Just released: 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning
Fosway Group’s latest analysis of the digital learning market, the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning, reveals a market experiencing its third consecutive year of economic stress. Flat budgets and greater scrutiny of the content supply chain are increasingly commonplace, coupled with AI changes that both expose and necessitate the need to change learning strategy for those in the vendor market yet to do so.
And yet, the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning also shows that what was once claimed potential of AI functionality is now making a material difference. The boundary between segments is blurring, as platforms, services and content libraries are subsumed and expand their offerings. Digital Learning is the market segment within which Fosway Group is arguably seeing the most transformation, in 2026.
Myles Runham, Lead Analyst on the research, commented, “It was another tough year for digital learning and more uncertain than we have seen before. Budgets remain constrained and demand for value is only rising. Growth is hard to come by, and the market is ever more competitive as a result. In response, vendors are making strategic bets on new products, new service lines and changing how they go to market. More meaningful adoption of AI has accelerated roadmap development, but it has also lowered barriers for the same capabilities. The landscape is changing quickly.”
The genie is not going back in the bottle; AI is, in the most literal sense, disrupting every aspect of digital learning. The risk of a homogenised vendor market is real - as is the neglect of a key foundational element of learning strategy; collaborative and cohort-based learning. Digital learning is concerned mostly with self-study, and in the rush to prioritise the opportunities of AI the transformational power of learning together risks being lost. Vendors and buyers alike must not overlook this.
“The economic uncertainty that many across digital learning are feeling belies the innovation and opportunity that remains and is still driving change in the vendor market” said David Wilson, CEO of Fosway Group. “The need to demonstrate value and impact remains the best way to stand out in a crowded vendor market, and that impetus should be as acute as it’s ever been – as LLMs proliferate, AI capabilities are no longer enough to differentiate your offering.”
As well as the 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning, which is a market analysis of solutions that provide content and resources, Fosway Group also produces the 9-Grid™ for Learning Systems, which concentrates on the platforms that power that content and those resources.
The full 2026 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning report can be downloaded online now.
Fosway’s David Wilson and Myles Runham will take questions on the research in a live online ‘Ask The Analyst’ session on 23 April 2025. Register for your free place here. Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.