When it comes to creating effective learning experiences, simpler is always better. After all, today’s employees are faced with constant disruptions: Microsoft research found that during the 9-to-5 workday, employees using Microsoft 365 are interrupted every two minutes by meetings, emails or pings. So, it’s perhaps not surprising that getting employees to prioritize learning remains a key challenge for many businesses.
Learners also don’t want to spend time navigating fragmented systems or multiple technologies. However, according to Go1 research, 40% of organizations use more than five learning content providers, making it difficult to create a seamless learning experience. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in, offering opportunities to simplify learning by both reducing the burden on learning and development (L&D) teams and making training more relevant and accessible for employees.
Chris Eigeland, CEO of Go1, views AI’s role in L&D through two “buckets of impact”: automation and streamlining, and personalization and effectiveness. When combined, he says, these capabilities can have a “really powerful” effect, improving the learner experience while also driving greater efficiency. Additionally, AI can “elevate learning and development leaders” by freeing them from administrative, tactical tasks and allowing them to operate as strategic partners, Eigeland shares.
Let’s dig deeper into how AI can help simplify the learner experience — and support overwhelmed L&D teams in the process.
Finding the Right Content, Faster
Too often, both learners and learning leaders spend valuable time manually searching through large course libraries to find the content they need. Additionally, Training Industry research found that 19% of learners were dissatisfied with their ability to find updated or refreshed content. This can cause real frustration, especially when learners need a quick solution to a challenge in the flow of work.
AI can automatically surface content for learners based on factors like their job role and responsibilities, skill levels and career goals. “It should be extremely simple for content to be found, mapped and sourced,” Eigeland says. “You shouldn’t need to spend, either as a learner or an L&D leader, hours trying to find the right content, or even 10 minutes trying to find the right sort of learning content for you.”
Go1, for example, uses AI-powered search to help L&D leaders and learners quickly find the content they need. Another example is Udemy’s AI Assistant, which uses a natural language chat interface to ask targeted questions, clarify learners’ needs and then connect them with the most relevant courses from its library. These types of AI features simplify the learner experience by cutting through content overload and connecting employees with the training they need, when they need it.
AI can also improve knowledge discovery beyond course libraries. John Findlay, CEO of LemonadeLXP, explains that traditional knowledge bases can frustrate learners because they rely on exact keywords. This means that if an employee searches for a “holiday policy,” it might find nothing if the document is titled “vacation policy,” he explains. But certain AI tools, such as LemonadeLXP’s InsightAI, can understand intent and context, interpreting the question even if phrasing isn’t perfect, and linking back to the source material. This limits unnecessary questions to colleagues and makes information easier to find on the job.
Personalized Content Recommendations and Learning Pathways
It can also frustrate learners when training isn’t aligned to their unique job role and daily tasks. Today’s learners expect learning to be personalized according to their unique job role and responsibilities.
AI can recommend relevant courses or modules and package them into learning pathways based on factors like job roles, skill levels, career goals and previous learning. It can also flag content that may no longer be relevant. For example, if a former sales associate is promoted to a sales manager role, AI can flag basic sales training as less relevant and recommend sales leadership and coaching modules instead. Many training providers now support AI-driven recommendations and learning paths, such as Docebo, CYPHER Learning and Go1, among others.
Supporting Stretched Learning Teams
L&D teams are often asked to do more with less — especially when budgets are tight. Here are a few practical ways that AI can support stretched learning teams and, in turn, drive better learner experiences.
Streamlined content creation:
At a basic level, Findlay says, AI can help write course materials. InsightAI allows users to upload internal files, such as product information, policies and procedures or regulatory information, into a secure knowledge base, and then uses AI to generate training content based on the documents. Other AI content creation and authoring tools include Easygenerator, which is designed for L&D leaders with no eLearning experience, and KNOLSKAPE, which includes a custom simulation-building capability, “Genie.”
AI-generated training content may not be perfect, but it gives L&D teams a workable draft that subject matter experts (SMEs) would likely need to review and refine, anyway.
Updating and refreshing existing content:
“When we talk to learning leaders, they end up talking about how much time it takes to update content,” says Hawley Kane, director of marketing at LemonadeLXP. “So never mind creating something new, just keeping the stuff they have going up to date” is a challenge. AI helps simplify this process by scanning content and identifying what’s outdated, like compliance updates or new product information, and can automatically suggest and even make the necessary changes.
Answering routine questions from learners:
When you’re working in L&D, often, “everybody thinks you have the answers to everything,” Kane says. This causes employees to come to L&D leaders with constant questions like: “Do we have a job aid on that?” Or, “Where can I find this resource?” AI can answer many of these routine questions through chatbots or intelligent search tools.
Instead of employees repeatedly asking L&D leaders for the same resources, they can type their question into an AI-powered tool that searches across all content, instantly delivering the answers they need. This frees up L&D teams from interruptions, giving them more time to focus on strategic initiatives and quality learner experiences.
Strategic AI Adoption
As with any new technology, it’s important to adopt AI tools strategically. “There’s a lot of fancy L&D AI tools out there,” Eigeland says. Rather than starting with the tools themselves, “always start with the business problem.” Then, to find specific use cases, first look for tasks you’re already doing “that can be accelerated or sped up” with AI, Eigeland says, before potentially moving on to more experiential applications.
Ultimately, simplifying the learner experience can seem daunting for learning leaders already juggling full workloads. AI can help by surfacing the right content in learners’ moment of need, delivering personalized content recommendations and lightening the load for L&D teams.
