The LMS at 30: The End of the Beginning or The Beginning of the End?

The 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, LMS pioneers Matt Pittinsky and John Baker take a hard look at how the LMS became world-class at course management while slowing when it came to improving learning itself—and why agentic AI may finally accelerate learning within the LMS.If agentic AI can orchestrate learning—not just publish courses—could learning ROI increase tenfold in the next three years? These legendary LMS leaders rethink what the LMS 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 LMS emerge as the most important learning platform in higher education—or get disrupted by the very AI it invited in?