Charter just published our latest research playbook, “Leading Learning in the AI Era,” which focuses on how AI changes learning and development (L&D) in companies. It’s full of data and case studies from companies ranging from PwC to Mastercard, and we developed it in partnership with Microsoft.
The following is a preview excerpt of the playbook. You can download the full version here.
While many workers are anxious about the impact of AI on their jobs, the technology has exciting potential to connect them to new work experiences and opportunities within their own organizations.
Rather than always needing to look elsewhere to acquire specific expertise, companies can use AI to identify their workers’ skills, to provide personalized training and project experiences, and to fill roles with internal candidates. There are big advantages for companies in terms of culture and efficiency of this approach, and for workers in terms of having opportunities to advance their skills and careers.
Mastercard is among the companies using AI-powered internal talent marketplaces in this fashion. Launched to its full global workforce in 2022, the “Unlocked” platform allows Mastercard’s more than 35,000 employees to find internal positions, projects, and learning and mentorship opportunities.
To better understand how such a new AI-powered approach to learning and development works at scale, we reached out to Lucrecia Borgonovo, Mastercard’s chief talent and organizational effectiveness officer. Here are excerpts from our exchange, edited for space and clarity:
Unlocked matches employees to learning pathways based on skills they have and want to build. How does this differ from traditional L&D approaches and how has this personalization changed learning outcomes?
Unlocked quickly became the key to helping Mastercard put employees in the driver’s seat and own their career development and growth. Instead of generic courses, AI now helps each person build a personalized roadmap—aligned to their skills, goals, and aspirations. It’s not just about learning; it’s about choice and empowerment. Employees can take courses, join projects, find mentors, or even apply for new roles—all in one place. And the results speak volumes: More than 90% of our employees are registered with the platform, and one-third made internal career moves within a year. That’s what happens when learning becomes a lever for growth, not a checkbox.
How does Unlocked enable learning in the flow of work? Can you give examples of how employees learn while doing projects rather than stopping work to train?
We’ve moved beyond the old model of ‘pause work to train.’ Today, learning happens in real time, in the regular rhythms of work.
One of my favorite examples is a product development manager who joined a cross-functional project exploring new markets. While contributing, they learned advanced data analysis and strategic planning—skills they’d never used before. AI nudged them toward micro-learning modules on market analytics and storytelling, which they completed between project milestones. That blend of doing and learning didn’t just close skill gaps; it opened a new career path. They later transitioned into product strategy. This is what growth in action looks like—learning while delivering impact.
How has AI-enabled mentorship matching changed the scale and nature of learning from others at Mastercard?
Mentorship used to depend on proximity and networks. AI-enabled platforms like Unlocked broke those barriers. Now, matches are based on skills, goals, and experience—connecting people across geographies and functions. It’s created a surge in participation and accelerated skill-building through diverse perspectives. When people feel supported, they grow faster—and so does the business.
Since more than 50% of our mentorship relationships are across business units and regions, we are also benefiting from its power to break down silos, facilitate best practice sharing, all in support of bringing the best of Mastercard to our customers.
At Mastercard, leaders can use an AI coach to role-play difficult conversations. What learning outcomes are you seeing that you couldn’t achieve with traditional leadership training?
As part of our ongoing efforts to increase the effectiveness of our people leaders, we launched an AI-powered coaching tool called Cai this year. Cai is transforming leadership development by making coaching always-on, personalized, and scalable. Traditionally, coaching was reserved for a select group of senior leaders. Now, AI is democratizing access, making high-quality coaching available to leaders at all levels.
Every interaction is tailored to our Mastercard Way behaviors, our leadership framework and business context, ensuring relevance and practical application. By beginning to scale this globally, our hope is that Cai democratizes leadership growth across geographies and time zones, complementing human coaching rather than replacing it.
You’ve said Mastercard has a ‘tiered strategy’ to prepare employees for AI regardless of where they are in their journey. How do you personalize AI learning for different roles and skill levels?
To support employees at every stage of their AI journey—whether they are beginners or tech experts—we’ve launched a three-tiered learning strategy:
- AI foundations for all – Establishes a common knowledge base so every employee is fluent in AI fundamentals. This foundation builds confidence to experiment and integrate AI into everyday work.
- Role-based skill building – Focuses on practical applications of AI within specific roles, helping employees adopt tools tailored to their work (e.g. coding assistants for engineers, or onboarding assistants for customer support.)
- Reskilling for new roles – Supports employees in roles likely to be impacted by AI by providing pathways to reskill for emerging roles (even those that don’t exist yet!) and high-demand skills.
This isn’t just a strategy; it’s a commitment to future-proofing our workforce.
In the old playbook, L&D was measured by completion rates and satisfaction scores. What metrics do you use now to measure learning effectiveness? How do you connect learning activities on Unlocked to business outcomes?
As previously mentioned, more than 90% of employees are registered on Unlocked, and approximately 40% use it monthly. Significantly, one-third of employees who participated in an Unlocked project or mentorship have made an internal career move within a year, and 50% of those moves are across job families—reinforcing the power of skills as the currency to drive workforce agility. More than 50% of projects and mentoring engagements are cross-functional, building bridges across the business and fostering collaboration.
We’ve shifted from counting course completions to measuring outcomes that matter: skill growth, internal mobility, and business impact—like faster project delivery and innovation. Learning isn’t an HR metric anymore; it’s a business performance driver. Our employees have now spent one million hours in Unlocked—creating value for Mastercard and acquiring the skills needed to contribute to Mastercard’s future. That’s a win for the business and a win for our collective growth.
Can you share an example where rapid skill development via Unlocked solved a business problem?
When fraud detection work needed to find AI talent fast, Unlocked helped us redeploy employees with adjacent data skills in record time. That’s the power of agility—pivoting skills to meet urgent needs without slowing down the business.
How does your learning strategy help employees prepare for roles and skills that don’t exist yet? How does AI help you anticipate future learning needs?
Given the rapid change of talent needs, AI analytics help us see around corners—predicting emerging skills and roles so we can reskill proactively. Our goal is simple: prepare people for jobs that don’t exist yet. That’s how we stay resilient in a world that never stops changing.
Download “Leading Learning in the AI Era.”