Think of the best teacher you ever had. Why were their methods so effective? Did they make learning relevant to your everyday experience? Did they bring dry subjects to life with engaging stories, characters and examples? Perhaps they took the time to explain why you needed this new knowledge or skill, and how it might help you now or in the future. Maybe they adjusted the pace, format and difficulty level of the lesson to suit your learning preferences, then took time out to praise you when you did something well. Whatever they did, it worked, right? And it changed you.

Good instructors teach us new things. Great instructors change the way we think and behave. And the most effective organizations know that if their people embrace ethics and compliance (E&C) training then best practices will become embedded into the organization, strengthening company culture and driving positive risk-management behaviors.

Workers who are motivated and interested in the content are more likely to recall it and behave accordingly, prompting more E&C behavior and decision-making throughout the organization. In other words, motivated employees can drive a culture of compliance. And as an added benefit, employees may be more apt to complete the training as soon as possible, instead of putting it off to the side, saving the business time and money. In other words, E&C training can be so much more than a check-in-the-box exercise — but it’s all about having the right technology.

Enter artificial intelligence (AI) — the helpful aid that has the power to generate customized training programs that share vital insights on company conduct and new policies. With personalized learning paths, human-like interactions, and the ability for the system to learn who you are and what works for you, training can become more impactful, and companies can create that virtuous circle of improvement within their culture.

We’ve talked a lot about content being relevant, memorable and useful, and the importance of learning engagement. So how do you make this a reality? You must combine AI with tried-and-true methods demonstrated by our most favorite teachers. In this article, we’ll review how to use AI and personalization to develop engaging E&C training programs.

Variety and Personalization

You should offer a range of learning modalities, including podcasts, webinars, infographics and animations to meet different learning needs and preferences. Use realistic, immersive stories to put issues into context and bring them to life. Also, adapt the content to match specific industry sectors, knowledge levels and preferences.

But, how do you create all these different formats without employing an army of instructional designers and a super-sized budget? With AI, it’s easier than ever to reformat learning content as a video, self-paced course, instructor-led training — whatever works for your people. And if learners need help, they could access an AI assistant that feels like a well-informed human (not an impersonal chatbot with stock responses), which can be incredibly valuable.

Reward and Recognize

We all respond well to praise and rewards, even if it’s just the ping on your phone that tells you someone liked your social media post. E&C courses can be particularly effective when they include motivational elements that recognize and reward progress, such as the accumulation of badges, trophies, coins and points. Find ways to celebrate your people’s commitment to learning new organizational values and policies, like recognizing top performers.

AI can keep track of a worker’s progress, giving praise where due and providing support if improvement is needed. It can also can let them know how well they did compared to others in the organization. For example, if an employee answers a question correctly, it might say, “great job — only 21% of your colleagues got that one right!”

Providing Necessary Content

Your people will appreciate training delivered in a time-efficient manner that avoids keeping them away from their desks for too long. Consider implementing bite-sized courses for those who already have an understanding of the content, and prioritize new content to build on existing knowledge.

AI can continuously monitor progress and accelerate learning where possible. For example, if an employee aces three questions in a row, the AI could condense the learning into shorter bursts. Instead of going through the course, that employee could answer a series of questions to prove their knowledge on the content. If successful, the course can mark as complete, and they can return to their day job.

Surfacing Risk

AI-powered training tools can help organizations identify hidden patterns, anomalies and risks so training can direct the right content to their learners. This can help companies gain a clearer understanding of employee behavior and the company culture.

AI can flag activities in which scores are frequently low, or highlight the most common questions learners are asking an AI coach within the program. It can also surface questions the AI cannot answer due to gaps in the course content. It can categorize specific issues faced by staff in certain regions, roles or experience levels, analyze learner ratings to gauge the success of content, and perform benchmarking among colleagues.

In addition, personalized ethics check questions using a Likert scale (e.g., never, sometimes, often, always) can help glean cultural insights, and identify where positive behavior is blocked by cultural barriers. Typical questions could include, “How comfortable do you feel about recognizing a conflict of interest?” or “How likely would you be to tell someone if you saw your manager harassing a colleague?”

Moreover, AI can help you to assess the extent of users’ skill and willingness to participate and provide data on how and when they access the tools they need. Why is this a big deal?

Imagine you’re tracking three components of a “Speak Up” program:

1. The usage data of a “Speak Up Hotline.”
2. Training on how to use the hotline that includes a knowledge-based quiz.
3. A sentiment based question that asks how comfortable the user feels using the hotline.

You then ask your AI tool to identify barriers in your organization to speaking up. It tells you most people do well with the training component and score high on the knowledge quiz (item 2). However, they are not using the hotline (item 1) and they are giving negative answers to the sentiment question (item 3).

You know you don’t have a knowledge problem — your people know how and when to use the hotline, and why they should use it. But you do have a cultural barrier — people don’t feel comfortable using the hotline. Now you know what training needs to target to create a speak up culture.

Could you mine these data points across thousands of users without AI? Of course! You could leverage that army of developers and super-sized budget we talked about. Or you can build an AI buddy to do it for you.

Exceeding Regulatory Expectations

With the insights shared in this article, you can facilitate an effective E&C training program that results in high completion rates and assessment score. When people not only complete, but also retain their compliance training, the organization can mitigate risk and achieve sustainment.

Think back to that great teacher or educator you had in the past. The one who made your lessons feel relevant, with engaging stories, characters and examples. The one who took the time to explain why you need this new knowledge or skill, and how it might help you now or in the future.

AI can help you scale that kind of learning experience across the whole organization. It can focus on completing delegated tasks and functions, freeing you up to focus on creating a truly effective E&C program that goes well beyond basic box-ticking. That’s the vision, and we’re on our way to making that vision a reality.