An organization not optimizing talent. It’s a tale as old as time. They carve out space within the budget for talent development and remain content with a subpar learning management system, sparse classroom-style training and workshops, and some online courses. The result: a workforce that feels like they are checking the boxes each year to remain compliant and leaders scrambling to find resources to offer employees for development planning purposes.

If this is your organization, you know all too well how frustrating it can be for everyone from the frontline to the company executives. Without the right resources, HR also struggles with providing the appropriate levels of support to the workforce for things like performance management, upskilling, and leadership development.

It’s not that organizations don’t mean well, it’s just that it is easier to fall back on more traditional methods for delivering training and education. At times, organizations place a higher value on other areas of HR as it relates to employee engagement and retaining talent.

Rightfully so, there is a lot of weight placed on onboarding and reoccurring training to remain compliant with the regulatory accreditation oversight for their industry, but without additional learning opportunities, it will all be for naught. The globalization of companies and the ability to work from anywhere in the world has also made it harder for organizations to offer a robust talent and development program that meets the needs of a diverse workforce.

Organizations of all sizes struggle to scale training and learning opportunities in part because, well, they don’t have the bandwidth. HR, like other departments, often operates lean with resources typically being allocated to its core functions, or training and development get piled on top of the many already existing responsibilities of a generalist role.

A decade or maybe even 5 years ago this would have been a legitimate reason why talent development was difficult to build out, but now with an abundance of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and systems, it is more possible than ever to deliver a service that’s equitable and effective to the entire workforce. A service that individual people managers can assign to their team or direct the employee to choose from a library of options and complete at their leisure.

AI is revolutionizing many facets of the modern workplace but maybe none more so than the means by which the company connects with their employees. Traditionally, HR has served in an in-person capacity for learning and education with classroom-style lectures and interactive workshops. While these methods for delivery can be effective, they are difficult to scale, and it can take time for new content to be offered.

Another mode for companies to provide learning and development opportunities is through online courses. This style of learning can be very effective and offered to the entire workforce. Online material also provides convenience for employees to complete based on their availability. However, online courses can become static over time and can become large, time-consuming projects to create new content.

Companies can use AI to create a fully immersive and adaptive learning environment that caters to different learning styles and can be customized to individual needs. These interactive learning environments make learning engaging and fun with gamification and virtual reality. AI also uses algorithms to analyze the learners’ behaviors and preferences, predictive analytics to anticipate future learning needs and real-time adjustments based on performance. Adaptive learning provides learning at your own pace and own way, so why aren’t more companies using it?

For starters, AI is a relatively new technology, especially within the workplace. There is always a reluctance to change or fully invest in something that is new until either the proof of its success is undeniable or traditional methods have become obsolete – and let’s be honest, it is usually the latter for HR.

There is a high cost associated with adopting AI in the workplace and when it comes to the intangible benefits of employee learning that can be a tough sell to the CFO and CEO. Often, the first things businesses are willing to invest in come with a return on investment (ROI) of monetary value such as a new contact management system that allows the sales team to automate calls to existing and new clients equating to more sales.

Additionally, many organizations prefer manual processes over automated ones. There is often a reluctance to automate for fear of removing a human touchpoint and this fear resonates throughout HR as well as the C-suite. Manual processes likely cost less and allow for more control over the learning curriculum.

Another cause for pause for organizations is to do with data security. Implementing a form of AI into the learning management system will involve integrating an outside 3rd party vendor’s platform, which can create liability with how an employee’s personal information is managed and protected. Using an outside vendor can also mean companies have to rely on external technical support when issues arise which can result in a poorer end-user experience.

Selling Points

Still, the evidence is clear that AI-powered learning and training can help maximize employee performance and drive innovation. Within higher education, some studies including one by Knewton found that test scores increased over 60% when using their AI-powered adaptive learning program compared to students who did not use the program. The study’s findings suggest that students have different learning preferences and using a one-size-fits-all approach is not an efficient way to retain and understand information for everyone.

Providing adaptive learning environments using AI can increase job satisfaction and boost productivity by not only a more effective way to learn but also by saving time. According to a Brandon-Hall Group study, e-learning gives time back to employees by reducing the time it takes to learn material by 40-60% as compared to the traditional classroom setting. As indicated in research by Statista, small to midsize companies saw average training time per employee reach around 60 hours in 2023. Large companies invested less time in staff training likely due to their ability to invest in some form of AI versus solely using instructor-led classroom training.

The benefits of AI-driven learning and training within the workplace are plentiful and powerful. There is also evidence to suggest that offering an adaptive learning experience can significantly reduce turnover. It’s only fair then to consider how might moving to an AI-based learning management system change the culture for the better. This type of technology can be used early in the employee life cycle to provide a superior onboarding experience and capture valuable data to aid in succession planning by building talent pipelines.

With so much upside, it’s hard to imagine a workplace where AI can’t be plugged in to create a better, perhaps even world-class, employee experience. The ROI becomes more tangible when measuring the impact AI can have on the retention, culture, and future leaders of an organization.

As AI picks up more steam in the workplace, there will be even more data and testimonials to support and justify investing in the tech for learning and training. Until then, companies risk getting left behind if they continue to only offer more conventional methods of transferring information and knowledge. When companies consider the practical changes needed for attracting, retaining, and developing talent their ability to adapt to AI in the workplace will determine their overall sustainability.