Most learning platforms ask you to choose: structured compliance training or engaging learner experiences. Legacy LMS capabilities or modern AI-powered performance support. Fuse Universal is betting you shouldn’t have to make that choice.
I recently met with Steve Dineen, Founder and President, and Rhys Giles, Chief Product Officer at Fuse Universal to discuss their repositioning and the launch of Fuse 4. The company is making a direct play to replace traditional learning management systems while simultaneously addressing the performance support gap that’s plagued corporate L&D for years. After 30 years in learning operations before joining Brandon Hall Group™, I’ve seen plenty of platforms promise to do it all. Fuse’s approach merits attention because they’re solving a real problem: the learning technology stack has become unwieldy, expensive, and disconnected from actual job performance.
The LXP Market Shifted — And So Did Fuse
The learning experience platform category that emerged in the mid-2010s promised personalized, Netflix-style learning. By 2024, that market had contracted sharply. Companies that positioned themselves solely as LXPs found their sales pipelines drying up as buyers delayed decisions or abandoned projects entirely.
Fuse responded by returning to their roots as an integrated learning platform—what we at Brandon Hall Group called them in our 2023 research. Rather than sitting on top of an LMS, they now position as a complete replacement. For organizations like Hilti and Avon (both longtime Fuse customers using it as their sole platform), this isn’t new. But Fuse has systematically filled the traditional LMS gaps in their product to make this positioning viable for a broader market.
The shift makes business sense. Organizations are consolidating vendors, not adding them. Our research consistently shows technology rationalization as a top priority for HR and L&D leaders. When budgets tighten, the question becomes: which platform can handle compliance and capability development and performance support? Organizations exploring these decisions benefit from Brandon Hall Group’s Institute membership, which provides access to research, certifications, courses, advisory services, and peer networks to guide platform selection.
How Fuse Stacks Up Against the Competition
The corporate learning platform market splits into distinct camps based on architecture, go-to-market approach, and AI implementation:
- Capabilities: Largest installed base with comprehensive talent suite integration, skills architecture from SkyHive acquisition, traditional LMS foundation enhanced with AI features
- Capabilities: Skills-first platform with Maestro AI for adaptive learning, strong content aggregation from multiple sources, proficiency-level tagging that maps learning to role expectations
- Capabilities: Native integration with Workday HCM and Finance creates unified data model; Skills Cloud with 2,000+ mapped skills; recently acquired Sana for AI-native learning and agentic capabilities
- Capabilities: Deep integration across SAP ecosystem; strong compliance and certification tracking; AI-assisted content generation and skills inference in 2025 releases
- Capabilities: AI-first architecture with Creator tool for content generation, Virtual Coaching for scenario-based training, Harmony agentic marketplace launching for workflow automation
Each platform solves specific problems well. The question for buyers is whether they want best-of-breed specialization or an integrated approach that consolidates capabilities. Our Solution Provider research and strategy briefs help organizations navigate these decisions by providing detailed comparisons of vendor approaches, implementation requirements, and total cost of ownership considerations.
Three Innovations Worth Understanding
Fuse’s latest release centers on making AI practical for everyday L&D operations, not just impressive in demos:
AI Course Creation That Follows Instructional Design Workflow
Their CoursePlus tool doesn’t just generate content—it walks through the instructional design process. You start with learning objectives, define your audience, specify tone and style, then build the storyboard before generating any content.
This matters because AI content tools that skip straight to generation produce generic output that requires extensive editing. By following the traditional ID process while automating the production, CoursePlus helps L&D teams maintain quality control. The tool generates courses in multiple languages instantly (I watched a demo translate a full course to Arabic in under three seconds) and makes all content searchable through their Knowledge Intelligence Engine.
AI Coaches With Actual Memory
Most AI chatbots in learning platforms provide basic Q&A. Fuse’s AI coaches store individual variables about each user — their role, knowledge level, even learning preferences like reading level or neurodiversity needs. A coach can remember your strengths and gaps across multiple interactions, adjusting its approach accordingly.
The coaches sit in four categories: leadership (reflective guidance), role play (practice scenarios), tutoring (skill development), and performance (daily task support). Organizations can build multiple coaches targeted at specific job families rather than deploying one generic assistant. The coaches launch with voice capabilities, enabling realistic role-play scenarios for sales teams, customer service, or difficult conversations.
Performance Support That Lives Where Work Happens
Fuse Flow is a browser extension that surfaces learning content within your existing tools. If you’re in Salesforce and need help with a process, the coach appears without leaving your workflow. The system transcribes all content (articles, videos, PDFs) so AI can access it, then answers questions in any of 49 languages regardless of the source language.
Organizations upload process documents, training manuals, and product information once. Frontline workers across global operations can ask questions in their native language and get answers drawn from the company’s actual knowledge base, not generic internet information.
Who This Platform Serves Best
Based on the briefing and analysis of their customer base, Fuse fits specific organizational profiles:
Organizations Consolidating Learning Technology Stacks
- Mid-size to large enterprises (1,000+ employees) drowning in multiple LMS, LXP, and performance support tools
- IT and procurement pressure to reduce vendors and associated integration costs
- Key benefit: Replace 3-5 systems with one platform while improving user experience
Companies With Large Frontline or Distributed Workforces
- Retail, hospitality, manufacturing, field services with workers who need answers in the moment
- Multi-country operations requiring robust translation and localization
- Key benefit: AI-powered performance support accessible via mobile delivers just-in-time knowledge at point of need
Businesses Building Structured Capability Academies
- Sales, finance, leadership, customer service programs that combine formal learning with ongoing performance support
- Organizations that measure L&D impact through business KPIs, not just completion rates
- Key benefit: Integrates compliance requirements with capability development in targeted programs that connect learning to performance outcomes
SAP SuccessFactors or Workday HCM Customers Seeking LXP Capabilities
- Enterprises with core HR systems that want enhanced learning experiences without replacing their LMS
- Companies looking to add social learning, modern UX, and AI coaching while maintaining compliance infrastructure
- Key benefit: Sits alongside existing LMS to deliver capability academies and performance support for strategic job families
Organizations Prioritizing Employee-Generated Content and Knowledge Sharing
- Companies with distributed expertise that needs capturing and sharing
- Cultures emphasizing peer learning and communities of practice
- Key benefit: Content creation tools plus community structure enable knowledge capture from SMEs at scale
L&D leaders evaluating vendors across these use cases can leverage Brandon Hall Group’s SmartChoice® Preferred Provider Program, which applies rigorous evaluation criteria to identify solution providers meeting high standards for capability, service, and innovation. Our advisory services help organizations match specific requirements to vendor strengths.
The Market Position Reality
Fuse occupies an interesting position — not the largest player, but perhaps the most willing to make strong product bets on AI and workflow integration. Their competitors have larger customer bases, deeper pockets, or embedded positions in broader talent suites. Fuse’s advantage lies in product focus and execution speed.
The capability academy approach resonates because it solves a persistent problem: formal learning disconnected from job performance. By bundling structured programs with AI coaching, performance support, and analytics tied to business outcomes, they create a compelling alternative to the “LMS for compliance, something else for everything else” model many organizations struggle with.
Their challenge is the same one facing any mid-market platform: awareness and trust. Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Awards program recognizes innovation across learning technology, giving solution providers a platform to demonstrate capabilities to corporate buyers. Our HCM Excellence Conference connects L&D leaders directly with vendors showcasing innovations like AI-powered coaching and integrated learning platforms — exactly the capabilities Fuse is bringing to market.
The learning platform market isn’t consolidating into one winner. It’s fragmenting into different approaches — skills-first systems, AI-native platforms, talent suite components, and integrated learning platforms. Fuse’s bet on the all-in-one, AI-enabled model for performance-driven organizations positions them for a specific buyer who wants to consolidate their stack while advancing their L&D capabilities.
That’s not every organization. But for companies tired of managing multiple systems that don’t talk to each other, frustrated by static compliance training, and ready to connect learning directly to job performance, Fuse presents a coherent alternative worth evaluating.
