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

in a rapidly evolving business landscape, staying competitive means ensuring your workforce is equipped with the skills needed for the future of work. Challenges like talent disruption, economic pressures, and global tensions are driving companies to reevaluate how they approach learning and development (L&D).

As organizations face talent disruption, inflation, and global tensions, it's unsurprising that 87% of L&D pros say they can show business value by helping employees gain skills to move into different internal roles.

By harnessing AI, organizations can bridge skill gaps, personalize training programs, and unlock employees' full potential, all while achieving business goals faster and more effectively.

This guide dives into eight transformative ways AI is reshaping L&D, empowering both workforces and organizations to grow together.

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:

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

1. 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:

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

To support knowledge reinforcement, as the AI to include quiz questions after every content step.

Additionally, you can leverage existing PDF content and ask the AI to transform it into learning journeys. The AI can even add quizzes to the existing content to enhance learner engagement and knowledge retention.

2. 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 can analyze learners' performance and adapts recommendations to meet their unique needs, resulting in a customized and effective learning experience.

3. 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:

For example, IBM's watsonx Assistant can be tailored for L&D queries and guidance.

4. 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. 

On Deel Engage, you will soon be able to translate your learning content into different languages, such as German, French, and Spanish.

Alternatively, you could use a tool like DeepL Pro for high-quality machine translation. But you would still need to transfer the content to a separate tool for learning management.

5. Customizing learning experiences 

AI can easily tune to the needs of each individual learner, generating recommendations 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. 

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.

For example, Allego’s AI-powered dialog simulator provides sales reps with a virtual environment to practice key skills like objection handling and closing techniques. The simulator evaluates responses in real-time, offering feedback and guidance to enhance learning.

6. Creating personalized growth plans

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

AI could create growth plans for individuals with suggested focus areas and concrete action items.

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.

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. 

Deel Engage 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 enrollment by building custom groups 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?

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:

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:

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.

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

️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 of Stellar Labs, contrasts the traditional and modern approaches to learning design.

In the old approach, L&D teams reactively respond to requests, engage in extensive back-and-forth with stakeholders and SMEs, and create content-heavy, compliance-driven training over several months, often resulting in low-impact, tick-the-box solutions and budget cuts.

The modern approach she advocates for shifts focus to behavior-driven outcomes. Using AI, L&D teams collaborate with stakeholders to define clear objectives, rapidly build evidence-based learning journeys, and customize them with creative inputs. This approach enables faster launches, measurable workplace skill transfers, and allows L&D to focus on fostering a learning culture, leveraging analytics, and meeting strategic business needs.

Run amazing training and development programs 10x faster with Deel Engage

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

Deel Engage's modules seamlessly connect employee growth, performance, and feedback in a single, unified platform, resulting in:

• People teams with more time to invest in valuable tasks
• Transparent paths to career progression and role expectations
• Training that boosts worker knowledge and competencies
• Purposeful skill and career 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 demo today.