The question is no longer can you use AI for x.

It’s should you.

There’s a great deal I believe you shouldn’t delegate to AI.

Especially for L&D.

I know this is a somewhat complicated statement from someone who has spent the past year writing about this tech in learning.

I love digital technology.

AI will be incredibly useful (hence why I write about it so much). But, I don’t want it to replace some of the most fundamental experiences that make us human.

Parts of the workplace learning experience fall under this banner.

Working smarter?

Current generative AI tools, and future AI tools, no doubt have the capabilities to make us work smarter.

Yet, I fear they have the same capability to deny us pivotal human experiences.

For example, when I was much younger in my first corporate role.

I spent the majority of my time learning not from an induction course or a pointless handbook. I learnt from all the people around me. Sometimes directly, often indirectly.

Sir Alex Ferguson (the legendary Manchester United manager) echoed this in his book on leadership.

He said the best thing to do when you begin any new role is to watch, listen and read. I still do all 3 of those in any new environment I find myself dropped into.

Timeless advice for anyone.

I have no doubt AI tech can and will accelerate the speed and access to learning. I welcome this like a cultist ready to embrace our AI overlords with loyal devotion.

Yet, this shouldn’t be at the expense of the human experience.

An LLM tool can help me onboard faster perhaps, but at what cost to my most human trait of learning with and from others?

I’m not sure anyone knows the solution.

My best advice and hope is that we find the balance between augmentation and automation.

The tech nerd in me screams simplification and speed, but the human questions at what cost. In a world of technological marvels, careers after death and AI clones. I don’t want to lose the most human experience of learning that makes it so special.

Human + AI

If you haven’t guessed, let me confirm now.

I’m all for a human-powered future with AI. Not an AI-first operating system. I mean, we’re all human, aren’t we? Don’t answer that one.

I feel we tend to summarise our interactions with current generative AI tools through prompting alone.

However, this is only one piece of the operating system with these tools. If you want to be a truly smart operator with AI, you need to think beyond prompting. Use your most human abilities to develop frameworks on how, why and when you should interact with AI tools.

Consider your daily workflows and how AI delegation could support this.

Don’t search for perfect prompts to fit meaningless tasks.

→ Leverage these skills with AI operations

I believe we each need to deploy two unique human skills when working with AI.

• Critical Thinking
• Analytical Judgement

These both happen to be two of the 5 skills identified in my ongoing skills series for the Future of Work.

Let’s walk through a workflow of these in action with an AI-delegated task:

The Feedback Workshop

Let’s imagine you want ChatGPT to help you craft a feedback workshop with:

• Experience outline
• Title for the workshop because ‘Feedback workshop sucks’
• An email draft to promote the course to employees

Before you feed a prompt to CGPT, you should think critically about what you want to achieve with this task. Consider:

• What do you want CGPT to focus on?
• How do you want to design the experience?
• What will best support your audience?

You continue doing this with each response that CGPT provides.

Your judgement and decision-making skills weave through this process too.

Use your humanness (I know it’s not a real word) to evaluate every response and help CGPT understand if it’s hitting all the right notes for you. If it helps, consider its responses as an ugly first draft.

You’ll work on this draft as a human task to provide the context and application it needs for your experience.

This is the difference between delegating everything to AI and working with AI. You will also be stronger in a human and AI approach. You can see an example of this in a recent video post.

Explore and experiment, don’t ignore

I believe conversations like these are important. That’s why I continue to be surprised at companies which ignore or ban conversation around generative AI at work. We know people are secretly using ChatGPT at work.

So, why do we not be proactive and help with best practices?

As Ed Sheeran said, “I’m thinking out loud”.

If you fancy sending thoughts back, I’ll be here.

If this sparked your neurons, here’s a few recent conversations that link to this ↓

1. How is creativity impacted by technology?
2. How do we design for human learning in the age of AI?

Final thoughts

In sum:

• Don’t forget the human in your AI interactions
• Deploy your most human skills in everything
• Don’t be afraid to play

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Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

It seems like the biggest skill of the year is also one of the most ignored.

→ AI delegation.

It’s the word of the year, no doubt. But are the companies that don’t educate their workforce on this technology today causing more harm than good?

Educate on AI, don’t ignore it

You can’t put the genie back in the lamp.

This is a recurring conversation between me and L&D teams. You need to educate your workforce to be smart and safe.

You can mitigate bad habits and practices by being proactive now.

Otherwise, you will be the person creating that terrible compliance solution on being safe with generative AI tools.

Your company can ban tools it wants, but you can’t stop evolution.

According to an August 2023 BlackBerry survey of 2,000 global IT decision makers, 75% are currently considering or implementing bans on ChatGPT and other generative AI applications in the workplace, with 61% saying the measures are intended to be long-term or permanent

BBC: The employees secretly using AI at work

Life finds a way

Yes. That title is a direct quote from Jurassic Park by the legendary, Jeff Goldblum.

I believe it fits this narrative well. I see that fear and lack of understanding are leading to the stereotypical human reaction of demonising. This is dangerous.

Especially when we know that employees who use these tools will have an unfair advantage over others.

This has a huge effect on skill development too. Consider for a moment the companies who teach their employees to wield these tools to their advantage vs those who do not.

Who do you believe will have a more well-rounded skillset?

Make AI a partner, not the problem

Do you think your company would prefer employees to learn how to leverage these tools in the dark levels of a Reddit forum or from your local L&D team?

Perhaps that’s the one-liner you can use in your next strategy meeting.

The point is they’re getting this knowledge from somewhere. You can bet it doesn’t mix well with your ways of working and the best practices you’d want.

I spoke about this with an L&D function at a leading telecoms company recently.

Here’s 3 simple things you can do to support your workforce:

1. Educate yourself

Curate resources to educate and inform your workforce on Gen AI. A little knowledge can go a long way.

2. Get clear on what’s useful

Social media tells us 1000’s of new AI tools are released daily.

Truth is 95% of these have nothing to do with AI. They’re sub-par products riding the hype wave. It’s your job to find what’s real and works for you.

→ Suggested reading: How to assess when to use AI tools.

3. Identify use cases

You should never use any piece of tech just because market expectations are high.

You always need a use case. You might find current generative AI tools don’t have any use cases for you, and that’s fine.

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Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

You might also like

This question plagues my mind most days over my nice warm cup of tea 🍵 (I lead a thrilling life).

Most days, I tire of hearing those two little letters…A…I – but I know this is a crucial moment in the way we live, work, learn and connect. So ignoring it does me no good and you neither.

I’m not an AI expert and I’m not intending to play one on the internet.

I read this insightful piece by Dr Phillipa Hardman on the London School of Economics (yes, I like to pretend I’m smart and fancy sometimes) blog on The invisible cost of resisting AI in higher education. 

It’s a good read, imo.

This resonated with me as someone who has gone deep into the rabbit hole of AI to uncover its potential in the world of learning and development. I mean, you probably knew that from my LinkedIn feed already.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the next digital technology revolution is here.

As we operate in an industry that has been historically (criminally) slow to adapt and adopt the latest digital technologies, along with our buddies in higher education, I feel a sense of dread when I think about how we as L&D pros can move with the times.

After all, history is not on our side.

Reimagining L&D in the Age of AI

I’m not an AI expert and I’m not intending to play one on the internet.

However, I have to practice what I preach as an experimentalist in the L&D field. This has meant plugging into the Matrix to understand what AI could mean for us.

Do I have all the answers? Hell no.

Do I have some thoughts and useful stuff to share? Hell yes!

I’ve collated my last year’s worth of research, experiments and applications with AI in L&D into a neat little crash course with a pretty bow on top. I did this to answer my own questions in this field and share them with you, my fellow industry pro.

The score is this, AI is here and we need to raise our digital intelligence to meet it.

This kinda feels like a red pill, blue pill moment and you know what? I think it is.

If you want to get ahead of all this stuff and cut through the noise to the real applications of generative AI in our industry, then I have an invitation for you.

Come join me and together we’ll learn how to maximise ChatGPT not only for our L&D craft but our careers too.

We’ll move you from newbie to ninja quicker than Neo became the ‘one’.

I’ve talked about crossing our fear gaps to move from the unknown to comfortable and confident before.

The best way to shape your future is by doing and it just so happens that learning by doing is what you need to grow.

The 3-step framework to confidence with Gen AI in L&D

1. Educate yourself

You shouldn’t use any tech without a basic knowledge of how it works.

Access to this information for GEN AI is everywhere. A little education goes a long way. The more you know, the more you can maximise in your work.

Here’s some resources to help you:

1️⃣ Generative AI explained for humans

2️⃣ 4 simple resources to accelerate your AI in work knowledge

3️⃣ A beginners guide to ChatGPT

2. Get clear on what’s useful

Social media tells us 1000’s of new AI tools are released daily.

Truth is 95% of these have nothing to do with AI. They’re sub-par products riding the hype wave. It’s your job to find what’s real and works for you.

→ Suggested reading: How to assess when to use AI tools.

3. Identify use cases

You should never use any piece of tech just because market expectations are high.

You always need a use case. You might find current generative AI tools don’t have any use cases for you, and that’s fine.

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Useful Resources

→ How to decide when and how to use ChatGPT in L&D

→ 3 ways to work smarter with ChatGPT for L&D and HR operators

→ 5 ways to leverage ChatGPT Enterprise for your Talent Strategy

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Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

Organisations have two choices with AI (and any tech for that matter).

Choose to augment or automate.

For clarity:

Augmentation = Supports and improves human decision-making and actions with technology

Automation = Completely replaces human decision-making and actions with technology

This isn’t an exclusive task to AI.

We’ve been doing this with all forms of technology for centuries. That includes more than digital tools.

At this moment, organisations (just like us) are looking to understand the opportunities and limitations of generative AI technology. Let’s be honest, it’s good but it ain’t perfect.

In my work researching the roles of the future with generative AI. I’m focused on the tasks it could replace and or support.

Based on this, I work with organisations to identify the common skills needed to do those tasks.

The question then becomes whether current Gen AI standards replace those entirely or only partly. If partly, what % and how much human interaction is needed?

Looking at this from a task lens (vs jobs) enables companies to evaluate where they can:

1. Best utilise humans
2. Simplify time-killing processes
3. Get a clear view of the skills needed for future organisational performance

Gen AI will replace some tasks and thus jobs, but it will also create new ones.

That’s my Ted Talk over. You’re welcome.

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Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

These ideas are for those who are using the enterprise version of ChatGPT in their organisation. This means your data is secure and the training data is from your organisation, not the world’s database.

Not all may work in your organisation.

As I always say, culture, context and constraints play a huge part in what you can deliver. Any generative AI tool is only as good as the data it is trained on. If your data isn’t high quality don’t expect it to produce miracles.

Anyway, that’s my lawyer clause over.

Here’s 5 ways you can maximise ChatGPT (Enterprise) to improve your talent and learning strategy.

1. On-Demand Learning Support

Imagine a 24/7 tutor that never gets tired.

ChatGPT can serve as an on-demand learning assistant, answering queries, explaining concepts, and even offering resources for further learning. It’s like having a pocket-sized professor!

The best part? It’s trained on your company data.

So, it knows your protocols, processes, policies and ways of working. This would hopefully reduce those pesky ‘5 minute’ queries to save your precious time.

There are a few examples of online creators and startups offering this type of solution already.

This was something I wanted to bring to life in an enterprise organisation about 8 years ago. But the technology just wasn’t there yet. I didn’t want to bring in a chatbot which was like those awful ones we’ve all used for customer support at banks 😡. I killed the idea, quickly.

Now, LLM’s provide a true conversational experience.

One where you have a much higher chance of getting the answer to your question, and none of the poor ‘please pick from this pre-defined list’ of queries experience.

2. Employee Onboarding

New hires often feel like they’ve been thrown into the deep end.

What if you could have a helpful friend to navigate your new world?

ChatGPT can serve as a virtual onboarding assistant, guiding newbies through company policies, software tools, and even the office layout. Who needs a map when you have a chatbot? (side note: why do they always provide physical maps? We have the technology, people!).

Again, this is something I have been doing through Slack for many years.

I even went as far as to work with engineers to scope out an internal assistant, but now, ChatGPT Enterprise gives me access to do this without the huge amounts of development time.

You could train CGPT on all of your onboarding content so it’s prepared to be your newbies best buddy.

→ A recommendation for you: Don’t leave the total experience to AI.

Humans learn by doing, watching and listening with other humans.

The human touch is well-needed in any onboarding experience. I covered this extensively in my ultimate onboarding toolkit which you can access for free.

3. Skill Gap Analysis

This one is going to need more work than the rest.

Skill frameworks and taxonomies are often bloated. Which is another way of saying complicated.

You could use ChatGPT to act as an assessment tool for teams. However, you’d need to get your own data in order first. The power of any tool is based on the data it’s fed.

Here’s a few ways this could work:

✅ Real-Time Feedback

As employees interact with ChatGPT for various tasks, it can provide real-time feedback on their performance.

This could be as simple as correcting a grammatical error in an email draft or as complex as suggesting a more efficient coding practice.

📈 Trend Analysis

By analysing interactions over time, ChatGPT can identify emerging skill gaps of individuals and across teams.

Essentially, it’s using a data led approach to predict where support is most needed.

🔍 Skill Tracking Over Time

ChatGPT can maintain a record of all interactions and assessments, allowing for a long-term analysis of skill development.

You can chart your growth over time.

This would be useful for year-round performance and those pesky yearly reviews we all love to hate.

📖 Resource Recommendations

Based on the gaps identified, ChatGPT can recommend specific experiences, interventions and content for skill development.

This was always the promise of the LXP and LMS, but it never quite got there. They were well intentioned but turned into monoliths of content which have become troublesome in surfacing the right content.

4. Automating HR Queries

Let’s face it, HR teams are swamped.

ChatGPT has the potential to handle basic queries like leave policies, benefits, and more. This could free HR to deal with more complex issues.

I know that too much of a HR partners time is stolen by tasks that automation and generative AI tools could handle.

Admin tasks kill great HR teams.

Why not let ChatGPT find the basic information for employees and you can focus on the moments that matter.

5. Real-Time Language Translation

Got a global team? Need to translate your content into x languages?

This is a common challenge many businesses face and one that is rather pricey.

Fret not, ChatGPT can translate conversations in real-time, breaking down language barriers and promoting a more inclusive work environment. It’s like the United Nations, but in your office without those weird headsets.

Other generative AI tools like HeyGen can even take existing video content to convert it into another language of your choice. Using it’s AI voice cloning software you can take on any language you want.

Check out my Spanish in the example below.

Final thoughts

Now you know.

ChatGPT (Enterprise) can offer a variety of potential applications for your talent and learning strategies. Always keep in mind that the effectiveness of ChatGPT is heavily reliant on the quality of the data it’s trained on.

I’ve said it already, but I’ll say it again.

It’s crucial to balance the use of AI with the human touch, especially in areas like employee onboarding.

These are some ideas to spark your own experimentation. Enjoy.

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Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.