Ashok Thussu, Co-Founder,
Leadership Management
International

Ashok Thussu is a seasoned leadership development expert with over 40 years of experience across manufacturing, IT, and consulting. He has led impactful initiatives for both Indian and global organizations, including a strategic assignment with UNIDO. An engineer with advanced certification in facilitation, he has trained over 3,000 managers and executives, enhancing leadership and business performance. His expertise includes executive coaching, strategic goal setting, and people development, with a strong focus on aligning leadership growth with measurable outcomes and cultural transformation.

In a recent interaction with M R Yuvatha, Senior Correspondent at siliconindia, Ashok Thussu shared his insights on ‘Redefining Leadership Growth Through Digital Learning Platforms’.

Digital learning platforms are not just enhancing leadership they are revolutionizing it. With AI-powered personalization, real-time insights, and scalable access, these platforms foster agile, future-ready leaders. By shifting from passive knowledge delivery to active skill-building, they are redefining how leadership potential is nurtured in a digital-first business era.

The New Era of Digital Leadership Learning

The digital learning platforms are reshaping foundational leadership principles such as emotional intelligence, decision-making, and adaptability for the next generation of leaders. This transformation is already becoming visible.

Simulations, for instance, are proving to be valuable tools for testing responses in various scenarios, including practicing empathy and listening skills. Certain AI tools can now evaluate tonality and even body language. These are emerging areas, and we are seeing platforms specifically designed to develop emotional intelligence and adaptability. AI-based coaching tools and scenario-driven platforms that assess choices, tone, and responses are already in use. While some still incorporate a human-in-the-loop, many now rely entirely on AI-based coaching. It remains an evolving landscape.

AI tools can pick up clues based on sharing, content, reflections, and choices, they retain a human-centric approach. Adaptive learning is another powerful concept it creates curated learning pathways tailored to the user, not generic modules. For alignment with organizational culture, some platforms now deploy organization-specific case study scenarios to test against strategy or even core values.

Ashok Thussu, Co-Founder, Leadership Management International, says, “In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, there is a growing diversity of learning platforms. While many like Coursera effectively deliver knowledge, I believe they are at risk of becoming redundant. The reason is simple, with tools like ChatGPT, knowledge is readily accessible. You can describe your exact problem, ask for three solutions, receive summaries, get detailed insights, and follow up with queries all of which replicate a learning course. Therefore, unless digital learning platforms evolve to offer clear value beyond just delivering knowledge, they may struggle to remain relevant.”

Also Read: Leadership Management International: Transforming Employees into Leaders of Tomorrow

Democratizing Digital Learning for All

Immersive technologies have a huge role to play in enhancing learning. They can be highly effective as they provide real-time insights, feedback, and experiential learning. Interestingly, when these are coupled with real coaches, the impact can significantly increase due to higher levels of reflection on the experience. Gamification technologies also prove useful in generating collaborative working skills. One caution, however, is that many AI models can carry cultural biases making the relevance and appropriateness of digital responses problematic in certain contexts. When it comes to decision-making skills, digital platforms have shown considerable potential for enhancement.

There is little that a business organization can do unless it has CSR-related projects supporting this domain. For instance, the Tata Group offers a free digital program that covers foundational professional skills. Similarly, NASSCOM has deployed free digital learning initiatives. However, socio-economic disparities remain. The best long-term solution is for governments and NGOs to implement digital learning from the school stage itself. While some efforts are already underway, much more is needed to extend this to the broader educational ecosystem. Infrastructure, undoubtedly, remains a significant constraint.

Technical skill training is already being effectively delivered through digital platforms. In a major Indian automobile company, the entire new worker development journey is now based on such systems.

Digital learning platforms are not just enhancing leadership they are revolutionizing it through AI-powered personalization, real-time insights, and scalable access.

The Real Barrier to Leadership Development

However, meaningful digital leadership development can only occur when it is built on a robust process and methodology. Currently, most digital offerings are isolated learning events rather than structured development journeys. Yet, organizations like Leadership Management International (LMI) have developed a time-tested methodology that has guided over 2 million individuals worldwide through a comprehensive learning and development process. This proven methodology is now accessible through their digital platform.

What sets this approach apart is its direct integration with real-time business goals, resulting in deep transformation among participants. It drives mindset shifts, behavioral change, and measurable improvements in business outcomes. In organizations where large numbers of employees have undergone the program, it has also contributed to significant cultural transformation. Notably, LMI reports 100% completion rates, supported by detailed case studies. The LMI digital journey includes live coaches and facilitators who actively guide learners through the process. While AI coaching continues to evolve, current technologies have yet to demonstrate the ability to effectively deploy such process-oriented methodologies at this level.

Also Read: The Rise of Personalized Nutrition Plans in Transforming Preventive Healthcare

Digital tools, when used in isolation, may not align well with real-time business goals or support the development of leadership pipelines primarily because most platforms lack a structured, end-to-end process. Fragmented learning events are unlikely to create the level of lasting change that aspiring leaders need.

Another major challenge for digital platforms is learner engagement. Completion rates across many MOOCs remain low, often ranging from just 5% to 15%. Even in corporate e-learning environments, completion rates typically fall between 40% and 60%. Instructor-led digital programs can raise this figure to about 80%, yet many participants engage only for certification purposes. A learning journey that focuses solely on content delivery, without adequate follow-up or reflection, often results in minimal if any transformation. This underscores one of the key barriers to the effectiveness of digital learning platforms, their limited ability to drive meaningful and sustained change.

Looking Ahead

Digital learning platforms offer immense promise for leadership development but only if they evolve from content providers to transformation enablers. The future lies in experiential, human-centric, goal-aligned journeys that not only teach but truly transform.