The Higher Education Learning Platform at 30: The End of the Beginning or The Beginning of the End?

The Learning Platform (or known as LMS) is a $20+ billion global market—and yet, after 30 years, higher education is still grappling with a basic question: what’s the learning ROI? In this rapid-fire, no-filters conversation, Learning Platform pioneers Matt Pittinsky and John Baker take a hard look at how Learning Platforms became world-class at course management while slowing when it came to improving learning itself—and why agentic AI may finally accelerate learning within Learning Platforms.

If agentic AI can orchestrate learning—not just publish courses—could learning ROI increase tenfold in the next three years? These legendary Learning Platform leaders rethink what the Learning Platform is actually for, what should be automated away, and whether the category anchors its future value in managing courses—or in actively producing learning. Ultimately, does the Learning Platform emerge as the most important learning platform in higher education—or get disrupted by the very AI it invited in?

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