AI tools leave learning and development nowhere to hide (and that’s good!)

The hype and emotion cycle of generative AI feels like a black hole at times. Will the amount of low-quality content produced become infinite? Will all our jobs turn into nothing and disappear from this universe? Or could a universal superintelligence finally achieve the 4-hour workday promised since the 1920s?

Like many people, I was “wielding tools” and experimenting. I'm a learning technology specialist, with some historical experience in the field of artificial intelligence. Beyond the hype, I want to understand the real implications for human development in the workplace, and for learning and development professionals in particular.

So, here's my personal AI snapshot as of May 2023: In L&D, it's time to abandon rigid structures and rote content planning. Machines will eat that stuff up within months. But there is enormous potential for advanced, outcomes-focused learning design to change behavior and achieve business goals like never before

To me, apps like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dal-E and others seem to have the same impact that browsers and internet search engines had in the 90s. Everything becomes more accessible and faster. Old use cases are disappearing (have you sent a fax or bought a MiniDisc recently?), while other use cases are changing (how many in-person conversations do you have each week now, versus someone in 1993?).

The time and cost dynamics are being turned upside down, and it is difficult to predict how this will happen. On the one hand, there are clear concerns, and in my view justified, that AI’s remapping of the skills landscape will rapidly disrupt jobs across the economy. Humans, on the other hand, have adapted through many waves of technological innovation dating back to the discovery of fire.

Our responsibility as learning and development professionals is to understand and help shape this adaptation process. The crux of the matter from a learning and development perspective is that content production will become much faster and more easily scalable. But the complex human nature of the industries we are in means that the broader transformation will be complex. Reality is stubborn: look at the legal profession, for example, where AI has seemed poised to replace entry-level research jobs for more than a decade, but has yet to happen.

What will happen to us in L&D is a heavy focus on whether having abundant learning content leads to any real tangible results. It is a question worth asking often.

At every L&D conference or meeting we've ever been to, as L&D professionals, we talk about cutting-edge learning designs that will truly change behavior. About personalized paths, personalized experiences, ongoing feedback, and ongoing training. About the ways we know we can lift professions and organizations together

But after we leave those conversations, full of ideas and energy, we often fall back into the same old routine, the same old patterns. We design familiar content in familiar ways (click next and sheep retreat) as the only safe or acceptable option. The "default" position.

Well, that's exactly what AI will reveal. This “virtual L&D” will be more widespread. As Martha and the Vandellas said - or was it Vin Diesel? -We will have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
For me, this is a reason for great optimism! When I work with the new wave of AI tools, and see what my colleagues at Totara are experimenting with within our learning technology platform, I see a lot of achievable innovations

AI is already helping to create personalized learning paths and adapt learning experiences to the individual learner's needs. This level of customization is impossible using traditional content creation methods
Radically simplifying content production and organization frees designers from “engagement,” which has always been a poor proxy for effectiveness
Scalable coaching and coaching conversations use chat technology to aid dialogue between manager and team
Highlighting the hidden skills that exist throughout the organization and leveraging them to make a positive impact It is useful to discover patterns that indicate that individual support is needed in terms of wellbeing, learning or training
The upside of these educational technology developments, and many others to come, is that we will finally have the time, resources, and incentives to focus on what matters. To truly change