My purpose is to help you along your instructional design journey. Whether you are looking to learn about designing meaningful learning experiences or landing an instructional design position, this site is for you. This site is dedicated to sharing about best instructional design tips, talking to amazing guests, and more.
Field Report · Spring 2026 · drlukehobson.com
Between April and June 2026, 587 instructional designers across corporate L&D, higher education, non-profits, government, K-12, and freelance practice shared how AI fits into their work — and how they feel about where the profession is heading.
Responses skew experienced: 57% have seven or more years in the field, and corporate L&D and higher education together account for roughly three-quarters of the sample — a fair mirror of where instructional designers actually work.
Which best describes your primary work context?
How many years have you worked as an instructional designer?
Nearly half the field uses AI every day, and the leading motivation is unambiguous: time. Quality improvement runs second, and only a small minority report not using AI at all.
How frequently do you use AI tools in your instructional design work?
What is your primary reason for using AI in your work? (select any)
The heaviest AI use sits squarely in the design phase — assessments, research, and learning outcomes — while media production tasks like voiceover and image generation trail behind.
Select any that apply — percentages of respondents in the selected group
Professional learning about AI is largely informal and social: LinkedIn, colleagues, and newsletters far outpace formal professional development and academic journals.
Select any that apply — percentages of respondents in the selected group
Designers report clear productivity gains and strong organizational support, and they overwhelmingly believe the core of the craft is safe. But optimism about the profession's future is more measured, and 43% feel pressure from their organization or clients to use AI.
1 = strongly disagree · 5 = strongly agree · each bar shows the full response split
Mean agreement (1–5) for each statement, by sector. Freelancers are the most bullish across nearly every measure; government designers feel the least organizational support, and corporate L&D reports the most pressure to adopt.
73% use AI often or daily and 46% use it every single day. AI is now standard tooling in instructional design, not an early-adopter experiment.
79% cite saving time as a primary reason for using AI — well ahead of improving quality (58%). The productivity story is the adoption story.
AI concentrates in cognitive design tasks — assessments (64%), research (62%), outcomes (62%) — far more than in production tasks like voiceover (21%).
43% agree they feel organizational pressure to use AI. Corporate L&D feels it most (mean 3.39); government the least (2.50).
Designers are confident in their own value (mean 3.97) and believe the craft's core can't be replaced (4.07) — yet optimism about the profession's future is more tempered (3.52). People trust themselves more than they trust the market.
65% track AI through social media and 57% through colleagues, versus 27% through formal professional development — a signal for anyone designing AI upskilling.