There’s been a lot of discussion around the extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies will displace human workers in the not-too-distant future, but there hasn’t been much discussion about the ways AI can be used as a powerful tool in supporting human workers’ training and development.
Here are just a few ways AI can be leveraged for improved employee training:
Automated Content Creation
AI chatbots have established themselves as impressive tools for quickly creating a variety of content, from written text to images and even videos. As AI technology continues to improve, learning and development (L&D) professionals may be able to simply enter a few prompts and use the output of their AI tool. Even today, there are tools sophisticated enough to generate content that may only need slight tweaking before use as training aids. Something that once took days or weeks could potentially be accomplished in a few minutes or less.
Personalized Training
For efficiency purposes, most companies don’t have truly personalized training programs. Everyone in the same department or job role gets the same material, and some is even applicable to the entire company. AI allows trainers to get a bit more personal by leveraging computing power and scalability, and it can use information on an employee’s current skills and deficiencies and help create a custom training program designed specifically for that employee’s unique needs and abilities.
Dynamic Training
As employees progress through training programs, AI tools can be leveraged to dynamically update those programs based on trainee progress. Even if 10 employees start out with identical training materials, some may be further along than others after a few weeks and may benefit from a more advanced paced or more challenging material. Individualized progress analysis can be difficult for human staff to manage, particularly across large labor pools. But again, the computing power and scalability of AI have the potential to be a game-changer here.
AI has the potential to fundamentally change the way companies provide training to their employees. The marriage of AI and training could usher in a new age of cheap, efficient, effective, personalized training. It’s a possibility businesses should be keen to explore.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.