We’ve been waiting for this.

The AI hype storm rages on. The 180 million users of ChatGPT, the unbelievable ask for a $7 trillion investment, the $16 trillion contribution generative AI will make to the global economy by 2030. AI absolutely dominated Donald H Taylor’s Global Sentiment Survey this year. 

Speculation about the future of AI is all too easy. Instead, let's talk about now.

What is happening with AI currently and how can you make the best decisions for you, your L&D department and your organisation?

A 2x2 matrix for thinking about AI

Two axes are helpful in thinking about AI.

First, there’s whether the development is good or bad. There’s plenty that’s not good - cases where it doesn’t work (better than humans), the infamous hallucinations, the impact on certain jobs and lives, the uncertainty and the politics of the content the technology is generating. In other words, we need to work out when we should use it and when we should not, when we can rely on it and when we cannot. Ethan Mollick calls this the jagged frontier.

The second axis is personal vs corporate. The technology has such broad application from making recipes from the contents of your fridge to brainstorming business strategies. Crisper thinking will come by separating these and also noting when there is some overlap (eg personal productivity). 

A gift & responsibility for L&D

The role of workplace L&D is to improve how people perform at work.

This new technology enhances almost everyone's performance - and we've barely scratched the surface yet. The Harvard-BCG study showed consultants finished 12% more tasks, 25% faster, to a 40% higher quality. Using generative AI has been fast-tracked into a rare group of meta-skills that support all others, along with decision-making, time management, curiosity and meta-cognition.

L&D must prioritise enabling the workforce to make the most of generative AI. 

• Encourage individual experimentation (at home and at work). Our forthcoming report on 100 use cases for individuals may help you with this effort.
• Accelerate the businesses’ maturity journey. There are many facets from this from education to celebration of success stories to influencing sensible governance policies at work. Much of this can and should fall under your L&D remit.
• Lead by your own use of AI:
  • Stay abreast of AI developments and potential application in your company. Follow a carefully-curated set of experts such as Ethan Mollick, Cassie Kozyrkov, Yann Le Cunn, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Gary Marcus. Be an AI leader at your company.
  • Deploy AI safely and sensibly in the world of L&D: skills frameworks, content (see below), talent mobility, etc.
  • But don’t just do L&D 1.0 all over again (faster, more). We need to be supporting Work 3.0*. More content, however quickly it’s generated, is not the enlightened path.

But amidst all this opportunity, there are threats lurking. If L&D doesn’t move fast, it will be in trouble:

• 60% to 70% of employees have not yet tried ChatGPT or a similar tool. In talent development teams, we are hearing the number is much higher. The reason: L&D people say they haven’t received training or are worried about data - even as the technology becomes ubiquitous.
• Some IT departments are banning generative AI wholesale rather than offering sensible, nuanced guidance. If L&D just accepts the ban and doesn’t investigate, we fall far behind. 
• Use cases focus on doing the bad stuff better: faster MCQs, more images and just more content. Unthinking production and acquisition of content is already a major issue.

Learning content changes now

Learning content will be radically changed by generative AI . Our customers are telling us that the crisis in learning content (which we call Content Chaos) is amplified by generative AI in several ways.

• Generative AI excels, based on its broad, rounded training data, at generic business skills training. Any kind of content that is in the training data - textbooks, courses, video transcripts, PowerPoints, pdfs - can be delivered by an always-on, massively-informed personalised tutor. What, then, becomes the need for large generic (often expensive) libraries?
• Generative AI directly coaches on-the-job performance already for tens of millions. Encouraging people to use generative AI is likely to increase performance as much as web search has - provided they use it well. The calculus of skills needs has dramatically changed - AI-skills to understand the jagged frontier and support productivity are now critical.
• Generative AI throws fuel on the burning format crisis in L&D. The vast majority of customer catalogues consist of time-consuming click-next or video-based courses. But the lights are glaring red that modern knowledge workers want to engage with podcasts, TikTok length video, experts and mentors, expertly-curated communities. All of these are easier to assemble now, thanks to generative AI and related technologies.

Some disruptive content vendors are rising to the challenge of the new content era. Here are a few that we know well:

• 5mins.ai. A skills-based micro-learning platform with over 20,000 TikTok-style lessons aimed at building the skillset needed to succeed in the AI era.

  “5Mins.ai has been a pioneer in the implementation of Gen AI, having first adopted it when GPT-2 came out in 2020. Observing the evolution from GPT-2 to GPT-4 at close quarters has been truly fascinating and inspiring. It has helped fast-track and deliver capabilities in weeks which would have taken years. As early adopters, we’re constantly reviewing new AI capabilities, new tools and risks, educating our customers, while ensuring we provide the most up-to-date and effective AI-powered training on the market.” 

                        

   

                       Saurav Chopra, Founder and CEO, 5Mins.ai

• AssembleYou: Podcast style lessons that integrate simply into existing podcast apps as well into traditional learning systems, closing a much-needed gap in the market for audio-first learning.
  

  "At AssembleYou, we're dedicated to humanising our content, bringing forward named experts, and prioritising human connection and real-life experiences. Our Future Human Series, spearheaded by Liggy Webb, serves as a platform for interactive discussions on vital skills such as Creative Thinking and Resilience, aligning with the World Economic Forum (WEF) competency framework. While we leverage AI for efficiency, our core emphasis lies in fostering meaningful dialogue and delivering a rich, human-centric experience."

   

    Richard Ward, Co-founder, AssembleYou

• TED@Work: TED Talks reimagined and validated for workplace learning. Share cutting-edge insights from AI thought leaders to keep your workforce in-the-know and to fast-track innovation. 
• xUnlocked: Bite-sized courses delivered by a panel of more than 200 leading industry experts, helping customers build colleague capability in the fields of finance (Finance Unlocked) and sustainability (Sustainability Unlocked). Launching an AI-focused offering this year (Data Science Unlocked).
• getAbstract: The world’s largest library of compressed verified knowledge is transforming its offer for the AI era. GetAbstract has already launched getAbstract AI, which turns its compressed knowledge library into fully referenced answers for difficult business questions. Next, getAbstract wants to use its expertise to take on the huge mass of free content on the web.
  

  "Generative AI is one of humanity's great opportunities and also threatens us with a flood of fake content and misinformation. We are incorporating the use of generative AI as a teaching tool, but we also want to use our experts to verify web content so it can be used safely. In fact, in the AI era, content verification is one of the biggest problems facing businesses and political leaders."

   

                                             Thomas Bergen, CEO of getAbstract

   

We believe that certain disruptive providers like those mentioned above will do more to help your organisation than the existing leaders, who will struggle to catch up for multiple reasons. Newer, smaller providers also tend to cost less. So we will be recommending them more proactively in our analyses.

Solving four content problems with AI

AI can be used to cut through Content Chaos and dramatically enhance learning at work. There are four ways Filtered can help.

Problem 1: Low AI adoption & maturity

Many HR and L&D teams lack a clear path towards adopting AI and integrating it effectively into their processes, leading to stagnation in skill and content intelligence development.

Solution: We show you the way. Filtered guides HR and L&D teams through coherent steps towards AI maturity, providing structured frameworks and resources to facilitate seamless integration and measurable progress. We can underpin this with a talk to your entire L&D or HR team as we have now for a dozen or more enterprise clients.

Likely outcomes:

• Achieve 80% AI adoption among HR/L&D teams (up from an industry average of 50%)
• Enhance skills and content intelligence, driving organisational growth and competitiveness.

Problem 2: Outdated skill frameworks

Organisations struggle to keep their skill frameworks aligned with the rapidly evolving needs of the business, resulting in outdated skill sets and ineffective talent development strategies.

Solution: Cutting-edge skills framework generation. Filtered combines its expertise in skills development with generative AI to create dynamic and up-to-date skill frameworks. By analysing data on employee demand and business strategy, Filtered ensures organisations maintain a prioritised skills pipeline that adapts in real-time to meet evolving business needs.

Likely outcomes:

• GSK focused on future and priority skills and generated a £300k p.a. cost saving.
• Organisations achieve enhanced talent development strategies and remain competitive in the ever-changing business landscape.

Problem 3: Content not fit for purpose

Organisations struggle to manage and utilise their learning content efficiently, resulting in wasted resources and missed opportunities.

Solution: We solve the problem at source: what you buy! Filtered conducts rapid analyses of existing content libraries, identifying redundant or outdated materials, optimising resource allocation, and maximising ROI. We propose disruptive partners to include in your content mix that’s powered by generative AI.

Likely outcomes:

• Identified cost savings of 30-40% total spend on content libraries.

• Streamlined content management processes, reducing inefficiencies and enhancing productivity, securing a better deal for organisations.

Problem 4: Content not discoverable

Traditional approaches to content curation are costly and time-consuming, limiting organisations' ability to access and leverage cutting-edge resources.

Solution: Cost-effective curation strategies for few, better pathways. Filtered can audit your existing pathways and identify the most relevant and valuable learning resources to update them and fill gaps.

Likely outcomes:

• £100 - £500k cost savings on curation compared to traditional approaches.

• Access to high-quality, curated content that meets the organisation's specific needs and goals.

Three principles

AI is weird. Our uncertainty and fear is justified even as we must overcome it to make good on this opportunity. If we’re not worried about the risks, someone else in the business will be. That’s why we think taking AI to L&D in a valuable way, with everyone on board, involves three principles:

Safe AI exploration: 

You should be able to implement an AI product without risking your confidential data. 

Systematic AI integration: 

You should account for all of the available skills data and analyse all your content and pathways.

Supported AI adoption: 

You should have a success team who are industry experts in AI best practice, who live it and breathe it.

Like these principles? Take them and use them.

Content Chaos affects you and your organisation. Generative AI could throw fuel on that fire or it could help to extinguish it. Our focus is on the big problems holding us back (AI awareness > skills definition > content sourcing > content discovery), harnessing the power of gen AI throughout.

If you read this far, you’re as passionate as we are about doing that. Join us now or meet us at Degreed LENS.