders alike.

At the same time, expectations are rising. HR and L&D teams are using limited budgets to support AI transformation with fewer resources than before. This pressure leads to a growing search for savings. One easy place to find these is in learning content.

The Content Cost Problem for Corporate Learning

The current, endless sprawl of learning content didn’t happen overnight. Over years and years, organizations layered new content providers on top of old ones to support new roles, skills, and initiatives. As the workforce and ways of working changed, so did the content needs. The result today is a fragmented ecosystem where:

• Multiple libraries cover the same foundational topics.
• Learners face choice overload (and often disengage as a result).
• L&D teams spend time managing vendors instead of building capability.
• Finance questions the ROI of recurring content subscriptions.

According to Degreed’s analytics, many leading content providers had 55% or higher overlap with Degreed Open Library content, which is included for all Degreed customers. This means that Degreed customers who are also relying on external content vendors are paying multiple times for similar content.

This overlap isn’t a content quality issue. It’s a strategy issue.

A 3-Step Approach to Content Optimization

Degreed helps organizations move from a state of content over-accumulation to streamlined capability-building through a simple, proven, three-step model.

Step 1: Assess Content Libraries for Cost-Savings

The first step is understanding what content you already have available in your libraries across various platforms and where redundancy exists.

Using semantic matching, Degreed’s auditing tool evaluates overlap between existing providers and Degreed Open Library to identify where foundational content needs can be met by Open Library (already included with Degreed Learning). . Many Degreed clients have discovered that their most-used content is already covered by Open Library. Identifying and eliminating redundancies can lead to significant cost savings. 

This creates an immediate opportunity to rationalize vendors and redirect budget.

Step 2: Enable Degreed Open Library

Degreed customers have access to quality learning pathways on the most in-demand skills in the market, simply by enabling Degreed Open Library. Our most widely used pathways include: AI Readiness, Data Analytics, and SQL. 

Open Library includes:

• 500+ ready-to-deploy learning pathways across today’s most in-demand skills
• Pathways curated by AI agents trained to identify high-quality learning resources
• Expert review to ensure accuracy, relevance, and bias mitigation
• Continuous updates as skills and priorities evolve

Open Library allows organizations to replace or reduce foundational learning content from external subscriptions. At the same time, there is an analysis to be done around different types or registers of content. There is a place in any library for top tier catalogs, as well as those that are specialized by role or industry and meet a specific need. But it’s likely there is also a lot of mediocre or unnecessary content in place that is no longer needed.

For many enterprises, this approach alone can unlock seven-figure savings. Enterprises using Degreed Open Library are already realizing meaningful business and cost-savings results:

• A Fortune 100 company reduced content provider spend by more than $1M annually.
• A global energy company off-boarded two premium providers and saved approximately $1M in a single year.
• A U.S. research and manufacturing organization expanded access to critical business skills while reducing L&D workload and increasing learner trust and adoption.

Savings can be achieved not only by eliminating duplicative, off-the-shelf content, but also by cost reduction on custom engagements that may no longer be necessary, like services, programs, and reimbursements. Customers who created these outcomes didn’t do so by cutting learning. Instead, they did it by spending smarter.

Step 3: Customize with AI Pathway Curation Services

Foundational coverage is essential, but it’s rarely enough to transform a workforce by itself. By working with our in-house experts, Degreed’s services team can curate and deliver content to extend Open Library with pathways based on:

• Specific roles and job functions
• Industry and regulatory needs
• Strategic initiatives like AI adoption or digital transformation

AI rapidly assembles pathways at scale, while Degreed’s instructional design experts refine them for quality, accuracy, and cultural fit. The result is AI speed with human precision, but without the cost or delay of traditional custom content development. This approach can take content development time from months or weeks to days.

Degreed Open Library vs. AI Content Curation Services: How They Work Together

Degreed Open Library and our in-house AI Curation services work hand-in-hand to help organizations through this three-step process to achieve more strategic spending. 

• Open Library delivers immediate, broad, and always-on learning coverage with immediate cost saving opportunities.
• AI Learning Content Curation Services build on that foundation and create bespoke pathways aligned to business strategy, so you can deliver learning on the topics that are most important to your business.

Together, they help organizations reduce spend while accelerating time to capability and performance.

From Content Spending to Capability Investment

The future of learning isn’t about buying more content. It’s about curating the right pathways, aligning learning to real skills and business needs, and using AI to scale what works.

Degreed Open Library and AI Pathway Curation Services give HR and L&D leaders a way to reduce redundant content spend and streamline the learning experience. This process allows you the tools and programs you need to build adaptable, AI-ready workforces, all without sacrificing quality or impact. If you’re being asked to do more with less, optimizing your learning content spend is a great place to start.

The post 3 Steps to Spend Smarter on Learning Content with Degreed appeared first on Degreed.

Your challenge isn’t content availability, it’s content waste.

On average, organizations spend $1,580 per employee per year on L&D, and based on calculations by Degreed Value Engineering, approximately 80% of that investment is spent on purchasing content alone. The result is that much of this spend might go to underutilized, duplicative, or difficult-to-find resources. 

And if you can uncover the saving opportunities, you can ensure your L&D budget is spent only on the highest impact efforts and initiatives.

To see the opportunities, try looking at it like your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) would.

Learning and development is a business initiative that requires investment, and as with any business initiative, it also needs a clear Return on Investment (ROI). For a CFO, the goal is optimizing the investment side of the equation while maintaining or improving learning and talent outcomes. 

What a CFO is Really Looking For: The ROI Equation

When L&D teams approach the CFO to discuss learning content spend and potential savings, Degreed CFO Sandeep Beotra recommends a clear, crisp one-page ROI calculation. 

For a finance leader, the core equation is always: ROI, or Return / Investment. There are more complex equations for figuring this (gain from investment – cost of investment / cost of investment x 100). But at the end of the day, Beotra notes that you should focus on the importance of two key variables: cost and usage.

“If you’re paying for something which barely gets used on a weighted average basis, that’s not worthwhile at all.” – Sandeep Beotra, CFO at Degreed

The goal is to optimize the investment (the denominator) while minimizing, or even improving, employee’s consumption patterns (the numerator).

But that doesn’t mean low use calls for immediate cost-cutting. For example, Beotra suggests that while compliance or premium strategic content might have low usage, it has a high and sometimes even business-critical return. The overall picture should map a comprehensive cost and utilization strategy that advocates for what you need to succeed.

3 Core Buckets of Content Waste and How to Solve Them

The budget drain on content can typically be bucketed into three specific and measurable areas that your teams can start tackling today:

1. Vendor overlap

With multiple content vendors in play, you likely have multiple vendors providing strikingly similar content focused on the same core skills. This vendor overlap is common, especially in large organizations.

• The problem: You’re paying multiple times for the same skill development content. 
• The solution: Identify and consolidate. Retire or reduce vendor contracts at renewal time. Consolidation doesn’t just cut the contract cost; it also reduces the overhead cost associated with procurement, IT, and legal management for each vendor.

2. The hidden cost of maintenance curation

If your content is scattered across multiple providers, a team member is likely spending time curating, tagging, and maintaining those separate catalogs, creating a “maintenance tax.”

• The problem: Skilled employees are doing low-value, repetitive work that drains productivity.
• The solution: Centralize and automate curation. Consolidating into a platform that is governed, tagged, and refreshed, means maintenance is near non-existent. This frees up your talent to be redeployed into much more high-value, strategic work.

3. Overpaying for under-use

Many organizations are still purchasing content licenses based on their headcount rather than verified usage. This creates “shelfware,” where you renew contracts year after year despite zero activation.

• The problem: You have learning content licenses that aren’t being utilized, but you’re still paying for them.
• The solution: Right-size your contracts. Review usage data to determine actual need and ensure you have learner engagement programs in place. Then, instead of cutting access entirely, use high-quality, existing content to meet the need for those audiences while reducing licensing costs. 

Measuring ROI in Learning Capitalizing on Content Library Savings

Looking at learning content through a CFO lens can help you leverage a business-driven approach to skill development that execs will understand and respond to. If a sizable percentage of your L&D budget is going to content providers (as is often the case), there are ample opportunities to find cost savings without losing effectiveness. 

By freeing up funds, you can demonstrate the cost-savings and efficiency leaders look for. You will also enable the L&D team to spend time on more valuable, high-impact tasks, and invest in more innovative, dynamic approaches to learning. With less content noise, employees find the right content more easily, boosting employee engagement and making the most of every minute spent learning. 

Looking to cut content waste and unlock real ROI from your learning investments? Book a free consultation with one of our professional services experts to talk through your content challenges, explore where you could save based on overlap, and see how tailored, AI-curated learning pathways can streamline your library.

The post Approach Your Learning Content Library Like a CFO appeared first on Degreed.

• Healthcare
• Finance
• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Professional Services

Each pathway blends AI precision with expert validation, helping organizations speed up workforce time-to-readiness in their industry’s most sought-after skills, all while saving costs and time on manual curation.

How Is a Learning Pathway Created?

Every Open Library pathway starts with guided AI that is trained to surface credible, skill-aligned resources, rather than random web content. Human experts then refine tone, relevance, and design for clarity and deeper cognitive learning, following proven learning frameworks like Bloom’s Taxonomy and Coherence and Signaling principles.

Taking a collaborative approach, with human polish and oversight applied to AI output, maintains learning science at the core, driving higher learner completion rates and building skills that transfer more effectively on the job.

The Industry Edge: Pathways Built for Workforce Readiness

Our latest industry bundles are designed to solve specific challenges in each sector:

• Healthcare: Building empowerment, communication, and decision-making confidence in clinical and non-clinical teams.
  
• Financial Services: Enhancing trust, leadership, and compliance-readiness.
  
• Manufacturing & Advanced Tech: Upgrading workforce adaptability through analytics, safety, and innovation pathways.
  
• Professional Services: Strengthening client management, consulting, and data-driven problem-solving.
  
• Retail & Consumer: Empowering managers and associates with digital, interpersonal, and operational skills.

Open Library’s research-based structure and AI-powered scalability allows organizations to quickly roll out relevant learning across roles and geographies as needs evolve, without starting from scratch each time.

What Are the Results? 

Put simply, the outcome is learning that’s simple to implement, scalable, and cost-effective. As a result, Degreed clients are now turning to Open Library not just to complement content vendors, but to replace them.

• A telecom company is moving away from LinkedIn Learning in favor of Open Library and the added relevance and quality it provides.
  
• A global mining company was able to eliminate hours of manual quality assurance (QA) and reduced content vendor spend by leveraging Open Library’s auto-refreshed, high-quality pathways.
  
• A non-profit healthcare organization saved time and budget while boosting learner confidence and peer-to-peer learning.

In total, Open Library drives measurable value:

• 60% of Degreed clients now use Open Library, with adoption up 13% month over month.
  
• Content completions increased 13% between August and September, which shows rising engagement among global users.

The Future of Open Library

Open Library is evolving beyond a curated catalog of content. Specifically, it’s becoming a multi-format learning ecosystem by combining AI-powered summaries, Maestro coaching, interactive simulations, and future premium marketplace options.

By 2026, Open Library will feature:

• 500+ pathways and 7,000+ content items
  
• 16+ ready-to-launch bundles
  
• Integrated AI coaching and leadership learning journeys
  

Basically, it’s learning that scales and evolves with your business, and without added cost.

Explore the new industry pathway bundles and see how Open Library helps your teams build the right skills—more quickly, and with lower spend and less effort.

The post 150 Learning Pathways for Industry-Specific Workforce Readiness 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.

A few weeks after launching Degreed Open Library, one of our clients, a leading global tech company, told us exactly what happens:  

“Usage is already higher than LinkedIn Learning.”

They didn’t promote it heavily. They didn’t roll out flashy campaigns. Instead of offering employees a sea of content to wade through, they launched a set of targeted, AI-curated learning pathways tied directly to the skills their people needed to succeed.

What is Degreed Open Library?

Degreed Open Library is an AI-curated, ready-to-deploy content library of structured learning pathways designed to help people build in-demand skills faster, with less friction, less noise, and more relevance.

With skill-based learning pathways, Degreed Open Library gives you a smarter way to activate your content. And because each pathway is bite-sized and easy to launch, learners stay engaged, without needing a roadmap or a long list of prerequisites.

The problem: Traditional content libraries are expensive and high maintenance

Large content libraries promise more–more variety, more access, more engagement. But what learners often experience is the opposite: more friction, more confusion, and less actual learning.

As L&D and IT teams juggle growing responsibilities, they need a smarter solution, one that gets people learning faster, with content that’s relevant and purposeful.

The solution: AI-curated learning pathways 

Degreed launched Open Library in April 2025 with 100 curated learning pathways focused on the most in-demand skills. In July, we expanded that offering with 100 more “Language Bundles” in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and German, removing barriers for learners in global teams.

And we’re just getting started.

Coming this October, Degreed will release 150 new pathways aligned to high-growth industries, including:

• Consumer Retail
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Customer Experience
• Finance
• Media & Telecom
• Professional Services

That’s 350+ AI-curated pathways, included with every Degreed Learning instance—no extra license required.

These ready-to-go pathways are designed to give employees a strong starting point, covering the foundational skills your workforce needs now. But every business is different. That’s why we also offer AI-curated pathway services as an add-on: to help you create highly targeted learning aligned to your unique goals, roles, and workflows.

Our AI-curated pathway services can help you create role-specific learning experiences aligned to your workflows and strategic goals. We’ll handle the heavy lifting. You get a smarter, faster way to deliver value.

From confusion to clarity: the power of curation in your content library

Degreed Open Library isn’t just another content library. It’s built to reduce friction and guide learners to exactly what they need, when they need it.

Instead of endless search results or generic playlists, AI curates the best content into structured pathways made up of articles, podcasts, videos, and courses. These pathways are always up-to-date, aligned to in-demand skills, and relevant to real roles and workflows.

Here’s what that unlocks:

1. Faster time to value

Instead of spending months designing programs, you can deploy ready-to-go pathways in minutes. Employees start learning immediately, without needing a map.

2. Less friction, less time, more focus

Employees don’t want to browse an endless catalog, they want to build skills. When learning is buried in lengthy search results or buried under generic playlists, they tune out.

AI-curated pathways remove that friction. Learners get clear, role-aligned recommendations that feel immediately relevant. They know exactly why it matters, how it connects to their job, and what comes next. That clarity leads to higher engagement, faster completion, and better on-the-job application. 

Degreed Open Library offers bite-sized learning within each pathway making learning more achievable during natural downtimes like lunch breaks or between meetings. This flexibility boosts engagement, accelerates completions, and enables quicker on-the-job application.

3. Smarter content spend

With targeted, curated content that people actually use, organizations can reduce their reliance on expensive library subscriptions and stretch their L&D budget further.

In fact, some of our customers are already exploring ways to eliminate or reduce their content subscriptions. The excitement is palpable as they explore how to redistribute their L&D budgets to higher value technologies or programs.

“My team will explore the library of resources to assess if we can match the learning content we get from [a leading content provider]. If Open Library is good enough for our learning needs, we might consider unplugging [a leading content provider] or at least reducing our number of licenses.” 

Takeaway: Stop paying for content people don’t use

L&D and IT leaders don’t need more content. They need more impact.

Degreed Open Library helps you deliver that with:

• High-quality, relevant content curated from trusted sources
• AI-powered pathways built for your business and your people
• Clearer learning journeys, higher engagement, and measurable results

The post The Content Library Hack Every Learning Leader Needs appeared first on Degreed.

That’s the reality of workforce development today at many organizations. But the future looks quite different.

“AI is here to revolutionize this industry, transforming this $340 billion market with dynamic content and personalized learning experiences,” said analyst Josh Bersin, CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Innovative products like Degreed Maestro and Degreed Open Library are here to help lead companies into this exciting new world of learning.”

We couldn’t agree more. We estimate enterprise organizations spend up to 50 times more on content than on learning software. Much of it goes unused, gets duplicated, or quickly becomes obsolete.

That’s why we’re introducing Degreed Open Library: A smarter way to deliver timely, targeted learning—powered by artificial intelligence—without the noise, complexity, or cost of traditional content libraries.

This isn’t just a new content solution. It’s a faster, more effective way to drive skill-building at scale—built directly into the Degreed platform at no extra cost.

AI-Powered Learning That Cuts Through the Noise

Degreed Open Library offers curated learning pathways built by AI and refined by human experts. They’re continually updated to reflect emerging trends and market needs. For a more personalized experience, pathways can be enhanced with embedded AI coaching.

Your people get fresh, engaging content—podcasts, articles, books, and more—ready to support skill development in the flow of work.

Need to move faster? Built-in AI summaries help people absorb key takeaways without watching a 30-minute video or reading an entire book.

Saving Budget & Driving Business Results

Learning content shouldn’t be your biggest budget line, or your biggest headache. Yet many organizations find themselves managing overlapping subscriptions and rising costs with little return.

Degreed Open Library helps break that cycle. It enables you to reduce or even eliminate redundant content subscriptions—and we estimate it can cut learning content spend by up to 20%. That frees up budget to invest in tools and technology that drive measurable business results.

Easy to Use & Fast to Implement

With 500+ expert-curated learning pathways aligned to trending topics and in-demand skills—like AI, leadership, and communication—Degreed Open Library is ready to go.

No complicated setup. No additional integration. It’s ideal for learning teams that need to move fast and make an impact, without adding overhead.

Tailored to Your Business Needs

Need something more customized?

Our AI-assisted pathway development significantly reduces the time and resources needed to build custom, structured learning journeys that upskill your people in the areas that matter most to your business. You let us know what topics and skills are important, and we’ll build high impact, up-to-date pathways so you can meet budget targets without sacrificing quality or coverage.

A Smarter Approach to Learning Content

The days of sifting through stale courses and disconnected content are over. 

Degreed Open Library delivers a streamlined, AI-powered experience that surfaces the most relevant, high-quality learning faster.

No more endless searching. No more wasted spend.

Just intelligent, personalized content delivery that integrates with your broader learning ecosystem and adapts to your business needs.

This is the future of learning content—where technology, skill data, and human expertise come together to deliver better outcomes at scale.

Find out more.

Let’s talk about how Degreed Open Library can help advance workforce development at your organization.

The post Say Goodbye to Content Clutter. Hello, Degreed Open Library appeared first on Degreed.