What tomorrow holds for AI, automation and L&D

When we think of artificial intelligence (AI), many of us still consider it a modern, robot-led future state. However, for so many industries across the globe today, AI is very much a present-day tool.

A few years ago, researcher Gartner predicted that, by the end of 2020, about 85% of customer services would be performed by machines (bots), not humans. This includes chat bots on websites, automated responses, booking systems and so on.

And yet, although a highly sophisticated piece of technology, AI can help pretty much every working professional today, in some way or another. Whether that’s to do their jobs better, quicker, or easier.

For L&D teams, this means harnessing the power of AI to make improvements, develop new training strategies and techniques, automate lengthy manual processes and curate the most effective development plans.

Let’s explore this more.

Current roles will need to adapt to work alongside AI

A recent survey by McKinsey interviewed 2,395 people, out of which 1,151 respondents stated they had already adopted at least one AI-backed function for their organisation. Statista also state that 84% of enterprises are investing in AI because of the constant innovation it has been working on.

The takings from this research? That AI is here to stay, and we need to adopt our existing roles in L&D to work with it, not against it.

A great example of L&D working alongside AI is when learners are working on their training programmes outside of the regular 9-5 working day, and they need help. It’s really common for people to have questions about their development plans, but when L&D physically aren’t available to speak to, using a chatbot with AI-powered technology can allow learners to get answers instantly.

This removes any delays and means the learner can continue immediately with the rest of their programme, limiting any disruptions.

However, automated AI responses can go even further. In fact, AI in L&D can be so sophisticated that it can mark submissions, evaluate performance (based on the algorithms and metrics an organisation sets) and give an in-depth analysis of any anomalies in the data too. In other words, the manual task of reviewing a learners progress can now be automated in minutes, offering a more accurate performance result while eliminating chances of human error.

Adopting AI can help build the most inclusive L&D strategies

By working alongside AI, learners can receive training content which is based on their preferences, skills, personal traits, and most importantly, their data.

AI makes training strategies accessible to all diverse learners, and enables L&D teams to offer training options for their employees at any time of the day (or night), track results, analyse data and measure learning effectiveness.

This is because the AI can collate all engagement data and discover which content types work for different learners. This allows the AI to confidently allocate the most appropriate content that the learner will engage best with, rather than a L&D professional taking the time to sift through different content types and make decisions based on what they think the learner will like.

Let the machines learn for you

Above all, AI can help L&D professionals make better, more effective decisions. It takes out all the guess work and builds workflows based an accurate user data, creating the most effective development plans as well as reducing the overall workload for L&D at the same time. In fact, Designing Educational Technologies in the Age of AI actually states that “AI can help us to scaffold learning and development, and it can also help solve some of the greatest challenges within education across the globe which we have struggled with over the years without the technology at hand.”

But it doesn’t just stop there.

Because the AI is crunching so much data in the background constantly, it means it can easily identify the gaps in a learners’ knowledge. Using this information, L&D can start to build out even more tailored training programmes, addressing the needs of each learner and automating sends of the most efficient content to them.

Identifying these knowledge gaps makes it so much easier to train the right learners at the right times by building up their expertise in the most efficient areas. It saves both time and money for L&D, but also offers the most sophisticated, data driven development plans for learners too.

When it comes to introducing AI into the workplace, change can be a very good thing.

AI takes user data and automates a sophisticated programme designed especially for them, often with little to no manual work involved – this makes it an incredible asset for Learning and Development (L&D) professionals, whose jobs revolve around building employee curriculums.

That’s why here at BuildEmpire, we’re the platform provider to help support your organisations’ AI-powered Learning and Development strategy. We’re focused on delivering solutions that exceed your L&D goals, and we’ll work with you to build an engaging learning environment that fits your needs, automating processes where possible to maximise effectiveness for you, and your learners.