Harnessing AI for L&D Program Development and Management

Automation has already transformed L&D by streamlining administrative tasks and busy work that took up most of our time. We’re starting to win back those precious hours and days (even years in some cases) to focus on high-value work.

Modern platforms like 360Learning are helping L&D teams free up their day-to-day through built-in integrations with many other tools, making L&D and HR collaboration smoother than ever. 

Machine learning and AI-powered tools are helping L&D teams supercharge workforce development initiatives and collaborate more effectively with other teams (notably HR) and stakeholders.

Closing skills gaps: The AI advantage

As technology evolves, the skills gaps facing organizations widen, and the top-down methods of enterprise learning become less suited to meeting the needs of employees and businesses. 

A recent survey of HR professionals found that over a third of employees in the UK will need new or better skills to meet the demands of future roles, while the latest LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report shows that upskilling employees is one of L&D’s top priorities. 

Many L&D leaders are considering AI's possibilities for helping us tackle the upskilling challenge. As Donald H Taylor, Lead researcher of the L&D Global Sentiment Survey, explains, “What goes through the survey is the idea that AI is absorbing our attention, driving our sense of what is important, and dictating the challenges we are responding to.”

L&D teams urgently need innovative AI solutions to help them enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of managing and updating learning initiatives.

Related: What’s Hot in L&D: Exploring the Global Sentiment Survey with Donald H. Taylor

The AI features that are supercharging L&D teams

AI-powered features that automate tasks while improving the learner experience are essential for L&D teams to plan and execute workforce development effectively.

AI-powered skills mapping and skills ontology 

Leveraging an AI-powered skills ontology can help you identify and track your organization's and industry's skills. A skills dashboard can enable you to map and identify gaps and manage employee performance by tracking skill progression.

One example of an AI-powered tool designed specifically for L&D is SkillsGPT by 360Learning, which speeds up your skills ontology process. The tool generates lists of job-specific skills within your organization and builds a proficiency grid for each skill.

PS: Want to see just how easy it is to use--and how fast it can help you build your skills ontology? Watch our CLO David James take SkillsGPT for a spin.👇🏼

AI-assisted authoring: content creation and curation

AI-powered authoring tools empower you to deploy your learning experiences in minutes. 

A learning solution that lets you leverage templates or customizable prompts during the process helps you decentralize content creation to your subject-matter experts (SMEs) while ensuring that your learning experiences meet company requirements or policies. 

You can also share internal insights to speed up the design-to-deployment process and shape your assessments to meet a learner’s upskilling needs.

Personalized learning paths

Developing personalized learning experiences for employees is critical to ensuring you meet their needs when needed and in their workflow.

With AI-powered personalized learning paths, your team can meet individual learners where they are and create development plans from onboarding to progression planning, bolstering retention.

Data-driven insights

In today’s environment, most L&D teams increasingly focus on gathering the right data to show our return on investment. 

As Laura Paramoure, CEO of eParamus, mentioned on The Learning & Development Podcast, “we need data on skills, whether we are working on the right ones, whether we can produce them, and whether those skills get transferred to the job—that’s the data we need.”

Machine learning allows you to analyze learner data to identify trends and skills gaps. These predictive analytics can also help you anticipate the future upskilling needs of your learners and iterate your learning strategies at pace in response.

Related: Increasing L&D’s Value: Using Data to Build Skills With Laura Paramoure

Benefits of integrating AI in L&D

AI for L&D helps you save time on time-consuming tasks, shift from a top-down learning approach, and start focusing on your organization's upskilling needs. 

“If L&D is freeing ourselves up, we’ll make a more planned and demonstrable impact by being the team that is relied upon to deliver the upskilling and reskilling our organizations need,” says David James, Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning.

AI-powered tools make it easy for SMEs to get involved and co-author hyper-relevant courses, empowering collaborative learning and increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

L&D teams can also expect improved learner engagement and performance through customized learning experiences tailored to individual needs, interests, and workflows.

Overcoming common challenges with AI

Many L&D professionals are still concerned about leveraging AI in their practices. Navigating these requires focusing on security measures and practical user training.

Data security and safety: To ensure the security of your workforce’s data, we recommend using AI tools that provide secure licenses and restrict access to authorized personnel.

Lack of information: Since AI in L&D is relatively new, many users may need more expertise to leverage these tools effectively. Adequate training is essential to help users understand the best practices for achieving the desired outcomes from AI tools.

A great way to improve your fluency and proficiency using AI professionally is through 360Learning’s AI Certification. This comprehensive course helps upskill L&D teams to leverage AI tools effectively.

AI will continue to shape the future of L&D

Machine learning and AI will continue to grow and improve collaboration between L&D and HR teams. To make the most significant impact, you can leverage AI-powered tools that integrate into your L&D and HR ecosystems to stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. 

To see the true power of AI-assisted collaboration, you can eliminate double data entry and streamline your HR and learning workflows with 360Learning and Personio, the all-in-one HR software for small and medium enterprises. Our integration empowers you to synchronize your people data automatically through flexible implementation that fits your business needs.