# Wrong Format, Right Topic: Where L&D Budgets Go > SHRM India's 2026 report: nearly 60% of L&D budgets go to self-paced content and classrooms, only 3% to hands-on learning. Why AI skills need practice, not. - Source: https://bodhih.com/wrong-format-training-budgets-hands-on-3-percent-shrm-india-2026/ - Publisher: Bodhih Training (Bengaluru, India; since 2008) - Last updated: 2026-10-23 - Contact: solutions@bodhih.com · +91 99000 11601 --- Imagine learning to swim by watching forty hours of video about swimming, then attending a lecture on buoyancy. SHRM India's 2026 report: nearly 60% of L&D budgets go to self-paced content and classrooms, only 3% to hands-on learning. Why AI skills need practice, not. Key takeaways - The SHRM India Skill Intelligence Report 2026, launched in Mumbai in May 2026, reports that about 45% of Indian organisations name AI, digital and data skills as their single largest workforce constraint (as reported by Tribune India). - Yet about 54% describe the urgency of their AI investment as moderate to low, and leadership and ROI gaps make up 44% of adoption barriers (same coverage). - On spending, press coverage of the report says nearly 60% of L&D budgets go to digital self-paced content and classroom instruction, while hands-on formats account for just 3%. - The report is also reported to find that India formally trains only about 2.3% of its workforce. - Our reading: organisations are not necessarily teaching the wrong things; they are teaching in formats that rarely change what people do on Monday. Last updated 23 Oct 2026 · Bodhih Insights team · reviewed by [Siddharthan VGJ](https://bodhih.com/siddharthan-vgj/), Founder You would finish with a certificate and a detailed understanding of water. You would also drown. Most organisations would never train a swimmer that way. Yet according to a major 2026 India study, it is close to how they train people for the skills that matter most right now. ### The topics are mostly right. The format is the problem. *A note on sources: these figures come from news coverage and launch material for the SHRM report, not from the full report, which we have not reviewed. Please check the original before quoting externally. The conclusions in the "what to do" sections are our own interpretation.* ## The Mismatch Nobody Budgets For Look at the two halves of the picture together. Leaders say AI and digital skills are their biggest constraint. And the money for building those skills flows overwhelmingly into formats designed for *knowing*: a recorded module, a slide-led classroom day. Very little flows into formats designed for *doing*. AI skills are a particularly bad fit for knowing-only formats. Using AI well is not a body of facts. It is judgement exercised in the moment: what to ask, what to distrust, what to fix, when to stop. That judgement only forms through repetition on realistic work, with feedback. We have seen the consequences in other places. Teams that [taught themselves AI at different speeds](https://bodhih.com/two-speed-workforce-self-taught-ai-skills-india-teams-training/) end up with uneven habits. Teams without clear practice produce [workslop](https://bodhih.com/workslop-ai-generated-work-india-teams-training/), polished output that makes more work for the next person. And when AI does the task, [skills can quietly fade](https://bodhih.com/ai-deskilling-skills-fade-when-ai-does-the-work-india-teams-training/) unless people keep practising them. ## Why Knowing Formats Are So Tempting It is worth being fair to the 60%. Self-paced content and classroom days are popular for good reasons: - **They scale.** One module can reach ten thousand people. - **They are easy to count.** Completions and attendance fit neatly on a dashboard. - **They are low-risk.** Nobody fails in a video. Hands-on learning is harder to buy, harder to schedule and harder to measure. So budgets drift toward the convenient. The cost shows up later, quietly, when the training is "complete" and the behaviour has not moved. ## What "Hands-On" Actually Means Hands-on does not mean fancy technology. It means the learner **does the real thing, on realistic material, and gets feedback**. In practice it looks like: - **Working on live or lifelike tasks.** A sales team rewrites an actual proposal with AI support, then compares versions. A service team handles tough customer cases in simulated conversations. - **Role-play and rehearsal.** For conversations that carry emotion or risk, such as feedback, [negotiation](https://bodhih.com/negotiation-skills-training/) or escalation, nothing replaces practising out loud. - **Coaching on real work.** A manager or coach reviews what someone actually produced and asks what they would change. - **Spaced practice.** Short, repeated challenges over weeks, rather than one intense day that fades. - **Assessment that tests doing.** Scenario-based checks that reveal what a person does, rather than what they can recall. ## A Simple Rebalancing Test You do not need to scrap what you have. Try this on your next programme: 1. **List the behaviour you want to see.** Not "understands AI", but "uses AI to draft a first version, then checks facts and rewrites for the client". 2. **Ask where, in the programme, a learner does that behaviour with feedback.** If the honest answer is "nowhere", you have a knowing-only design. 3. **Move one-third of the time from content to practice.** Shorten the lecture. Lengthen the exercise. 4. **Add a follow-up.** A small task two or three weeks later shows what stuck. 5. **Measure behaviour, not completion.** Ask managers what they see different, and look at the work itself. If hands-on is 3% of your spend today, even moving it to 20% would be a major change in how learning feels. ## The Manager Is Part of the Format There is one more piece. Practice only works where there is room to try. In our post on [the permission gap](https://bodhih.com/experimentation-gap-managers-permission-to-try-korn-ferry-2026-india-training/), only about half of workers said their managers encourage experimentation. A hands-on programme dropped into a team that does not allow trying will not hold. So the strongest design pairs practice for employees with [coaching skills](https://bodhih.com/coaching-skills-training/) for the managers who oversee them. ## How Bodhih Helps Bodhih designs programmes around practice, not just content. - [Workshops](https://bodhih.com/workshops/) are built around exercises, role-play and live cases, so participants leave having done the work, not just heard about it. - [AI Literacy Training](https://bodhih.com/ai-literacy-training/) builds role-based, practical confidence, including judgement about when to trust AI output and when to challenge it. - [Blended Learning](https://bodhih.com/blended-learning/) combines live practice with digital reinforcement, so the 60% you already spend works harder. - [Micro-learning](https://bodhih.com/micro-learning-qstream/) delivers spaced challenges that keep skills active between sessions. - [Coaching for Managers](https://bodhih.com/coaching-for-managers/) equips managers to give feedback on real work and make practice safe. - [Assessments](https://bodhih.com/assessments/) check what people can do, and show where practice is needed next. Corporate programmes are private and tailored to your teams and roles. Open workshops are fixed-date public batches. You can explore [corporate training solutions](https://bodhih.com/corporate-training/) to see what fits. ## The Bigger Idea Ask any organisation what it wants from learning and the answer is capability: people who can do something better than before. Then look at where the money goes. **If almost all of it buys information and almost none buys practice, the budget is not matched to the goal.** The fix is not more content. It is more doing. ## Frequently asked questions ### What does the SHRM India Skill Intelligence Report 2026 say about L&D budgets? Press coverage reports that nearly 60% of L&D budgets go to digital self-paced content and classroom instruction, while hands-on formats account for about 3%. The report's framing, as reported, is that organisations may be learning in the wrong formats rather than the wrong topics. ### How many Indian organisations see AI skills as a major constraint? Coverage of the report says about 45% of organisations name AI, digital and data skills as their largest workforce constraint, and around 54% describe urgency on AI investment as moderate to low. ### Is self-paced e-learning ineffective? No. It is efficient for building baseline knowledge at scale. The issue is relying on it alone for skills that depend on judgement and practice, such as using AI well, giving feedback or handling [difficult conversations](https://bodhih.com/high-stakes-conversations-training/). ### What counts as hands-on corporate training? Learning where people do realistic work and receive feedback: live case work, role-play, simulations, coaching on real tasks and spaced practice challenges. ### How can we shift budget without starting over? Keep existing content as the foundation, then move a portion of programme time to practice, add a follow-up task weeks later, and measure behaviour change rather than completion rates. ### Where do the facts in this article come from? From news coverage of the SHRM India Skill Intelligence Report 2026, including [Tribune India](https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/business/nearly-45-of-organisations-cite-ai-skills-as-largest-workforce-constraint-54-cite-moderate-to-low-urgency-on-ai-investment-report/). We have not reviewed the full report.