<figure class="alignleft size-large"><figcaption>Ashish Rangnekar</figcaption></figure>

Ashish Rangnekar, a self-described lifelong learner, is co-founder and CEO of BenchPrep, where he’s focused on helping organizations digitally transform their learning offerings in the new digital world order. BenchPrep elevates and empowers learning businesses through their full-stack learning platform, aimed at delivering the best digital experience to drive outcomes and increase revenue.

In this penultimate episode in our series on the frontiers of learning technology, Jeff talks with Ashish about why the learntech market is slated to experience unprecedented growth and transformation, related trends, and potential implications for learning businesses and society.

To tune in, listen below. To make sure you catch all future episodes, be sure to subscribe via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, iHeartRadio, PodBean, or any podcatcher service you may use (e.g., Overcast). And, if you like the podcast, be sure to give it a tweet.

Listen to the Show

Access the Transcript

Download a PDF transcript of this episode’s audio.

Read the Show Notes

[00:36 ] – Intro and background info about Ashish.

A Transformative Time for Learntech

[01:44 ] – There’s a lot of investor interest in learntech right now. What’s different now compared to past surges in learntech investment? What’s the opportunity that investors see now, especially in the adult lifelong learning market?

This is an amazing and transformative time for learning technology companies and the entire industry. Music streaming has seen tremendous growth in the past ten years (from less than 5 percent of music revenue to more than 80 percent today). The education and training industry will see a similar trend, with more and more moving to digital delivery.

Three macro shifts happened in society, leading to this enormous potential for growth in learntech:

1. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought massive transformation to society, driven by technology, and fundamentally changed the way we live, work and relate to one another. As this revolution unfolds, every professional, irrespective of the industry, and every organization will have to retrain how they work and operate.
2. Lifelong learning has become an economic reality. Because of the Fourth Industrial Revolution change we are seeing, companies like Amazon and AT&T are spending more than a billion dollars on upskilling and reskilling. So much learning is happening beyond the traditional degree programs and higher ed with a focus on lifelong learning.
3. We have entered an era of digital-first, digital-all, digital-only learning.

Seventy percent of learning happens on the job (experiential). Twenty percent is peer-to-peer. Ten percent is formal. What we have seen in the last couple of decades is most of the digital or the technology was focused on that ten percent of formal educational programs. Finally, we’re seeing that digital is driving all of it—not just formal, but social and experiential as well. And that shift has opened up the market 10X.

Ashish Rangnekar

All these things were already happening, but the pandemic accelerated everything by at least five years. The potential in the next ten years is once in a lifetime, so it’s not surprising there’s been a lot of investor interest.

The Frontiers of Learning Technology

[07:11 ] – When you think about the phrase “frontiers of learning technology” what comes to mind?

Ashish thinks of Andy Grove, ex-CEO of Intel and author of Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company, and his 10X change concept. It’s a moment that signifies change so big, that all bets are off. The frontiers of learntech are the technologies, concepts, business models, and organizations that are leading a 10X change.

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>Image source: https://thekeypoint.org</figcaption></figure>

The Near Future of Learntech

[08:26 ] – Which trends in learntech have the most potential for significant positive impact in the next three years or so?

Data is an area where we’ve only started to scratch the surface and that can drive 10X change.

Our collective ability to leverage data, I think, can truly transform our ability to drive learning and business outcomes. And not just there. I think if we leverage, collect, analyze, and deploy the right data models, it can bring equity and access to learning like never, never before.

Ashish Rangnekar

As things go digital, it’s easier to collect data. It has become cheap to collect and store data over the last ten years. The technology has made it possible to truly collect and store every click and response for every single learning activity.

We are still in the first phase of a transformation where everyone is focused on data collection, and we need to quickly get into the second phase of deploying insights gleaned from the data back into the learning models. As we start doing that, it’s going to become cheaper to create content, we’ll be able to drive learning outcomes more quickly, and we’ll be able to innovate faster because we will know exactly where to innovate.

Many technology developments are happening in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data storage, and those developments will have a massive impact in the next three years.

Over-Hyped Trends in Learntech

[11:10 ] – Which trend or trends in learntech do you think might be over-hyped, shiny objects distracting us from what really matters?

Ashish thinks that many of these technologies, which others may consider hype, are just a matter of prioritization and time. Organizations need to understand if they are ready for a particular technology or not. Whether something is a shiny object and a distraction depends on the specific learning organization and their goals.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle looks at where specific technologies (personalization, AI, machine learning, immersive technology, virtual events, etc.) are in the cycle of commercialization. The cycle covers five main phases (e.g., the peak of inflated expectations or the slope of enlightenment), and Ashish makes the point that how valuable (or not) a technology is depends a lot on the specific learning business and what its needs are.