Many organizations invest significant time and energy debating between a learning management system (LMS) and a learning experience platform (LXP)—only to find themselves stuck between outdated functionality and fragmented experiences.
In 2023, a Brandon Hall Group survey revealed that while most companies rely on LMSs, only 16% use LXPs. Some try combining both, but this often creates silos and disjointed learning journeys.
Legacy LMSs, in particular, fail to deliver on modern needs, lacking integrations, automation, and multi-audience support, leading people to migrate from their LMS.
The reality?
Neither LMSs nor LXPs alone can address the growing challenges of today’s enterprise organizations. Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered learning platforms: the next evolution in learning technology.
By seamlessly blending the functionality of LMSs and LXPs, these platforms leverage headless learning to enable learning in the flow of work—a strategy twice as likely to be embraced by high-performing organizations.
Before diving into why AI-driven learning platforms are the future, let’s first untangle the LMS vs. LXP debate.
This article will guide you through,
- What is an LMS, LXP, and AI-driven learning platform,
- the key features of each,
- why LMSs and LXPs falling short, and
- how to determine the right solution for your business—whether that’s an LMS, an LXP, or an AI-driven learning platform.
Ready to find the perfect fit? Let’s start with the basics: What is a learning management system (LMS)?
What is a learning management system (LMS)?
An LMS is a type of learning technology that allows for the construction of a learning program, which can include e-learning, microlearning, and other formats.
The administrator will create specific learning content to lead learners through a training program with a particular goal in mind.
For example, a company may use an LMS to create an onboarding process that contains all the training new employees need to succeed. It can be used to implement employee learning and development courses as well. A business may also use an LMS to teach customers how to effectively use their products, but most LMSs are not ideally suited to tackle multiple audiences.
Put simply, an LMS, at its core, is a tool for creating an online learning experience. LMSs may also have features that improve the user experience, track progress, assess understanding, and analyze user data, but they have limited functionality compared to modern learning platforms.
Key LMS features
Each LMS is unique, and they all have different functionality. However, there are some features that are likely to be found in most LMSs. So, while not every LMS will have every one of these features, they are common among many of them.
- Responsive, user-friendly design: Most LMSs will have a responsive design that works seamlessly across all devices. They also tend to have a user-friendly UI to make learning effortless.
- Analysis and Reporting tools: It's common to find tools to help assess the learning program's effectiveness. You can see how individual learners and groups of learners are performing and make any necessary changes or improvements in response to the data.
- Course management: This allows administrators to create and catalog the content they want in their digital learning programs.
- Help features: There may be features designed to help learners who get stuck. This can include discussion forums or access to a support representative.
- Certification and compliance: Many businesses use their LMS for compliance training to ensure everyone knows the requirements. They can also be used to certify employees to perform certain tasks.
- Automation: Some features may allow repetitive tasks to be automated to save time.
- Some LMSs can also include gamification, social learning, and AI capabilities but these are usually limited compared to AI-driven learning platforms.
What is a learning experience platform (LXP)?
An LXP is a user-centric collaborative learning platform that emulates social media and streaming platforms like Netflix.
They allow for the creation, curation, and use of different kinds of content, including internal training content, external content like blogs and industry research, and even user-generated content to allow learners to share what they know with each other.
LXPs focus on self-directed learning. If a user wants to learn something that the company doesn't have a dedicated learning path for, they can use the LXP's AI features to curate the content they need to gain the skills they're interested in.
This kind of informal learning pathway allows employees to take the initiative and engage in skill development on their own. This is less of a top-down approach. It's more focused on allowing users to gain competency in areas not covered by the premade corporate learning pathways.
Key LXP features
Many LXPs share some core features that make an LXP stand out from other learning solutions. Here are some of the most common LXP features.
- User-generated content: Users can create their own content, including individual posts to provide information they believe others may find helpful or entire courses to teach a concept from start to finish.
- Content curation: LXPs use AI and machine learning (ML) to curate content for users on topics of interest. Users can also curate internal and external content into lessons that they can share with other users.
- AI recommendations and training: AI may be used in some LXPs to make content recommendations, sometimes through the use of chatbots. It may also have the ability to ingest and understand the learning materials and create microlearning training materials to allow users to learn the most important parts in small, digestible lessons. It can use articles, webinars, podcasts, and more to create a new learning journey or to recommend a place in the content to begin watching or listening based on the topic they want to learn about.
- Analytics: Analytics can display dashboards to users, showing their progress. Administrators can also use them to view learner progress and understand what professional development users are engaging in. But tracking and reporting capabilities may be limited for use cases like compliance.
- Gamification: Leaderboards, achievements, and other gaming features can improve learner engagement.
- Integrations: You may be able to connect your LXP to an external learning platform like LinkedIn Learning or Coursera to give users access to courses from third-party providers. You can also find integrations for your other business software solutions, like your customer relationship management platform (CRM), or other tools you use, like communication apps.
LMS vs LXP: What’s the difference?
While LMSs and LXPs are both types of learning technology, some key differences make each unique. Both options provide a learning ecosystem for employee and/or customer training, and both can have social media and gamification features to improve employee engagement and retention.
However, there's a different approach to learning in an LMS vs. LXP. LMS platforms focus on allowing L&D teams to create lessons and courses to guide users through a specific learning path to a specific end.
LXPs, on the other hand, focus on user-directed learning to allow employees to choose what they want to learn. While LMSs allow admin authoring of course material, LXPs also allow users to create course content.
They both provide assessments to help you understand the efficacy of your learning programs and features made to aid with the flow of work. LMSs work for more formal learning, while LXPs offer a more casual and self-directed method.
Why are LMSs and LXPs falling short?
LMSs were originally designed with administrators in mind, focusing on managing and distributing training content efficiently. They excel at tasks like enrollments and compliance tracking but often neglect the learner’s experience.
On the other hand, LXPs center on learners, providing engaging and intuitive interfaces. However, LXPs often lack the structure and administrative functionality necessary for tracking compliance or maintaining records, leaving organizations to juggle multiple systems.
This fragmentation results in siloed processes and disjointed learning environments that fail to address modern business needs. But, enterprises today can’t afford fragmented learning as they are navigating a complex landscape of labor shortages, higher learner expectations, and rapid technological changes.
Traditional LMSs and LXPs are not equipped to handle these demands. For example, scaling learning for diverse audiences, such as customers, employees, and partners, often requires multiple LMS and LXP systems, creating inefficiencies and governance challenges.
AI-driven learning platforms combine the strengths of LMSs and LXPs while solving their weaknesses. These platforms streamline the learning process by integrating administrative functions and user engagement into a unified system, reducing the need for multiple tools.
AI enables hyper-personalized learning experiences by surfacing the exact content learners need, whether it’s through chatbots, mobile apps, or real-time recommendations.
Additionally, AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing up L&D teams to focus on strategy and impactful content creation. By leveraging AI, organizations can address labor shortages, upskill their workforce, and ensure their learning initiatives align with business outcomes, driving measurable results and long-term success.
The benefits of an AI-driven learning platform like Docebo is what drove Front Burner, a restaurant management company from the US, to leave their previous learning solution.
With Docebo, Front Burner created a centralized learning hub that increased training engagement sixfold, boosting course completion rates from 35% to 87%.
This surge in engagement led to tangible business results: restaurants with higher training participation saw a 5-point increase in Net Promoter Score and contributed $100,000 more to charitable campaigns.
Docebo’s intuitive tools, mobile accessibility, and robust reporting capabilities made training scalable and impactful, proving that an AI-powered platform doesn’t just streamline learning—it drives measurable outcomes for employees, customers, and the bottom line.
What is an AI-driven learning platform?
An emerging solution to LMSs and LXPs, AI-driven learning platforms are enhanced by AI and have the combined functionalities of LMSs and LXPs. Here are some features you can expect to find in AI-driven learning platforms:
- Intuitive, user-friendly design
- Advanced Analysis and Reporting tools that tie learning to business metrics
- Course management
- Help features
- Certification and compliance
- Social learning that fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing to strengthen institutional knowledge
- Gamification
- Plenty of integrations and automation
- AI features that include auto-tagging, content creation, recommendations, and more.
Over to you: When to choose an LMS, an LXP or an AI-driven learning platform
Traditional LMSs have been invaluable for structured training, compliance, and certification programs. They’ve ensured employees follow specific learning paths and gain required skills, making them perfect for onboarding, compliance reporting, and skill development.
With advanced course management, assessments, and strict tracking capabilities, LMSs are a reliable choice when precision and administration take priority.
On the other hand, LXPs have shined in fostering a dynamic and learner-driven culture. They empower employees to explore training from diverse sources, encouraging self-directed growth and social learning.
Ideal for continuous skill development, LXPs have helped create a collaborative, engaging environment through gamification and integrations with communication tools—perfect for organizations focused on innovation and a team-oriented culture.
But why settle for either when you can have the best of both worlds in a single centralized platform?
AI-driven learning platforms like Docebo combine the structure and compliance focus of LMSs with the personalization and engagement of LXPs, offering a unified solution for today’s enterprises.
They provide robust course management, compliance tracking, and certification tools, while also fostering collaboration through social learning and gamification.
Enhanced by AI, learning platforms go further, offering automated content recommendations, advanced reporting tied to business metrics, and intuitive, user-friendly designs that make learning seamless for administrators and learners alike.
By integrating the strengths of LMSs and LXPs and supercharging them with AI, these learning platforms don’t just meet the demands of modern learning—they redefine them.
Eager to know more? Take a tour of the Docebo learning platform, and request a demo so you can see why over 3,800 companies worldwide trust Docebo.