Innovating learning to keep pace with change
Bloomberg Industry Group, an affiliate of Bloomberg based in New York, provides SaaS products to lawyers, accountants, and software companies. With a workforce of about 1,300 employees, contractors, and consultants, the company operates with a small but mighty team committed to helping professionals work better. As the organization expanded, it recognized the need to modernize its learning infrastructure and prepare employees for a rapidly changing future of work.
Growing beyond a legacy system
When Bloomberg Industry Group first implemented its previous learning platform, SumTotal, the learning function was just a two-person team. At the time, the solution was sufficient. But as the team grew to four specialists and the company’s learning strategy matured, the cracks in the system became impossible to ignore.
Manual processes overwhelmed the team, generating a constant stream of Jira tickets from employees who struggled to navigate the platform. Kierra Harris and her colleagues eventually analyzed the tickets and found they were spending far too much time troubleshooting the technology rather than developing their people. “We were just spending too much time doing manual work,” recalled Kierra Harris, Learning and Development Specialist. “We wanted to focus on the people, but the system was holding us back.”
Employees also felt the limitations. Registering for courses often required multiple clicks through a cumbersome interface, frustrating workers in fast-paced roles like journalism and legal research, where time is critical. Employees would call Harris just so she could help them click. That’s not how learning should work.
A shift toward agility and skills
The decision to evolve to Cornerstone stemmed from a clear need: a modern platform that could scale with the business while enabling skills-based development. Bloomberg Industry Group adopted the Cornerstone Learn suite, including Learning Experience (LXP) and access to content, to build a more agile approach to employee growth.
“We needed a platform that was agile and adaptive because that’s where we’re moving as a learning function. Cornerstone enables us to map skills directly to our leadership competencies and help our managers upskill for the future.” Explained Harris.
The change is also transforming how the L&D team partners with the rest of the organization. In the past, learning sat largely within the central function. Now, department-level administrators are being empowered to take ownership of their teams’ development, supported by Cornerstone’s division capabilities. This decentralization reduces bottlenecks and allows L&D to operate more strategically, focusing on building skills rather than solving system issues.
Making learning seamless and impactful
For employees, Cornerstone removes friction and makes learning a natural part of the workday. With integration into Microsoft Teams, employees can access courses and recommendations directly in their flow of work, eliminating the time lost to navigating a separate system.
Equally important, Cornerstone’s AI-powered recommendations are shifting the culture from compliance-driven training to continuous growth. Harris highlighted this as a key marker of success: “If engagement goes up and employees are coming in not just for compliance training, that’s when we know we’ve done a good job by switching to this system.”
Managers are also beginning to see the impact. With leadership competencies now mapped to skills within Cornerstone, managers can not only identify development opportunities but also endorse progress as employees complete relevant courses or microlearnings. This visibility builds accountability and ensures that skill-building translates into measurable growth across teams.
Preparing for the future of work
While addressing present needs, Bloomberg Industry Group is also using Cornerstone to prepare for the future. With a workforce spanning Gen Alpha to Baby Boomers, and with AI reshaping industries like journalism, adaptability is critical. To meet this challenge, the L&D team launched an AI Ambassador Program, training employees, particularly in the newsroom, on how to use AI tools effectively. The program helps employees see AI as an enabler rather than a threat, equipping them with practical skills like prompt engineering to enhance their work.
“There’s been a lot of press on the future of journalism with AI, and yes, there is fear,” Harris acknowledged. “But if you’re always learning, you’ll be okay. Cornerstone helps us make that mindset real by giving people the skills they need to stay agile and adaptive.” By combining its internal ambassador program with Cornerstone’s AI-driven recommendations, Bloomberg Industry Group is positioning its workforce to embrace change rather than resist it.
Looking ahead
For Harris and her team, the shift to Cornerstone is more than a technology upgrade; it’s a cultural investment in how people grow and thrive at Bloomberg Industry Group. As the company continues to embed skills into its leadership framework, the next step is expanding adoption across all departments so that employees at every level see development as a natural part of their career journey.
The L&D team also plans to deepen its use of Cornerstone’s AI capabilities, ensuring that personalized recommendations not only guide employees to relevant learning but also surface the skills most critical for the organization’s future. Cornerstone will play a central role in equipping employees to adapt confidently to emerging technologies and evolving business demands.
