Christmas edition: Our new friend, AI

??In my role over the past 12 months, I increasingly use AI to perform many laborious?tasks, from researching into companies and sectors, to shaping marketing and communication material. I suppose the key thing I have learned is that used wisely, with the right prompts, AI is a friend that saves me time.???

Much of what we can do to improve our AI skills at the individual employee level can be done through experimentation and being an active user. But for L&D teams responsible for making sure that company-wide learning strategy truly reaches all corners, AI has an altogether more significant role to play.?

Looking ahead we know that skilling challenges are likely to increase.??

The World Economic Forum estimates that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years, with six in ten staff requiring retraining by 2027.???

And if appropriate steps are not taken to address skilling challenges, the commercial impact is worrying:?

If not adequately address the skills gaps could result in $2.5 trillion in lost global economic output by 2025 (Mckinsey Global Institute).???

So how can L&D create a skilling architecture that reassures the business that skills are more future proof and what is the role of AI in that quest??

Our Principal Learning Consultant, Geoff Bloom, who is also a bit of an AI guru shares his thoughts on what’s in store for L&D with AI as we slide into 2025.?

??“AI in learning is proliferating across many different tools and technologies, ranging between adaptive learning, generative AI, synthetic media creation and personalization of learning. Ove the next year I think we will see an increasing number of tools in the L&D space, but also some convergence and integration of technologies as AI becomes more joined up. I also think we will move from experimentation to adoption by more organizations”.???

Final thoughts???

Many businesses are still in transition when it comes to the adoption of new work processes and clearly there are companies at different stages of their evolutionary progress. Whether that is new and emerging technology, IOT, smart factory, digitalisation, the same will be true of AI. And as AI becomes more joined up, its place in L&D to support the development of talent pathways, mapping skills needs and the creation of new learning content at scale, will also evolve beyond experimentation. ?

For L&D, the key focus will always be how to harness people’s skills to achieve maximum performance for the business and satisfaction for employees. For a successful L&D strategy to work, our new friend, AI, is an enabler for L&D teams looking to develop comprehensive skilling strategies that are actually anchored to the work employees?perform every day.?

Merry Xmas one and all ??