AI in Learning and Development: 8 Ways to Improve Employees' Skills

Is your workforce growing—really growing? Not just in size but in acquiring the skills they need for the future of work? 

As organizations face talent disruption, inflation, and global tensions, it's unsurprising that 89% of L&D pros believe skills investment is essential.  

Incorporating AI in learning and development is the way to do it, bridging the gap between your talent's potential and the reality of reaching business goals. 

But how does it work? 

Artificial intelligence uses machine learning and natural language processing to create outstanding learning experiences for each employee. This technology empowers employees to take responsibility for their learning journeys. It supports L&D teams by automating mundane tasks and scaling training programs at lightning speed. 

This guide digs deep into the benefits of using AI in learning and development and its numerous exciting applications. 

🤖 What are the potential applications of AI in your learning and development programs?

Artificial intelligence has taken the corporate training world by storm, with HR thought leader Josh Bersin explaining, 

"The learning and development space has been stagnant for the last four or five years. We haven't had a lot of groundbreaking ideas; along comes AI, and we are going to be innovating like crazy. If you're in L&D and you're not willing to embrace these changes, you're going to be a little bit left behind."

Here are some key ways AI is poised to transform L&D as we know it. 

1. Customizing learning experiences 

AI can easily tune to the needs of each individual learner, generating content based on their skills, competencies, and prior training completion. This allows for a truly personalized learning experience, ensuring that each learner gets the content they need at the right time. 

💡 Zavvy's Slack-based AI coach can support by suggesting course content.

You can ask for specific criteria for the AI to consider when making suggestions, such as user ratings, course level, training medium, duration, and more.

2. Generating learning materials 

Training course creation has previously been an arduous task, as educators must assemble material from various sources and find an engaging way to present it. Josh Bersin explains how AI tools have already overhauled this process:

"Content development is a slow process of authoring videos, courses, graphics, interactivities, text, audio, and simulations. There's a lot of manual tools for this; they're mostly similar and take a lot of time. Along comes AI, and this stuff can be generated by the machine. By typing in content and prompt engineering, you can author simulations, videos, graphics, Powerpoint slides, and it's pretty good already."

💡 Zavvy excels here, generating micro courses in 15 seconds and an entire library of 100 courses for your AI-based LMS in 25 minutes.

To support knowledge reinforcement, offer interactive content like AI-generated quizzes after every content step.

3. Providing smart tutoring 

Smart tutoring harnesses the power of AI, enabling learners to receive individual feedback and guidance as they navigate their employee training journey. 

The AI-based tutor analyzes learners' performance and adapts recommendations to meet their unique needs, resulting in a customized and effective learning experience.

💡 Zavvy AI can recommend personalized content and activities based on the learner's past performance while providing feedback, guidance, and setting goals.

The coach is also available for crucial leadership development training, delivering coaching advice, and locating training resources to empower your managers. 

4. Creating personalized growth plans

Learning intelligence and predictive analytic capabilities allow L&D professionals to anticipate the needs of their employees and proactively develop courses relevant to their career development.

💡 Zavvy automatically populates employee growth plans in zero clicks.

The plans include AI-suggested focus areas and action items based on our LMS training library. Our insights support your learners by recommending books, courses, podcasts, and more.

5. Deploying support chatbots 

Support chatbots enable organizations to respond quickly to questions from learners 24/7. You can expect: 

• rapid response times for learner questions; 
• eliminated burden on L&D teams; 
• accurate answers based on the content you've fed the AI. 

Josh Bersin provides an example: 

"Let's suppose you authored a complex course on some operational process in your company, and you had it all written down in text, audio and video. Let the generative AI search and index it—now you have a teaching assistant. During the course, if someone has a question, they can ask the chatbot the question on the topic. It has the corpus of knowledge, and it'll answer it." 

💡 Zavvy's Slack bot is available 24/7 to answer any learning-related questions from learners.

6. Translating learning content 

AI-driven content translation capabilities enable organizations to quickly and effectively share learning material in multiple languages. This is especially helpful for global or distributed teams, allowing them to access learning content in their native language. 

💡 Zavvy's AI translation tool allows organizations to translate into the following languages: 

• English; 
• German; 
• French; 
• Italian; 
• Polish; 
• Spanish. 

Where required, you can translate multiple times, for example, from Italian to German and then into Polish. 

7. Offering detailed performance insights 

Growth, performance, and feedback are inextricably linked as part of an employee's development cycle.

Employees rely on L&D professionals to measure their performance and provide accurate feedback that helps them develop the necessary skills.

AI-driven insights offer detailed reports on employee strengths and weaknesses and suggest improvement and further development recommendations. 

💡Zavvy enables managers to summarize feedback results for each employee.

These feedback summaries also feed into what the AI considers when generating development recommendations for your people.

➡️ Check out our in-depth discussion on how to use AI for improved performance. 

8. Automating L&D administrative tasks 

AI automates previously manual administrative tasks, such as:

• course enrollment;
• course completion tracking;
• reporting.

This frees up L&D professionals to focus on creating engaging learning experiences or coaching and facilitating learners. 

💡 Zavvy automatically tracks course completion. You can also automatically enroll employees to specific courses whenever they join a group, or are assigned a career path.

Plus, L&D teams can automate enrolment by building supergroups with predefined parameters. Members of each group are automatically assigned to the relevant training. 

🏆 What are the benefits of using AI in learning and development?

"Just like the major technological platform innovations before it, AI stands to scale human abilities and enhance experiences more so than it stands to replace us," says Lever Talent's CEO, Drew Fortin. 

Here are some key benefits of artificial intelligence in the L&D space.

Improving learning outcomes

AI's ability to personalize instruction, provide targeted support, and deliver timely feedback contributes to enhanced learning outcomes such as: 

• knowledge retention;
• skill development;
• a deeper understanding of training material.

Bridging skills gaps 

75% of employers struggle to find the talent they need to meet organizational goals, according to Manpower research. AI can identify knowledge gaps, suggest appropriate content, and track performance over time. This can help accelerate learning and create a more productive workforce. 

Nicky Walker, Head of HR at Connect Communications, describes how this benefit works. 

"AI can track development progress for a specific training or program on a per-employee basis, then use that data to provide further skills-based opportunities that it deems a "match." These are based on factors such as time spent on training, length of time required per course, and even matching employee feedback to provide training approaches that an employee is most likely to respond positively to." 

Promoting transparency

Through AI-powered platforms and tools, learners can access real-time data and analytics that showcase their performance, achievements, and areas for improvement. This transparency enables learners to take ownership of their training journeys by: 

• Tracking their own progress.
• Identifying strengths and weaknesses.
• Setting meaningful learning goals. 

AI can also provide clear and objective criteria for assessment and evaluation, ensuring fairness and consistency in the learning process. Plus, AI-driven recommendation systems can suggest relevant resources, courses, and learning pathways, allowing employees to make informed decisions about career growth. 

Enhancing team performance 

Learners who benefit from personalized training recommendations will perform better and generate a greater ROI when AI is involved. As Aleksandar Ginovski, Product Manager at Enhancv, puts it, 

"Workers who have access to up-to-date information on methods, equipment, and processes are better able to do their work. This results in increased productivity, which in turn, helps companies save money. AI-based and oriented training is useful for firms since it facilitates the speedy and effective education of staff in cutting-edge software and hardware. The AI algorithms can also monitor workers' development over time and pinpoint where they can benefit from more instruction." 

This enhanced performance on an individual level rolls out to the whole team, making it easier to drive organizational goals and objectives. 

Boosting learner engagement 

Gallup research tells us that 18% of employees are actively disengaged at work, with women experiencing more of an engagement decline than men. 

AI-based learning platforms can turn these stats around, making training materials more interactive and engaging by: 

• Creating experiential simulations.
• Developing adaptive learning paths.
• Incentivizing employees through gamification.
• Providing personalized feedback to learners.

All of these contribute to a more enjoyable learning journey, where learners are motivated to engage with the content and learn faster.

➡️ Learn more in our in-depth discussion on applications of AI to improve employee engagement. 

Scaling training programs 

As organizations grow or move into new business areas, L&D teams must scale their programs to meet the needs of their evolving workforce. 

AI responds quickly to these changing needs by:

• Automating routine processes.
• Adjusting training content dynamically.
• Using chatbots to answer large volumes of user queries. 
• Authoring limitless new courses in minutes. 

➡️ For more ways that artificial intelligence can support our people processes, check out our in-depth discussion on incorporating AI in HR. 

➡️ Run amazing training and development programs 10x faster with Zavvy

Think AI is just the latest learning and development trend? Think again because this is only the beginning. 

Zavvy's artificial intelligence tool seamlessly connects employee growth, performance, and feedback in a single, unified platform, resulting in:

• Unleashed talent potential. 
• People teams with more time to invest in valuable tasks. 
• Training that boosts employee knowledge and competencies. 
• Purposeful development plans designed to foster continuous growth. 
• Fully connected people processes, goodbye silos. 
• A very promising future for your organization's talent. 

📅 Ready to launch a world-class L&D program at lightning speed? Book a Zavvy demo today.

❓ FAQs

What is the impact of AI on learning? 

AI has revolutionized traditional educational practices by bringing personalized learning experiences, adaptive content, and intelligent feedback systems to the forefront of L&D. With AI, L&D professionals can create tailored learning paths, analyze data to gain insights into learners' progress, and optimize instructional strategies accordingly. AI also enables admin task automation, freeing up time for educators to focus on more meaningful interactions with learners. ‍

Stella Collins, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, illustrates the impact by outlining the difference between the old and new learning design processes. 

What is AI in learning and development? 

AI in learning and development refers to integrating artificial intelligence technologies into educational processes to optimize the learning journey. AI uses smart tutoring, adaptive learning platforms, and intelligent content creation tools to first build vast training libraries, then guide learners to select the most relevant content for their needs. 

How is AI used in training and development of employees?

AI offers innovative solutions to enhance employee learning experiences. The technology is highly engaging, generating training materials that are engaging and interactive by nature. All learners are supported 24/7 by AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants that provide instant support and guidance, enabling self-paced learning. Finally, AI-powered data analytics can track learners' progress, identify knowledge gaps, and suggest personalized learning paths.