After spending several days with customers, executives, product leaders, consultants and industry experts at Explorance World 2026, I left with a different perspective on where the learning measurement market is heading.
For years, the challenge facing learning and talent organizations was collecting data. Organizations worked to increase survey participation, improve measurement practices, establish meaningful benchmarks and gain visibility into learning effectiveness. Today, most organizations face a different challenge. They have access to more information than ever before. Learning systems, employee listening platforms, assessments, surveys, operational systems,and performance tools generate a constant flow of data. The challenge is no longer gathering information. The challenge is determining which information matters, how it should be interpreted and how it can be used to improve business outcomes.
That challenge surfaced repeatedly throughout Explorance World 2026.
The conference theme, Wired to Know: Listening in the Age of Intelligence, provided an appropriate backdrop for discussions that ranged from employee listening and workforce performance to learning effectiveness, governance, benchmarking and organizational change. While the topics varied, the conversations consistently returned to a common objective: helping organizations derive greater value from the information they already possess.
What became increasingly clear throughout the week was that Explorance is positioning itself around this evolution. The discussions were not centered on collecting more feedback or generating more reports. They focused on helping organizations create greater clarity, make better decisions and strengthen the connection between workforce investments and business performance.
Listening Is Becoming a Strategic Capability
One of the most thought-provoking moments of the conference came during Samer Saab’s opening keynote. While many organizations continue to focus their listening strategies on surveys, assessments and periodic feedback programs, Saab challenged attendees to think differently about what it truly means to listen.
His message was not that organizations need more feedback. Rather, it was that organizations need to become better at recognizing, interpreting and acting on the signals that already exist across the enterprise. Employees, learners, customers and stakeholders are constantly communicating through comments, experiences, behaviors and interactions. The challenge is not a lack of information. The challenge is determining which signals matter, understanding them in context and responding quickly enough to make a meaningful difference.
What made the keynote particularly compelling was how effectively it connected to many of the conversations that followed throughout the week. Whether the discussion focused on learning measurement, employee experience, workforce performance, or organizational effectiveness, the underlying objective remained remarkably consistent. Organizations are searching for ways to move beyond collecting information and toward using that information to improve decision-making.
In conversations with customers following the keynote, I heard many of the same concerns. Leaders are navigating increasingly complex environments, managing competing priorities and facing growing expectations to demonstrate impact. They are looking for ways to identify issues earlier, understand workforce needs more clearly and respond with greater confidence. The ability to transform feedback into actionable insight is becoming just as important as the ability to collect it.
In many respects, Samer’s keynote established the foundation for the entire conference. The theme Wired to Know: Listening in the Age of Intelligence was not simply about listening more frequently. It was about elevating listening into a strategic organizational capability that helps leaders understand what matters most and proactively act on signals that improve outcomes for employees and the business.
Customers Are Raising the Bar
One of the most valuable aspects of the conference was participating in the Metrics That Matter (MTM) Customer Advisory Board discussions. The board provided a clear view of market direction, highlighting practical realities and future possibilities.
The discussions were candid, thoughtful and remarkably consistent.
During a brand exercise, customers were asked to describe MTM using three words. Their responses included expert, partner, reliable, credible, valuable, future-focused, dedicated and invested. When asked about the platform’s greatest benefit, customers highlighted methodology, consistency, trust, ROI, value, focus, answers and in-depth feedback.
What struck me about these responses was they were not dominated by technology. Customers were not talking just about features. They were talking about confidence, expertise and trust. Those are important distinctions because they suggest that organizations increasingly value interpretation and guidance as much as measurement itself.
The most revealing discussion occurred when participants were asked what they wanted MTM to become known for in the future. The responses included ROI, bottom-line impact, helping learning organizations earn a stronger seat at the table, improving learning effectiveness, providing directional answers and serving as an intelligence layer between learning and the business.
The phrase intelligence layer appeared repeatedly throughout the conference and captured the broader direction of the discussions. The discussion also brought up a groundbreaking paradigm; moving from measurement as the outcome to measurement as the evidence for how organizations are moving up the L&D value curve.
Learning leaders today are expected to contribute to workforce readiness, organizational transformation, capability development, productivity improvement and business performance. They are being asked to communicate value in ways that resonate with executive stakeholders. That requires more than measurement. It requires context, evidence and the ability to connect workforce initiatives directly to business priorities.
The customer feedback extended beyond strategic aspirations and into practical recommendations. Participants discussed the need for enhanced reporting capabilities, dashboard modernization, integrations with platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and Workday Peakon, further support for LMS transitions, stronger report generation capabilities and clearer standards around emerging technologies.
Taken together, the feedback reflected organizations that are looking for simpler ways to navigate increasingly complex environments while strengthening their ability to demonstrate impact.
The Evolution of MTM Reflects the Evolution of the Profession
The roadmap discussions provided additional context for many of the priorities raised during the advisory board sessions.
Historically, learning measurement platforms were designed to answer questions about effectiveness. Did learners participate? Did they learn? Did they apply what they learned? Did learning contribute to business outcomes?
Those questions remain important, but they no longer represent the full scope of what organizations expect from measurement systems.
Throughout the roadmap sessions, Explorance leaders described an evolution from a measurement platform to an intelligence and decision layer. Discussions included skills intelligence, predictive intelligence, workforce optimization, advanced analytics, benchmarking and stronger connections between learning investments and organizational outcomes.
What is significant about this vision is it recognizes that measuring learning alone is no longer sufficient. Linking learning outcomes to business outcomes is the imperative.
In conversations throughout the conference, customers rarely spoke about wanting more reports; they spoke about needing greater clarity. Customers wanted to understand where to invest resources, where performance risks existed, where opportunities could be captured and how they could better communicate business value to senior leaders.
This mirrors what Brandon Hall Group continues to observe across the market. As learning organizations become increasingly accountable for business outcomes, the demand for intelligence, context and evidence continues to grow. The roadmap presented at Explorance World reflects that reality and reflects a future in which measurement serves as the foundation for better decision-making rather than the final destination.
MTM Learning Excellence Awards
One announcement that deserves particular attention was the introduction of the MTM Learning Excellence Awards. At first glance, these awards appear to be a recognition program. They reflect something much more significant. The awards were about organizations demonstrating exceptional performance in learning effectiveness, value and impact.
The ability to identify top-performing organizations requires access to extensive comparative data and a methodology capable of evaluating performance consistently across organizations. Explorance’s benchmarking capabilities have been built over many years and are based on a substantial body of learning measurement data. The awards represent a visible expression of Explorance’s ability to transform organizations into performance powerhouses and how expectations within the learning profession continue to evolve.
The awards clearly showed that organizations can demonstrate measurable value, with supported data-driven decision-making. These breakthrough organizations showed that aligning learning with business priorities and providing evidence of impact can be accomplished.
Understanding Feedback at Scale
Another important area of discussion involved the challenge of deriving meaningful insight from qualitative feedback. Virtually every organization collects comments from learners, employees, customers and stakeholders. These comments often contain valuable information, yet extracting consistent insight from large volumes of qualitative data remains difficult. The discussions surrounding MLY provided a practical example of how Explorance is addressing this challenge.
MLY analyzes employee comments and generate signals for determining employee sentiment. MLY’s capabilities help organizations understand how people feel, what issues are driving those perceptions, what actions respondents are suggesting and where potentially concerning situations may require additional attention.
Organizations often possess enormous volumes of feedback that never receive meaningful analysis because of the effort required to review and interpret it. As a result, valuable information remains buried within evaluations, surveys and open-ended comments.
The ability to identify patterns, surface recommendations, recognize emerging concerns and understand sentiment at scale helps organizations to act on data not just collect it. This capability aligns closely with many of the broader conversations taking place throughout the conference around listening, organizational responsiveness and ultimately improving organizational effectiveness.
Trust Matters as Much as Capability
While many industry discussions focus primarily on functionality, some of the most important conversations at Explorance World centered on trust.
Conversations around governance, accountability, privacy, compliance, transparency and responsible technology practices (particularly AI) surfaced repeatedly throughout the week. These discussions reflected concerns that many organizations are currently navigating as they evaluate technology investments (including AI) and determine how information should be managed.
Explorance’s principles emphasize human oversight, accountability, diverse perspectives and responsible governance, particularly for AI. Rather than positioning technology as a substitute for human judgment, the company’s approach to AI reflects the belief that technology should support decision-making while maintaining appropriate oversight and control.
The conference also provided transparency into how customer information is managed, including data retention practices, customer control over data usage, infrastructure considerations, governance processes and compliance efforts. Explorance’s approach includes risk assessment, auditing, security testing, operational controls and continuous improvement initiatives designed to support customer trust and regulatory requirements.
These topics are becoming increasingly important considerations for organizations evaluating technology partners. In many purchasing decisions, trust now carries more weight than functionality.
Final Reflections
What Explorance World 2026 revealed is that learning measurement and survey usage is entering an exciting transformational phase.
Organizations are still measuring effectiveness, collecting feedback and evaluating outcomes. However, the expectations surrounding those activities have changed. Leaders increasingly want measurement systems that help them understand priorities, communicate value, identify opportunities, support decisions and strengthen organizational performance.
Explorance’s strategic direction is thoughtfully aligned with customer expectations and market needs. Throughout the week, customers consistently described a desire for stronger business alignment, clearer evidence of impact, better decision support and more actionable intelligence. Explorance’s roadmap discussions, future investments, benchmarking initiatives, governance practices and product strategy all pointed toward those same objectives.
For organizations seeking to strengthen the connection between listening, learning, workforce performance and business outcomes, the conversations taking place throughout Explorance World offered a useful perspective on where the market is heading, what capabilities will matter most in the years ahead. Explorance is uniquely positioned to address an ever-changing market and rapidly evolving organizational needs.
