L&D and Generative AI – a view from the bullet train!

I’ve always been interested in the ways that technology can improve the ways adults learn at work. My first job after graduating with a very basic BSc in maths and psychology, I entered work as a secretary to a training manager at Lloyds Register of Shipping. Established back in 1760, this noble organisation established its global reputation by creating safety for seafarers. Rooted in history, they also showed me that their future would be determined by a progressive attitude to sharing actionable intelligence.

First love

It was in this first job that I became intrigued by the giant interactive video disc systems in the learning centre under the stairs. Staff hid away in that quiet office to spend time working through the digital course The Versatile Organisation. The whole programme and platform captured my na?ve newly minted psychologist brain.

Surely, I thought, this hidden treasure taps into the way that adults really learn – personalised pathways, clear guidance, safe practice, feedback, and lots of opportunity to embed into work. I was hooked and from the late 80’s onwards I’ve had a fascination for the way that learning technologies might influence learning innovation and business impact …. If we let them!

Changing digital landscapes

As an industry, we have seen decades of new technologies arrive, all heralding the potential to transform the way we democratise learning opportunities and improve performance. In my personal experience, I have seen CD and network technologies offer improved access to content in the early 90’s, the internet promising responsiveness and personalisation, mobile technologies offering hope for just in time learning, followed swiftly by the arrival of social media and virtual/augmented reality to enhance connection, collaboration, and practice.

As L&D we’ve been trundling through the digital landscape at a steady pace, capturing the view, imagining a potential future, exploring, investigating and, for some, watching the world go by.

The view from the bullet train

But in the last 18 months, we’ve switched tracks. On board of the Generative AI bullet train, the view has been changing every few moments with new models and releases. Out of the window we’ve seen potential opportunities and threats for the world of work, the security of workers and the future of L&D literally flash by. It’s been hard to catch a breath.

Like many, I’ve been watching and learning from those who’ve been enjoying the journey. The work of Ethan Mollick and Prof. Gila Kurtz (Ph.D.) provide really insightful ideas from the world of academia (boy, do we share more challenges with our academic friends than we like to admit!). Generous practitioner such as Detlef Hold , Geraldine Voost and Ross Stevenson have shared their stories and experiences. The research from the likes of Dr Philippa Hardman , Donald H Taylor and Egle Vinauskaite has kept us informed. The writing of Julian Stodd et all, Donald Clark and Sal Khan kept me on my toes as we take the opportunity to explore the creative opportunities ahead and ?experience the universal tutor accelerating into the frame.[1]

But I have held back from adding my personal opinions to the fray for a number of reasons:

• The hype curve was unfolding rapidly. The threat of a new technology, the obvious statements that it can’t replace humans but that it can augment our work, all seemed a little too familiar.
• My past 20 years of study has typically shown that a new technology, however shiny the new toy, has rarely correlated to improvement of business results. What we do with the technology counts (and I’ve already written a million words about that).
• Typically, what our industry wants to do with any new technology is to create more content, accessible to more people at a lower cost. But is our ability to do this even faster and cheaper really helping us drive learning innovation that impacts business?

A fresh view

Last year I had the privilege of analysing the data and authoring the CIPD ’s Learning at Work report. Of course we asked about Gen AI! But the figures quoted had to be in context - they were gathered in February last year! What stood out to me is that the broad range technology users who were more comfortable with experimenting and applying learning science to their decisions were already making progress!

So, when my friends at the CIPD asked me to write about how L&D can leverage technology for organisational advantage, I realised that there are still plenty of lessons to be learned as we speed through the technology landscape.

I’m not going to steal my own thunder by repeating my initial observations here – you can take a deeper dive in the actual article.

But I am interested in how you feel about our journey with Generative AI so far:

• Is the landscape we are travelling through moving too fast for us to appreciate the view, let alone the benefits?
• Is Generative AI actually the bullet train, accelerating our journey time to deliver better business impact? Or is it hurtling us towards a tolerated mediocrity?
• Or is it just another silver bullet?

Writing my latest article helped me slow down to catch up – perhaps taking me back to the ocean travel of my first career. A big thank you to CIPD for inviting me to share my thoughts and a big thank you to you for sharing yours below!

Finally... thank you for the global interest in Learning Changemakers. I might not publish a newsletter as often as LinkedIn would like, but I post when I am passionate about an opportunity for us to make a difference so... if you like what you read here, please subscribe and share with others! ??

[1] Footnote – these are some of the amazing bods I have tagged but love to know who is making sense of AI for you – do share! ??