DDI Expands CoLab Studio To Help L&D Teams Build & Deploy Custom Leadership Training in Minutes, Not Months

PITTSBURGH, July 29, 2026 -- DDI, the global authority in leadership development for more than five decades, today announced three new capabilities for its CoLab Studio^SM, the first AI-enabled custom leadership development authoring platform announced in May 2026. The expanded platform helps L&D teams create and launch brand-aligned training programs customized for trainee roles and business context in under an hour using DDI’s proven leadership curriculum.

The latest release adds SCORM-compatible export, customizable templates and accelerated push-to-publish capability, helping L&D teams deliver custom training that keeps pace with the speed of business.

Why L&D Teams Need Simpler, Faster Solutions Now

“L&D teams are under immense pressure to respond to changing business needs with fewer resources and higher expectations,” said Verity Creedy, Chief Product Officer at DDI. “Faced with constant business volatility, organizations need leaders right now who can adapt quickly, and they can’t afford training that feels generic, takes months to build or fails to translate into measurable business impact.”

Off-the-shelf training programs may be fast to deploy but often lack the relevant context leaders need to apply new skills in the situations they face every day. Meanwhile, fully bespoke training may be highly relevant, but take months to design, pilot and produce, consuming resources many organizations simply don’t have.

CoLab Studio solves both problems, combining DDI’s proprietary leadership research, proven development content, behavior-change expertise and instructional design best practices with an organization’s strategic priorities, brand, tone and day-to-day business scenarios.

“So many organizations tell us they need to adapt faster but also want learning experiences that meet leaders where they are and align with their unique culture and business challenges,” said Tacy M. Byham, Ph.D., CEO of DDI. “They need speed, but don’t want to sacrifice quality in the process, which is what’s happening with generic AI-generated content. CoLab Studio is the answer, combining speed and quality backed by decades of science you can trust.”

How CoLab Studio Delivers Relevant Leadership Development Faster

With CoLab Studio, L&D teams can:

• Update training as priorities change in minutes without starting over. Adjust priorities, scenarios, exercises and discussion prompts without rebuilding the entire program from scratch.
• Tailor development to different leaders or levels. Create persona profiles and customize content and practice scenarios for first-time managers, frontline supervisors or senior leaders, all from one core program while keeping underlying leadership principles intact.
• Fit learning into any format or timeframe with a few clicks, not a new production cycle. Turn a half-day workshop into a 45-minute lunch-and-learn or deploy short practice sessions into a leader’s daily workflow without spending hours on reformatting.
• Generate complete, brand-aligned learning materials. Create launch-ready slides, facilitator guides, learning journals and practice exercises from the same core content using customizable templates that reflect the organization’s tone, terminology, voice and values, without manual, asset-by-asset reformatting.

“CoLab Studio gives L&D teams a way to move at the speed of business with the quality, consistency and science-based learning strategy that today’s effective leadership development requires,” Creedy said. “It not only saves teams hours in curriculum development but also helps fill in gaps with core training elements they might have overlooked.”

DDI’s built-in design guardrails preserve learning objectives and ensure high-impact skills development as content is customized. The platform can be used across any industry, from manufacturing and healthcare to financial services and consulting, and all company data remains local and private for peace of mind and AI policy compliance.

CoLab Studio is available now to help L&D leaders deliver relevant, timely training at the speed of business. To get started or for more information, visit https://www.ddi.com/solutions/leadership-development/customized-programs.

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About DDI

DDI is the global leadership company that helps organizations build the leaders they need today and prepare for tomorrow. For over 55 years, we've helped organizations hire, develop, and promote exceptional leaders. Across all levels from emerging leaders to C-suite executives, we deliver integrated assessment and development solutions, leveraging data to guide talent decisions and accelerate leadership growth. This Continuous Leadership Intelligence approach enables organizations to anticipate leadership needs before they become urgent and build the precise capabilities their business strategies demand. Grounded in behavioral science, DDI helps the world’s leading organizations achieve lasting success through better leadership. Learn more at ddi.com.

Media Contact: ddi@nextpr.com