Training and Development Specialists

Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

19% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Social perceptiveness

Very important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Consulting and advising others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
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Education and training expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Show 5 more strengths

Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Operations analysis

Quite important
Why this matters
Figure out what people need and what a product must do, then translate those requirements into a workable design.
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What users think

Based on 146 votes

38% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 19% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Training and Development Specialists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Training and Development Specialists was $65,850 ($32 per hour).

The median annual wage for Training and Development Specialists was 33.0% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Training and Development Specialists' job openings is expected to rise 10.8% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 436,610 people employed as 'Training and Development Specialists' within the United States.

This represents around 0.28% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 353 people are employed as 'Training and Development Specialists'.

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What people are saying (11)

Leave a comment
Fani (Moderate)
07 Apr 2026 12:59
para treinamento técnico como "fazer as coisas", a IA consegue com base de processos orientar os passo a passo perfeitamente "For technical training on how to "do things," AI can perfectly guide you step-by-step based on processes."
Sock Monkey of course
23 Feb 2026 02:00
Chances of replacement by AI are very low due to human and business direct interaction required; however, due to replacement of other humans by AI, the requirement for this skill will be reduced commensurate with headcount.
Buck (Highly likely)
05 Nov 2024 16:54
As a 25+ year L&D professional I can confident;y say that within 5 years AIs will be able to do 100% of our work.
Mr. Philip Baskerville (Highly likely)
12 Mar 2024 23:55
Ai can develop the full suite of courseware based upon any prompt
G Waddell (No chance)
06 Mar 2022 12:54
Training and development are "hands-on" jobs, and each trainee has to be treated a little differently depending on their prior experience, knowledge, and abilities. For example, a forklift trainer. Robots may deliver parts to a line in a large automotive plant; however, they can never totally replace forklifts, tugs, and other mobile-powered equipment jobs in the near future.
Manuel Matos (Low)
23 Oct 2020 17:14
too many variables at stake at each moment, counting also on creativity and intuition
Miew Ling (No chance)
10 Jun 2020 04:42
The world will realise that relying on robots only does not lend to humanising and personalising the learning experience. The more high tech we go, the more high touch we need! Finally, through critical thinking and questioning, human to human interaction will enhance our learning and development. Learning is not a sequential one way process. It is very chaotic! and another human will help us meander through life and learning.
Shannon Ramirez (Low)
11 Dec 2019 16:34
The "human" component will remain key in providing a personalized learning experience for learners going forward.
Yekaterina (No chance)
21 May 2019 11:13
I believe that HR L&D specialists, as well as L&D managers, are on the safe side as there are a lot of activities L&D are doing for PEOPLE development such as capabilities gaps analysis which can't be done by existing robots or chatbots. Robots can help people to source and make preliminary analysis but not interpretations which should be based not only on data but on intuition and common sense as well.
Depressed sloth
08 Nov 2019 04:32
Agreed. Jobs like Marketing, PR, HR and corporate training will probably have the ability to be automated to a certain degree in the future, but the essentials of the jobs themselves is connecting with people, knowing what they want, protecting the company from lawsuits and so on. Other humans are not gonna trust a robot marketing him something or a entry level position being solely thought by a machine. When that kind of work is fully automated we will have bigger fish to fry regarding our worries.
Jimmy
05 Nov 2024 16:55
By "existing robots or chatbots." Within 5 years they will develop to the point where the AI will outperform 95% of the instructional designers in this industry.
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Job description

Design or conduct work-related training and development programs to improve individual skills or organizational performance. May analyze organizational training needs or evaluate training effectiveness.

O*NET-SOC code: 13-1151.00