Katja Schipperheijn
Most organisations have rolled out AI tools faster than they have rebuilt the human capability around them. Workforces are asked to learn continuously, but the operating model still treats learning as an event, a budget line, or a vendor problem. The gap between AI investment and workforce readiness is now a board-level performance issue.
Katja Schipperheijn is a learning strategist and author who helps organisations redesign how their people learn, adapt, and work alongside AI.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Katja Schipperheijn
- A published methodology, the Learning Ecosystem, that gives executives a working model for how learning, technology, and culture connect inside an operating business, not a slide of principles.
- Authority on both sides of the human-machine question: trained at MIT Sloan in algorithmic business thinking and digital learning strategy, and recognised by getAbstract for the learning impact of her work.
- Two Kogan Page books that translate the research into language a CHRO, a CLO, and a CEO can use in the same conversation.
- Practical operator experience through Habit of Improvement and The Learning Mindset Organization, advising multinationals, governments, and scale-ups on how to embed continuous learning into the fabric of the business.
Biography highlights
- Author of Learning Ecosystems (Kogan Page, 2022), shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2023 in the International Business Book category.
- Author of The Learning Mindset (Kogan Page, 2024), winner of the getAbstract Global Book Award for Learning Impact, 2025.
- Founder of Habit of Improvement and The Learning Mindset Organization, advising clients across Europe, the Gulf, and Asia.
- MIT Sloan programmes in Algorithmic Business Thinking and Digital Learning Strategy; International eMBA, Antwerp Management School.
- Founder of the sCooledu foundation; digital citizenship workshops delivered to over 15,000 children.
- Named to the Global 200 Women Power Leaders list, 2024.
Biography
AI rollouts are outpacing the workforce capability needed to use them well. Most organisations still treat learning as a programme delivered to people, rather than a property of how the business operates. Schipperheijn’s work sits in exactly that gap.
Her first book, Learning Ecosystems, set out a working model for how learning, technology, and stakeholder behaviour connect inside an organisation. Published by Kogan Page in 2022, it was shortlisted for the Business Book Awards the following year. The follow-up, The Learning Mindset (2024), extends the argument into AI: what human competencies leaders need to cultivate when machines take on more cognitive work, and how to build them at scale. The book won the 2025 getAbstract Global Book Award for Learning Impact.
The research is paired with operating experience. Through Habit of Improvement and The Learning Mindset Organization, she advises multinationals, governments, and scale-ups on continuous improvement, learning culture, and the integration of AI into day-to-day work. Her academic grounding sits between Antwerp Management School, where she completed an eMBA, and MIT Sloan, where she trained in algorithmic business thinking and digital learning strategy.
She is also founder of the sCooledu foundation, which has delivered digital citizenship workshops to more than 15,000 children. That work feeds back into her commercial argument: the capacity to keep learning is the capability that determines whether an organisation, or a society, gets value out of AI.
Key speaking topics
- Learning ecosystems and continuous improvement
- AI and the future of work
- Human-machine symbiosis
- Workforce upskilling and reskilling
- Liminal leadership through disruptive change
- Digital learning strategy
- Innovation culture inside large organisations
Ideal for
- CHROs and Chief Learning Officers redesigning workforce capability around AI
- Executive committees and boards setting the AI and workforce agenda together
- Transformation and innovation leads embedding learning into operating change
- HR, L&D, and talent leadership audiences inside multinationals
Audience outcomes
- A working definition of a learning ecosystem and how it differs from a training function
- A clearer view of which human competencies become more valuable as AI capability grows, and which become less so
- Practical lenses for assessing whether their current L&D operating model can support AI-era work
- Language that connects the CHRO, CLO, and CEO agendas on workforce readiness
- Examples drawn from her advisory work across Europe, the Gulf, and Asia
Talks
A keynote on what leaders need to unlearn, and learn, to lead organisations where AI is a daily working partner.
Key takeaways:
- Where traditional leadership models break under AI-enabled work
- The human competencies that remain decisive when machines absorb cognitive tasks
- A practical sequence for rebuilding leadership development around continuous learning
A talk drawn from her 2024 Kogan Page book on the competencies, attitudes, and conditions that allow individuals and organisations to keep learning at the pace AI now demands.
Key takeaways:
- The components of a learning mindset and why each matters commercially
- How leaders create the conditions for continuous learning across a workforce
- The link between learning capability and AI adoption outcomes
A keynote based on her shortlisted Kogan Page book, setting out how organisations move from training programmes to integrated learning ecosystems that align with strategy.
Key takeaways:
- The shift from L&D as a function to learning as an operating property of the business
- How stakeholders inside and outside the organisation become part of the learning system
- Where to start when an existing L&D model has reached the limits of its design