Welcome to HRTech Cube, Mark. We’re delighted to have you. To start, could you share your professional journey and what led you to your current role at Skillsoft?
Thank you – it’s a pleasure to be here. My journey into learning and development has always been driven by a deep belief in the transformative power of education. I began my career in curriculum development and product strategy, where I saw firsthand how well-designed learning experiences could unlock potential and drive meaningful change at scale. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead teams that built enterprise learning solutions across industries, always with the learner career growth at the center.
Skillsoft has been a natural evolution and, also, a transformation of this journey. What inspires me is the company’s commitment to making learning accessible, personalized, and impactful to employee career growth. Whether it’s helping thousands of aspiring technologists transition to cloud and AI roles or enabling frontline managers to lead with confidence, our work is about empowering people to grow and thrive with comprehensive skills intelligence and actionable insights. It’s a privilege to help shape the future of learning at a time when upskilling and reskilling are more critical than ever.
AI is evolving quickly across industries. From your perspective, what excites you most about the future of AI—particularly conversational and agentic AI?
What excites me most is how conversational and agentic AI are transforming the way we work, learn, and lead. These technologies have become collaborators and teammates rather than simply tools. They help us move from static job roles to dynamic, skill-based execution and comprehensive skills intelligence. With agentic AI, we’re entering an era where intelligent systems can proactively coach decision-making, learning, and performance. It’s a revolution in how we unlock human potential.
How do you see conversational AI empowering teams to interact with data in natural language and unlock insights more intuitively?
Conversational AI is democratizing data. It allows anyone—from frontline managers to senior leaders—to ask questions in plain language and receive clear, contextual answers. This removes the friction of dashboards and data literacy gaps. With our Skillsoft Percipio Platform, we’re embedding these capabilities so users can surface skill gaps, performance trends, and learning outcomes instantly, making insight as accessible as conversation.
Agentic AI promises instant answers, clearer interpretations, and seamless data visualizations. How do you see these capabilities reshaping how organizations operate day-to-day?
The core of agentic AI lies in automating common work tasks based on external queues which initiate these activities. They help leaders visualize workforce capability in very different ways, match skills to business needs, and develop workforce models that are a blend of humans and digital agents. But to be truly effective, AI agents must be built on a few non-negotiables:
- A unified and trusted data foundation: Without clean, connected data, AI agents have unreliable output.
- Human-AI collaboration: The best systems allow for human oversight, feedback loops, and continuous learning.
- Security and governance: AI must be trustworthy with clear data governance, ethical guardrails, and transparency in how decisions are made.
When agents are built with a solid foundation and that foundation is continuously reinforced by the human workforce, the agentic use cases range from personalized daily to-do lists to product creation.
In what ways can AI-driven data interactions change the way leaders make business decisions and drive transformation?
AI-driven data interactions give leaders clarity and confidence. According to our 2025 Global Skills Intelligence Survey, only 10% of HR and L&D professionals are fully confident their workforce can meet business goals in the next 1-2 years. Part of that is a visibility problem. AI helps clear up that ambiguity by surfacing real-time insights into workforce capability, enabling leaders to act with precision. It’s the difference between guessing and knowing—and that’s what fuels transformation.
Why is a strong data foundation so critical for organizations, and how can it set the stage for building a future-ready infrastructure?
A strong data foundation is the bedrock of agility. While AI has heightened the need for clean data, data analytics has helped organizations understand performance, identify gaps, and benchmark progress for years. It’s the lens through which we see what’s working and what’s not.
When AI is layered on top of clean, connected, and contextualized data, its impact is exponential. But without that foundation, AI amplifies the “noise.” That’s why we emphasize data readiness as the first step in building a future-ready Skillforce™, where humans and AI work together to drive measurable business outcomes, adapt continuously, and scale success.
What challenges do companies face in preparing their data and teams for this AI-driven future, and how can they overcome them?
The biggest challenge is fragmentation. Many organizations rely on disconnected systems that don’t talk to each other. Our survey found that only 24% of companies use a consolidated platform to assess workforce capability. Overcoming this requires a shift to unified platforms like Percipio and a cultural shift toward skills-first thinking. Leaders must prioritize visibility, personalization, and continuous development to stay ahead.
On a personal level, what’s your go-to strategy for staying innovative and effective while leading through such rapid technological change?
I stay close to the learner and what they need to know and do to reach their fullest potential. Innovation starts with understanding how people learn, grow, and perform. I spend time with our customers, our consultants, and our product teams to see what’s working and what’s not. I also lean into experimentation—trying new formats, testing new technologies, and learning from failure. Staying innovative means staying curious and staying connected.
Looking ahead, what are your top predictions for how AI will transform business operations and talent strategy in the next year?
In the next year, I see three major shifts:
- Skills over roles: Organizations will prioritize skills intelligence over job titles, using AI to map capability to business needs.
- Human + AI teams: Work will increasingly be done by blended teams of people and AI agents, with platforms like Percipio managing capability across both.
- Real-time learning: Learning will become embedded in the flow of work, with AI delivering personalized, just-in-time experiences that drive performance. This real-time learning will apply to both the human workforce and their digital agents.
Finally, what advice and closing thoughts would you like to leave with our readers as they prepare their organizations for an AI-powered future? The organizations that will thrive are those that embrace skills intelligence, unify their systems, and empower their people to learn and adapt continuously. Build a Skillforce, not just a workforce.
Don’t wait. The future is already here.
Mark Onisk, Senior Managing Director, Talent Strategy & Transformation at Skillsoft
As Senior Managing Director, Talent Strategy & Transformation, Mark oversees Skillsoft’s catalogue, setting strategic direction. He expanded Skillsoft Books' audiobooks and launched a summary product, creating the largest corporate learning library. Earlier, Mark led strategic development and delivered solutions to clients. Joining Skillsoft post Element K acquisition, with 15 years there, he directed strategy and development. He holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and a BS in Finance and Economics from SUNY Brockport.
