The AI Advantage: How to Use Gen AI in L&D

Aug 20, 2024 | Articles

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been top of mind since the end of 2022, when Generative AI (Gen AI) took the world by storm. Searches for “Gen AI” have gone from almost nothing to peak popularity in the past year and a half. People are wondering how Gen AI will affect their jobs, and it seems as though every industry is on a mission to create its own Gen AI tools.

Learning and Development (L&D) is no exception: AI has been a hot topic at conferences and has dominated industry reports. Our own research indicates that almost half of organizations are eager to implement Gen AI.

However, just because a technology is popular doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for every job. To use Gen AI well, L&D professionals will need to understand what Gen AI is good at, which learning tasks might benefit from AI, and how the technology can best help both learners and learning professionals.

To answer these questions, Litmos partnered with Training Industry to develop a strategic guide to AI for L&D professionals. In this guide we explore some of the ways that AI can be effectively used in employee learning, as well as best practices for integrating AI tools into your existing training program.

A brief history of Gen AI

When San Francisco startup OpenAI launched ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, the world changed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) wasn’t a foreign concept at the time, but it hadn’t quite lived up to the promises that science fiction had been making about it for years. (Robots, androids and sentient computers are about as likely to become part of our everyday life as flying cars.) For the most part, the use of AI to solve problems was reserved for those who could code or train datasets.

ChatGPT changed all that. The generative AI platform, which is based on a Large Language Model (LLM), enabled anyone to interact with it using natural language rather than code. Suddenly everyone could use AI, but not everyone understood how to harness it. There were also rising concerns about AI replacing human workers. In the learning technology space, L&D professionals wondered, could Gen AI render some L&D jobs obsolete? (Spoiler: We do not feel that AI is a threat to jobs in L&D.)

We believe AI and Gen AI are important tools for learning professionals, and we have some recommendations for how to leverage those tools.

How can AI be used in training?

AI can be used for a broad range of tasks. Based on its strengths, we determined three uses for AI in L&D:

  1. To support content
  2. To support learning delivery
  3. To support people

How AI supports learning content

This is one of the most popular use cases for AI that’s been identified by learning leaders. AI can be used to create and curate learning content.

  • Authoring: It’s important to note that instructional designers are not being automated out of a job here. What it does mean is that designers can automate a first draft of a course by providing an AI model with learning objectives and a topic. This frees up the designer to refine the draft into a polished module using their creativity, experience, and knowledge.
  • Curation: AI can also curate content by selecting the most suitable courses from large libraries of content. This allows L&D to personalize learning pathways at scale.
  • Localization: Organizations are increasingly global, with employees in various countries and regions. AI can make content more relevant to those employees by localizing and translating content.

How AI supports learning delivery

Training is delivered via many modalities. AI can be used to shape those modalities to learners’ needs,

  • Coaching: Coaching is deeply valued by learners. However, it can be hard to scale coaching, and coaching can also be difficult for remote workforces. AI can help to scale coaching by using videos to generate comprehensive feedback for both the coach and the learner.
  • Job aids: AI is able to scan work processes and generate tailored job aids that align with the unique requirements of specific organizations. For example, a job aid might be modified to reflect a specific role, a set of responsibilities, or a unique organizational structure.
  • Simulations: Simulations are a powerful learning tool. AI can adapt simulations to learner responses, creating a personalized learning experience.

How AI supports people

AI’s main use is to support people. Here are some ways AI can make the work of learners and L&D staff easier:

  • Learner assistance:  An AI assistant acts as a sidekick to learners, answering questions or modifying specific challenges where learners are struggling. This creates a personalized experience of support for learners.
  • Automated insights: Because AI is so good at parsing data, platforms can analyze learner outcomes, offering valuable insights into the effectiveness of training programs and recommendations for improvement.
  • Help with coding: Gen AI has been able to generate code, a capability that can be helpful in bridging the gap between different learning systems. While some iterations may be necessary to refine and optimize the code, AI-powered tools may help trainers overcome the complexities of coding.

AI is meant to support L&D pros, not replace them

AI is a tool. That means it’s intended to support people — not the other way around.

It’s important to remember that AI and humans excel at different skills. For example, AI is good at spotting patterns in large volumes of data, is fast, and is able to make objective assessments based on data. Humans are creative, understand context and nuance, and are empathetic. One cannot replace the other, but both can work together to make learning more effective.

To take a more detailed look at best practices for using AI in L&D, make sure to read our latest eBook, “The AI Advantage in L&D: A Strategic Guide.”