2026 Trends You Don’t Want to Miss: Insights from Articuland

Insights from Articuland—a look ahead at 2026 e-learning trends

As the first-ever Articuland North American tour comes to a close—and winter weather sets in—it’s time to look forward to 2026. This year’s Articuland events gave customers a chance to hear from e-learning experts and to grow their skills. Attendees included everyone from brand-new users to decades-long customers.

Every event was packed with excitement, insight, and camaraderie. We saw once again how Articulate customers don’t just see themselves as software users; they’re part of a community. Over and over again, from Atlanta to Boston and Austin to Seattle, we heard that the e-learning community craves relevant learning experiences as much as they love creating them. The Articuland events, more than anything, demonstrated a continued excitement for e-learning, and we’re right there with you all! Now, it’s time to look ahead and put those innovative strategies to work.

Let’s take a look at 5 e-learning trends previewed at Articuland that you don’t want to miss in 2026.

1. Creator’s AI situationship is evolving—and empowering

Articuland attendees were honest about their tentative working relationship with AI. Many attendees shared that they weren’t sure where to start and needed practical demonstrations. Articulate’s COO and Articuland Boston keynote speaker Brian Gil spoke to these anxieties with a comforting message: AI is an opportunity, not a threat. He previewed innovations like AI Course Drafts, the Articulate localization tool, and Storyline AI animations.

Above all, Gil emphasized Articulate’s dedication to leading workplace learning innovation in the age of AI. The core of that mission starts with the course creator. AI tools are excellent sidekicks—they can localize courses in just a few clicks, produce first drafts based on source material, and transform text into interactive blocks in seconds. But course authors remain the experts and drive effective course creation by refining, humanizing, and contextualizing content. Balance is key.

🗣️ From Articuland attendee Starr Holden: “Attending this year’s Articuland Summit in Boston was an energizing and inspiring experience. The event brought together learning professionals, designers, and innovators who are shaping the future of instructional design and e-learning, and I am here for it…[it was] a complete game changer.”

2. Community learning is essential

The Articuland tour made one thing abundantly clear: Articulate users cherish their community. Attendees heard from the Articulate training team, well-known experts active in the E-Learning Heroes online community, and customers on the forefront of successful learning innovation. Peer-to-peer learning provided users with support, inspiration, and validating connections. Skills needed continue to evolve at a faster pace than ever. Leaning on each other to share best practices and practical tactics will continue to contribute to success in 2026.

Community learning, or social learning, is the process by which knowledge is acquired through observation and imitation of others. This was on full display during the Articuland 2025 tour, where attendees built connections around the tools they love to use, the challenges they face, and the passion for learning they share.

🗣️ From Articuland attendee Victoria Hantz: “The Articuland Summit was such a fun and energizing experience—it sparked a renewed sense of motivation for me as an Instructional Designer. I was able to build meaningful connections with other professionals who share the same passion for innovative learning design. Those conversations were as inspiring as the sessions themselves—leaving me with new relationships and a strong sense of community to grow alongside.”

3. Let learners make decisions to build engagement

Relevant, practical learning experiences have long been known to be the best way to add value for your learners. Two Articuland presenters, Alana Kubeczka and Tory Hord, each made their own unique case for how to make it happen in 2026.

Kubeczka, E-Learning Heroes community member and founder of Shift Learning Studio, suggests adding what she calls a “Rise warm-up” at the beginning of each course. These could be self-graded quizzes, interactive flashcard decks, sorting activities, or even quick scenario blocks. A variety of warm-up options puts learners in the driver’s seat before the course even begins.

Similarly, Hord, a learning and development consultant and E-Learning Heroes community member, championed using 360° images to immerse learners in real-world environments, from onboarding to leadership scenarios.

The key to both approaches? Make learning content role-specific, applicable to daily workflow, and let your learners make the decisions.

🗣️ From Articuland attendee Yvonne Urra-Bazain: “I came away from the event learning many new tips and tricks and felt excited about the future of the tools I use everyday. As a newer eLearning developer, I am grateful for the opportunity Articulate has provided for me to share some of what I’m “learning aloud” and to have met the inspiring people who are helping shape the landscape of eLearning at large.”

4. Move beyond “click-to-click” interactivity—with ease and purpose

Moving beyond “click-to-click” interactivity, as Chief Learning Architect Tom Kuhlmann put it at Articuland, was once a complicated maneuver. Now? It’s easier than ever to inject interactivity into your courses, but creating purposeful interactivity isn’t as straightforward. In 2026, meaningful interactivity will be front and center.

Articulate Community Manager Ginger Swart demonstrated how basic, “out-of-the-box” Rise blocks and custom dividers help create learning experiences that look bespoke. Designers have even more ways to get creative using Rise 360’s new Custom Blocks feature. From conversation blocks to diagram blocks and comparison blocks to testimonial blocks, purposeful interactivity is only a few clicks away.

🗣️ From Articuland attendee Rob Auchenpaugh: “Tom Kuhlmann provided mental and visual design models for interaction that will help me be more intentional about how I use interactive elements in my courses… not just for the sake of giving the learner something to do… but making it something to do with purpose.”

5. Faster and smarter course building

It may seem like everyone’s talking about AI, but there’s more than one way to speed up course creation. It’s true, you could easily point to Articulate’s AI Assistant as the clear way to build courses faster and smarter. It can generate scenario blocks, summarize source material, and build knowledge checks with a single click. But there’s another, simpler way forward in 2026: practical skill growth.

Articuland sessions were packed with tips and techniques to help attendees catch up with new Articulate 360 features, find new ways to engage learners, and—you guessed it—build better courses faster.

• David Anderson, Articulate’s Training Program Director, highlighted the power of design mapping to quickly align visual design with learning objectives.
• Community member Ismael Nava presented action mapping as a way to shift learning outcomes towards real-world behavior rather than assessment questions.
• Community experts Magali Verrengia and Nadia Mandrino showed attendees how to avoid costly reworks by planning for localization early—before designing the course and well before using Articulate’s localization tool.

🗣️ From community member Yvonne Urra-Bazain: “I came away from the event learning many new tips and tricks and felt excited about the future of the tools I use everyday.”

Hungry for more professional growth? Join our online community, E-Learning Heroes, for user guides, video tutorials, and the chance to collaborate with other Articulate users. Introduce yourself, show us what you love about instructional design, and get the support you need to grow your skill set.

Don’t miss out—stay tuned for 2026 Articuland details

The Articuland North American tour gave us a lot to look forward to. L&D departments are finding a healthy balance with AI tools, community learning is reigniting our passion for the craft, and innovative design is around every corner.

Excited to see what’s next in exceptional workplace learning? Stay ahead of the curve and join us at Articuland 2026! Check out this page for early-access sign-up to next year’s event.