When it comes to leadership development trends for 2024, you might say that this will be the year of the “accelerated human.”

As companies rapidly look to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) across all areas of work, leadership development will be no exception. The question will be how we use data and technology to create human experiences that help leaders perform better externally and understand themselves better internally.

Here are our top three trends for leadership development in 2024 with the data to show you why they matter:

1. Double Down on Human Connection

The big mistake in 2024 will be to use technology to push people further into isolation, assuming they can learn alone. But leadership is human. To perform leadership well, people need to practice and connect with other people.

The data is clear — leaders want to connect with each other to build a more positive learning engagement. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023 shows how over 13,000 global leaders ranked live, instructor-led training as their top choice. By far, leaders say that they want to learn through interactive experiences with their peers.

These in-person collaborative development activities not only allow them opportunities to network with peers, but also to share specific examples of challenges faced and overcome. As one leader shared, “They make leadership less lonely with shared stories.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all learning has to happen in the classroom. Rather, the magic is in the mix of when you bring people together and when they explore on their own. So, review your 2024 learning agenda — is there a healthy mix of connective training included to satisfy your learners?

2. Go Deep With Personalization

One of the biggest advantages we see with AI in 2024 will be to personalize leadership development. But I don’t just mean through better recommendation engines and chatbots (although those are valuable). Rather, pairing AI with the right personality tools can help leaders go much deeper into understanding themselves.

In a recent survey of 262 human resources (HR) decision-makers, we asked HR to tell us what processes they use to identify development areas for their frontline leaders. Among options like 360-degree surveys, coaching and formal conversations, we found the biggest differentiator between low-maturity organizations and high-maturity organizations: Personality assessments. While only 40% of learning and development (L&D) teams had used personality assessments in the previous two years, those who did scored highest in terms of L&D maturity and satisfaction.

However, the quality of the assessment mattered. The assessments needed to be science-based, validated online assessments that enable a leader to understand how they might show up day-to-day and how this might differ during times of stress or pressure. For example, weaving such an assessment into a mid-level leader development program allows each individual to understand the specific aspects of the program to focus their efforts.

The result is the capability of personalizing leadership development down to the specific behavior. This is not just at a lofty competency level of, “Improve my coaching.” It’s specifically asking, “How can I be better at listening and asking my team questions when I tend to be impulsive with decision-making, especially when I’m stressed?” Giving leaders these incredibly personal insights can help them explore and develop the bespoke skills needed for their unique success, so they can live the leadership brand that they want.

3. Among Fervent Upskilling, AI Becomes the Coach’s Best Friend

McKinsey reports that 87% of companies know they have a skills gap or expect one in the next few years. One of the most significant ways companies are going to solve that problem is through coaching, with 96% of companies reporting that coaching is their most common form of on-the-job learning, according to ATD’s 2023 State of the Industry report.

Despite the urgency for leaders to become great coaches who lead the upskilling of their teams, companies struggle to create the coaching cultures they need. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023 shows that fewer companies than ever are achieving a coaching culture. Leaders also report that coaching from their manager is one of their least desired forms of coaching.

The root of the problem lies in how well managers are developing their coaching skills. Leaders who say they get quality coaching from their manager were twice as likely to want more of it. Furthermore, they were:

• • 3 times more likely to feel they have a clear development path as a leader.
  • 7 times more likely to feel accountable for being an effective leader.
  • 5 times less likely to want to change companies.

The question is how L&D can improve their leaders’ coaching capabilities at scale. This is where AI can provide significant value.

Let’s explore an example: A leader needs to provide feedback to a team member on their poor performance. Imagine that that leader is able to practice that conversation in advance, via a digital simulation for example, and the leader instantly receives specific feedback on what they did well and how they could improve (e.g., “You missed opportunities to demonstrate empathy”). This gives them reliable and consistent coaching to be better prepared for a better quality of conversation. The alternative? The difficult conversation is the leader’s practice round, thus missing opportunities for learning and reducing the chance of success.

Anyone responsible for leadership development in 2024 is going to have a dizzying array of new technologies and techniques available at our fingertips. But it’s critical that we are not dazzled by the sheer capabilities of AI, and instead stay laser-focused on applying technology in the right way to accelerate the capabilities of people.