From recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to immersive learning technologies and much more, the learning tech space is an exciting and fast-paced segment of the corporate training market.
So, in the first episode of The Business of Learning’s seventh season, we sat down with Dr. Stella Lee, chief learning strategist at Paradox Learning, and Elizabeth Greene, global senior director of L&D at LAM Research, to hear their thoughts on:
- How advancements in AI are impacting the learning tech space.
- How to select the right technologies to support your programs.
- The skills learning leaders need to maximize their learning tech stacks.
Listen Now:
Additional Resources:
- Top Training Companies Lists
- Course: Managing Learning Technologies Certificate
- Article: Leveraging Generative AI for Lifelong Learning, Unlearning and Relearning
- Article: Learning Technology in 2024: Is it Essential, Useful or Just a Budget Black Hole?
The transcript for this episode follows:
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Business of Learning, the learning leader’s podcast from Training Industry.
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Sarah Gallo:
Welcome back to the Business of Learning. I’m Sarah Gallo, senior editor here at Training Industry.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
And I’m Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, editor in chief.
Sarah Gallo:
We’re excited to kick-off The Business of Learning’s seventh season with an episode on a topic that couldn’t be more timely: learning technology trends and advancements. From recent advancements in artificial intelligence to immersive learning solutions and much more, the learning tech space is an exciting and fast-paced segment of the corporate training market. But for busy learning leaders, navigating the world of learning tech can be overwhelming, to say the least. So today, we’re excited to speak with Dr. Stella Lee, chief learning strategist at Paradox Learning, and Elizabeth Greene, global senior director of L&D at LAM Research, to hear their thoughts on the future of learning tech and for real-world advice and tips that can help you, our listeners, keep pace with these trends and innovations. So with that, Dr. Lee and Elizabeth, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Lee:
Thanks for having me.
Elizabeth Greene:
Thank you. Great to be here.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Yes, welcome. We’re recording this episode in January 2024. What learning technology trends or predictions do you anticipate we’ll see this year?
Speaker 6:
Stella, do you want to go first?
Dr. Lee:
Sure. I was going to wait and see if you want to jump in…. But I mean, it’s always really difficult to predict and there are many indicators of emerging trends this year. Of course, the biggest one I think everybody talks about is artificial intelligence, AI, right? Writing off of the year that we had last year, I think that would continue. My take is it’s going to be ubiquitous. It’s not just going to be, in fact, it would become transparent. It won’t even be a question of do you have ai, but more what kind of AI are you using in this tool or this platform? But at the same time, I’m not convinced that’s transformative quite as yet. I think if you look at any learning tech adoption, it’s often lots of excitement at the beginning, but a lot of times we haven’t fully grasped what it means, what the affordance of the technology is, and we’re still merely replacing what we currently do with a new tech or perhaps what we currently do that’s not even effective with a new tech. So I see that would continue to happen this year. Along with that, the other thing I see that’s happening is wearable tech is going to either make a comeback or make it bigger this year between Apple releasing [the] Vision Pro headset, the virtual reality headset, and also a lot of wearables that AI enable in the markets like humans, AI pin. I think that will be coming to learning tech as well.
Elizabeth Greene:
Yeah, I have some thoughts as well that the things that I’m thinking are not necessarily new, but reimagined with stronger use cases to revolutionize what we’re doing. So I’m thinking of, I think you mentioned a little bit about it, the immersive learning space. This is, if you think back to 2017, I remember talking to Walmart about what they took a leap of faith with VR, in training associates off the floor using Strivr to model their store environment. And then Oculus headsets, it was something the average L&D professional had a hard time selling to their executive teams, to obtain that buy-in and funding and really limited use cases. Now we’re in 2024, the expansion of the industrial metaverse, which interestingly enough, two days ago, Siemens announced their partnership with Sony. Sony doing the hardware, Siemens doing the software to enter the mixed reality space through that immersive engineering.
So the industrial Metaverse gives us new use cases for immersive learning that revolves around digital twins mirroring, simulating real machines and factories and building cities, grids, transportation systems within the context that the learning experience is also collaborative, which is new and different. So many use cases for engineers, which at LAM Research were mainly have engineering populations. It’s helpful to prototype virtually and collaboratively creating those digital twins and then validating designs with fewer resources. So I think now we’re seeing more in-house creation of AR/VR combined with tracking real productivity gains, ability to better understand and justify the design and delivery costs, the headsets and the tools [are] more reasonable and accessible. So I think we will see an uptick in immersive learning space and associated extended reality technology to meet those needs.
Dr. Lee:
Maybe not the Apple assets in terms of affordability,
Elizabeth Greene:
They’re more affordable now. And I think too, just so much buzz around skills-based learning, I think it will continue to grow. More companies are moving to skills-based organizations through the application of robust skills engines, building out dynamic skills taxonomies, and the good news: Many of these skills engines are being ingested by a larger HCM systems, enabling that holistic approach to managing skills across an organization. And then that feeds into our AI and learning technology to use predictive analytics to identify and address skills gaps, attaching the gaps to learning assets, programs and experiences, and then dynamically adjusting the curriculum to better learning outcomes. And the next thing that really excites me is continuous learning. So in the L&D space, we’re always like, “Learning’s not a one-time event. It’s a journey,” but how do we with limited resources actually accommodate a journey? So I think that with new learning technology, we can support the learner through ongoing engagement, reflection application, and the ability of learning experience designers to iterate quickly and efficiently to meet those ongoing needs. And the mention of chatbots lately, popping up again for things like spaced micro learning nudges, intelligent offering tools like Synthesia, Teachable, Smart Sparrow, where we can gain efficiencies in design and execution of these engaging and continuous learning moments. I think those are going to be really important this year.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah. So can I echo what Elizabeth is saying and just adding onto that. So two points here. When you talk about the immersive experience with the headsets, I also see that there’s quite a bit of improvement over the past few years. On the hardware front, the headsets are getting a little bit better, lighter weight, it fits a variety of faces better. So it’s still not 100% there yet, but it’s definitely from a design, from an interface perspective, it’s a lot better. Also, it’s incorporating with the availability of sensors, it’s a lot more haptic interface as well that I see happening. The other one, you talk about the skilled space and also the building, the in-house, the capacity building.
I think a lot of L&D people are also very concerned, very worried with what’s happening in the tech space, particularly with AI and generative AI happening. It’s almost like, where did this come from? And it’s certainly blew up big time. So a lot of people are also concerned about how are we going to prepare for that? How are we going to position ourselves? And at the same time, as part of my job, it’s being displaced, or how am I going to work collaboratively with this new tech? So does that concern as well. So I see upskilling and reskilling is going to be another trend, a continuous trend.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Definitely. To your point, Stella, AI has been the topic of the year. I think it’s just really exploded in the past 12 months or so. With that, I love to hear your thoughts around how AI is really impacting the learning space. How are you seeing it being used?
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, so AI is not new as I keep saying to people, it’s been around for 70 plus years, maybe longer some would argue, but I think, so I’ve been in this space, I have a background in computer science and what we research called AI like 10, 15 years ago. It’s not what AI is doing now. We have a lot newer techniques. We have much more capacity to process data. We have cloud computing. And so that’s kind of what triggers all the new excitements about AI, particularly with generative AI last year. I think what’s interesting in the learning tech space is that I see a lot of traditional ed-tech companies are now increasingly integrating AI components to their products. So it’s the AI arms race. It started, I don’t know, a year ago or a little bit before that. So the market is competitive in that sense, but I see a lot of that being more like a bolt-on approach.
Instead of redesigning their underlying system and taking the whole thing apart and put it back together through an AI in Fields model, I see a lot of bigger tech. It’s like, let’s add one and other AI piece here. Let’s put a chat bot. Let’s put some dashboard with predictive analytics at the end. So I see a lot of that happening. But also last year there’s also a huge influx of AI startups, as you all see, it’s in thousands and a lot of them may or may not survive, but there’s certainly this new funding, there’s lots of money, lots of venture capital in this space right now. So you see a lot of AI startups, especially for learning. But what’s interesting also is that a lot of this AI products are not explicitly are labeled learning tech, but we would end up using that for learning and development and performance support. So from an L&D professional’s perspective, it’s also increasingly difficult for us to evaluate and select and implement because we don’t even know what’s out there. We don’t know what would help our L&D world. And also everybody, all the vendors are claiming very similar things are evolving very quickly. So it’s challenging I think from a selection and evaluation perspective and also from figuring out which product actually enhance and support learning experiences and which one are just, it’s just more of a hype or more of an add on and not necessarily truly supporting learning.
Elizabeth Greene:
Yeah, I agree. I myself am not an AI expert for me. How do you keep on top of the trends? What are the strong use cases for you within your organization? And it’s not going to change. So Stella is the AI expert here and knows about the history of AI has studied it in depth. For me, it’s as a learning and development professional and trying to figure out how is this impacting the technology space of what I need in my organization and what my learners need. It’s really understanding about the learner need. So for me, it’s not just what AI is available to us, but how are our learner behaviors, learning preferences and expectations, how those are changing because of the technology around us as that’s changing. So I think about, I have twins who are in the fourth grade, how they interact with the world.
They’re building friendships through social gaming and roadblocks through their VR games. They’re playing with other kids around the world. One is learning to play the cello on YouTube. They’re eventually going to be using AI study tools like Study Fetch that generates study sets in flashcards based on notes. Maybe they’ll be paired with an AI powered educational robot like Moxie Robot or ABI, which are robots that customize children’s learning experiences in real time based on how they’re doing in their standardized tests. So the technology we interact with outside of work has changed our learning behaviors, preferences, and expectations. So this learning technology space has to continually adapt and keep up with these changes as the world is changing and we have these shrinking attention spans and we need hyper-personalization need immediate access, it’s hard to keep up with those types of needs, learner’s needs.
Dr. Lee:
And also it’s hard to know which type of product truly enhance and support the learning experience, or which one may be more on automation or focus on more the admin aspect of learning. On a fun fact, side note, do you guys know they are AI robots now for your dogs as a companion?
Sarah Gallo:
I did not know that.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I have not heard that. But then it begs the question of if you have a dog and you don’t have time to expand with your dog, should you even have a dog to start with? Or is buying an AI companion for your dog even a solution to the problem? And I see a lot of that in the learning space as well, is are we even addressing the right problem or are we not looking into the root cause of what causes this problem to start with?
Elizabeth Greene:
Yeah, it’s challenging our analytical thinking and problem-solving. And because as learning professionals, I mean, I’ve been in this field for 20 years and we were known as order takers and the business tells us program they want [and] we give the program. It’s really challenging our ability to consult with the business and come up with solutions that meet the actual need, not a symptom of a different root cause.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, it’s a cultural change, right? Mindset both for the L&D professionals, but also for the business in general.
Elizabeth Greene:
Agree. And does your business have a culture where they support us testing new tools and technologies.
Dr. Lee:
Right? I 100% agree.
Sarah Gallo:
I love that we have both Dr. Lee, you on here, kind of our AI expert and you have that background and also Elizabeth who is in this L&D role in an organization and figuring out these technologies. So I’m wondering if maybe you could each share some tips for our listeners, like basic beginner tips for implementing AI into their L&D programs and trying to leverage this technology if they don’t really know where to get started. Are there any kind of basic tips that you can offer those kinds of people?
Elizabeth Greene:
I can give a quick, easy way to start. Well kind of I think starting with what already might exist. So look at your landscape of learning technology and see what their roadmaps look like. So for example, with our learning experience platform, we use Percipio. They now have an AI coach function, which is in beta test. [It has] a limited number of scenarios, but I tested it out a couple of months ago. It’s really good way to scale coaching skills for managers in a low-risk environment. And I was able to work through a simulated role play, having a pretty difficult performance conversation with a pretend employee. And the AI coach provided great feedback to me afterwards about ways I could be more empathetic, keywords I could use and should avoid using when delivering feedback to my pretend employee. It was really real dialogue. I tested it pretty vigorously to see what gaps I could find. And many authoring tools, which are learning experience designers are using, all of them are using some authoring tools to some extent are implementing AI as part of their design process to create efficiencies on the front end process, text to voice tools and implementing AI translation. So my advice is to just test maybe new features out using existing tools and technology that you already have in place as an easy way to get started.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think meeting people where they’re at, too, I think it’s good to do a readiness assessment just to take a pulse of where are your people at, what are the capability and also the organization, why are you even using ai? What are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? Understand without just blindly going into it because everybody’s using it. I think take a step back, understand your business case, what would be a good step? And to echo Elizabeth’s point about trying things out, I think don’t be afraid with experiment with different tools. A lot of them has free trial or you can get a demo, you can try it out. There’s premium models of many of the tools out there. Their AI tool repository such as Futurepedia is one, and there’s another, I love to name, it’s called, “There’s an AI for That.”
It’s the name of the site, which is quite accurate right now. You could name anything. There’s an AI for that, right? True. And there’s thousands, thousands of tools and they have categories. I wouldn’t just go into just with education. There’s so many other tools that we are using for learning and performance support purposes that are outside the label of education. So I would start with trying out these tools, and I would say also in terms of trying to learn more about what I call “AI literacy” to understand the basics of ai. You don’t need to be data scientists or AI specialists, but you need to learn the basics. You need to learn a little bit about the history, the common techniques, some of the key research or key players because you are going to be involved. And I think L&D really needs to get involved in the procurement process.
I think we often get left out in the decision-making, and if your companies are building AI tools in-house, also get involved from the beginning to say, well, what is this for? How is this meeting our needs? Did we talk to our target end users? Do we show it to them? Does it make sense? Can they use it integrating this into their workflow or is this something they need to, is this disruptive? Do they have to learn this? And is it a steep learning curve and how are we communicating does change with them? I think all of that needs to be thought through at the beginning and get people involved in it and understanding the AI basics is going to help you ask these questions.
Elizabeth Greene:
Yeah, I agree. I think oftentimes L&D isn’t looked to as maybe a strategic business partner as you’re bringing on new tech solutions outside of HR. So building the relationships with your IT teams or HIRS teams to show the value that you can bring not just in the selection process, but then how do you make sure that the system that they’re implementing is actionable because the employees have to be able to use it.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I mean also I think L&D, it’s not known to be technical, so perhaps it’s time to change that perception and also to think about, “Okay, there are lot of potential, there’s a lot of promises about what AI can do, but also the limitations learn about them.” I think ethics standards governance are going to be big topics this year, and I think L&D is well-positioned to take charge of that, to have a conversation to say, “Well, we need to be advocating for the learners.” Are you collecting data for no reasons? Are they violating the learner’s privacy? Do they know that the data is being collected and interpreted and in any way biased? Or are you leaving out any other groups of people, right? Those are things that we need to think about at the beginning of the project, not in the middle of it, because sometimes you can’t change that halfway through.
Elizabeth Greene:
Which is often when we get looped in…
Dr. Lee:
I know. Or toward the end. Either way.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Those are such good points. Thank you both for sharing. As we know, with so many tools and technologies available on the market, determining which learning technologies can best support your training programs is a common challenge for learning leaders. What advice do you have for selecting learning technology strategically?
Elizabeth Greene:
In my point of view, it’s about driving the use case first and then prioritize what will add the greatest value. And tactically speaking, I would say to actually map out a visual inventory, what are your current learning programs and initiatives including what technology you’re currently using?
Dr. Lee:
I love that.
Elizabeth Greene:
Yeah, I’m a visual person.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah. No, it’s a great idea. Yeah, I do that too.
Elizabeth Greene:
[Consider]: Are the challenges that you’re facing with your technology or what’s your ideal future state you need to have related to execution of your programs? And then pinpoint what are the largest pain points and areas of opportunity and start where you feel a technology upgrade or change will have the greatest impact. What is your strongest use case? But definitely do as Stella said, do your research to see what new technology is out there that might fill the gap. How does that technology align with your learning strategy versus what’s the coolest trend out there? But there might not be a strategic alignment for you. And then the big point is ensuring you are aligned with whether you have HRIS or IT teams or both, and you’re connecting the dots to any existing systems, what future capabilities there might be. So it’s amazing how quickly these hcms like SAP or Workday are acquiring or creating their own.
Okay. So I was surprised to see, we talked about skill engines, they’re making their own, some are acquiring skills engines. Some are creating their own building and buying out their own talent marketplace, buying or creating their own LMS. So you might have some learning technologies under your current HR tech stack that you’re not aware of. So strategically it makes sense to either tack on to existing tools and technology that fit your use case. Sometimes it makes more sense to implement best in breed solutions. So something to make sure you’re weighing the capabilities, the pros and cons, and know your requirements. Do your cost benefit analysis. Think future state. That’s the biggest thing is getting our mind wrapped around future state. What learning technology can take you to the farthest endpoint that they are research backed, they’re agile, they’re always evolving. Those are the types of vendor relationships you want to have,
Dr. Lee:
Right? Those skill engines are popping up like mushrooms.
Elizabeth Greene:
I know. Oh my gosh. First I was like, oh, Emsi and Burning Glass. And then they merged and then they got acquired. And what is happening?
Dr. Lee:
I know. It’s like the whole EdTech landscape. It’s just changing so quickly and it’s just go with the trends. Yeah, agree. Interestingly, I did a project last year with the Asian Development Bank and UNICEF on learning technology selection framework, and it’s called Questa. I can also share the paper with you. And so basically you look at four dimensions to consider when you’re evaluating tech. I mean, this is after what Elizabeth’s saying. Look at, map it all out. Look at what your current tech stack. How did you envision this to be used with your business case, your alignment of your current state and your future state. I think taking on the system thinking is a very helpful looking at the whole ecosystem and not just piecemeal approach. And so in our framework, we look at four dimensions. One is quality. And so basically is the system, has the relevant functionalities, has good user experience, is it grounded on any kind of learning theories or sound pedagogy?
And then we look at effectiveness. So it evidence-based, does that proven impact? Does it support your goals and needs of your users? And then the third dimension, it’s scalability, which exactly what you were saying Elizabeth, think about, it’s really hard to think about the future with learning tech because things change so much, but at least more the medium term if you can. I know it’s hard to say 10 years during the world, but even two to three years, don’t think about your immediate needs and plans, but two, three years out, is it able to scale but also adapt, right? How it evolves over time? Does the vendor have a roadmap as well? Does it match your organization’s roadmap? Can you get involved? Can you partner with the vendor? Are they willing to partner with you to work on that together? And also, we also fold in any of the security and privacy concerns under that dimension.
And finally, we look at affordability because a lot of that L&D could be multinationals, it could also be a smaller mid-size company. There’s lots of nonprofits in the space, there’s a lot of NGOs, there’s a lot of other organizations as well. So value for money, it’s an aspect that we look at. And also I think a lot of people, perhaps a bit naive about the cost. It’s one thing that the learning tech market is not very transparent. It’s licensing costs, but also hidden costs like operational and maintenance. I also, I learned this from a lawyer friend of mine about contracts, and you want to know how easy it is to get out of a contract. So termination fees, data migration fees, all of that you need to think about when you talk about looking into the future. This tech might not be what you want wherever. So once you get all your content, once you get all your people, all the data in the system, how easy is it to get out of it?
Elizabeth Greene:
That’s a great point because with so many startups now, and maybe it’s a better value or maybe your budget is capped, and so you decide to go the smaller newer vendor getting out of it, if it doesn’t end up meeting your needs, because I’ve been in a lot of sales pitches lately. They all sound amazing and they can solve more hunger.
Dr. Lee:
They all promise you the world.
Elizabeth Greene:
Only at this small fee. Then you take the time to implement it and you’re like, “Oh, wow, this wasn’t at all what I thought.” So I have really strong points and I can’t even think past three years. My roadmap is three years and then every year, I change the year after. But yeah, I agree.
Dr. Lee:
I’m going to recommend everybody to do a mind map, like what you were talking about. I think that’s a quick idea.
Sarah Gallo:
Great points. So many factors to consider here. We’ll be right back after a brief message from our sponsor.
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Sarah Gallo:
We’ve established that there’s no shortage of learning tech solutions on the market, but even still the LMS is one of the most popular ones. What recommendations do you both have for electing and managing an LMS in your organization?
Dr. Lee:
I can go first on this one, if you don’t mind. I think say with any tech, just to reiterate a point of start with your goals. What are you trying to do? And I think don’t way until you’re implementing, I think start at the beginning of project to understand what are you trying to achieve by implementing an LMS. And also there’s a difference between are you implementing and have you had an LMS before? Is this the first time you implement it or are you replacing an existing system? Because there are different things to consider and also to think about, again, it’s not just a piece of tech. It would impact your culture. It would impact the way you do your work. It would impact many, many things in your organization, too. So think it through from a strategy perspective. I can’t stress enough about understand your intended users.Define who are they: Are they internal? Are they external? Are you involving them and understand what the use cases are? Are they testing the system? Are you getting feedback from them? Planning for future growth and shifts in direction, just like any tech. And I really always try to, I have to say a lot of the LMSs, many of them have very similar functionalities. So when it comes down to it, it’s about the relationship that you build and the type of support they give you. So I would really vet it to that through that. And [ask], are they willing to partner with you in shaping the direction of where you want to take this tool in your company? How do you use this platform and two, three years time — are they supportive of helping you to configure that? Are there roadmaps unlike with your roadmaps of the organization? So these are a few tips or things to consider.
Elizabeth Greene:
I agree with your tips, and I’ve tested and tried different types of learning management systems from the huge vendors who are not as flexible. If you want to make some changes or you have a niche need to the smaller ones that are willing to flex. So depending on your situation, definitely weighing which works best. And I mean we still use an LMS I think I agree, it’s still relevant. It’s our single source of truth for learning data. But I would say look for the newer forms of the LMS that align more closely with the LXP concept that have those personalized learning pathways, curated content recommendations, social learning features, things that kind of appeal to our modern day learner a little bit more, but agree with all your points still.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, and it’s not going to go away anytime soon. I think I agree with you two on that.
Elizabeth:
Yeah, they’ll need it.
Sarah Gallo:
For sure. I think we’ve pretty much established that the learning tech space is moving so, so fast. And again, this can be super overwhelming for L&D professionals, especially if they are a team of one or we don’t have a super strong tech background. So, what tips do you have on really preparing yourself as an L&D leader to kind of stay ahead of this pace of change?
Elizabeth Greene:
I think it’s really difficult to stay ahead. It’s so unknown. I can barely keep up with what’s coming out in real time. I know. So I would say simplistically dedicate an uninterrupted time for yourself to read up on L&D trends, benchmarking with other L&D leaders to understand what tech they’re using. Sometimes that can give new insights listening to podcasts like this or going to L&D or ed-tech conferences following tech thought leaders like Stella. I think it’s really important just to open your mind and then consider, I think we’ve mentioned this, but really consider to always be on top of the technology roadmaps of your vendors. That always gives me great insights into what’s ahead in the learning space.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I agree. I think first of all, I think cut yourself some slacks. Don’t feel like you have to keep up with everything we can’t, and it would just stress you get stressed out. I think we already have enough of that the past few years about being stressed out, feeling burnout, and it really doesn’t help with that. I really like Elizabeth’s point about maybe set aside some time with that intention of learning. I think we are learning people. I think we’re good at doing that already. Just don’t feel like you have to boil the ocean. And what I’d like to keep an eye out on is actually look beyond what’s happening in L&D. Look beyond the domain of education.
As we all know, learning tech, it’s not always in the cutting edge. Look at what happened in consumer tech. It trickles on eventually to learning maybe three years from now. So I often keep my eyes out on what’s happening in the consumer grade technologies. Look at, for example, what’s happening in Vegas. Consumer electronic shelf, CES logs are very interesting products that are still at the proof of concept stage that are just about to launch these products and it give you an indication of what’s coming up next. Again, that in itself is overwhelming. It has thousands of vendors, but just some highlights, right? AI is very big there, and you might want to see how AI is being used in consumer grade products. A lot of that, it’s a solution looking for a problem. But that would also become like that in our space too, right? There’s apparently [an] AI toothbrush that would actually talk to you as you brush your teeth.
Elizabeth Greene:
Yes, yes. My sons have a toothbrush that has an app. Yes.
Dr. Lee:
Yes. And it gives you dashboard data. Does he like it?
Elizabeth Greene:
No. They think we can track it.
Dr. Lee:
It gives me, in the learning space, you start seeing a little bit of maybe contextual help coming into play. So a lot of what’s happening in the consumer grade products is making use of that contextual information and incorporate that into a personalized feedback. Think about the application in L&D is that contextual information could be very useful and powerful when giving you feedback at the moment of needs. And we talk about that for years in L&D. And that is a trend that I think it’s coming, but it’s not here yet. It might take another two to three years. And then other thing to keep up is, I think it’s becoming big like I mentioned before, or bigger is the whole need for policies, the need for guidelines, the need for standards, the need to pay more attention to ethics and other related issues.
So I think read and learn and understand a little bit about that. I think having a more skeptical and more analytical approach, it’s very, very healthy resources. All tech is human. I think it’s a good site to look at. There are others that I think there’s a center for ethics. So look, again, broader than just L&D, ethical concerns. Look at what is doing out there, what are some ethical concerns that happen out there in the world? Because what’s happening out in the world, it’s likely to be the same problem that we’re dealing in L&D. So look beyond that.
Elizabeth Greene:
Great. And learning who to, I mean, I just happened to be on LinkedIn and it gave me a nudge that the CES keynote was going on with the Siemens CEO, and that’s where I learned about their partnership Sony. So it’s just like happenstance that happened to come across the CES keynote that talked about their new partnership with Sony, and then they’re talking about what they’re doing with automation and cars and what they’re doing with scanning machines and healthcare. So I really like that point is kind of getting outside of your own circle of influence and seeing what else is going on.
Dr. Lee:
But I think the other thing it, it’s hard because there’s so much, so many people are talking about so many different things. It’s the ability to filter who do you listen? Did you listen to the doomsday prediction about AI is going to kill us all right? You kind of have to put on that critical thinking head to say, oh, is this evidence-based? Does this person has credibility? Is this content even… is it an opinion piece, or is it based on some kind of research or some kind of case studies? I think there’s so much misinformation. There’s a lot of also regurgitation of the same thing that I see so many [articles about] “5, 15 tips on Using ChatGPT.” There’s so many different [resources] like that out there. So you don’t need to read or learn from 20 different sources like that, but more about pick and choose a diversity of input. I would also say, look, outside North America, look outside the more Euro-centric view of looking at this technology because that’s already baked in based on the training data. There’s already biases because we are looking at AI from a very Euro-centric or white-centric kind of view. So I would also look at use cases from around the world.
Elizabeth Greene:
It’s funny what you’re saying reminds me of when I enter a prompt and to ChatGPT and whatever spits out, I can’t take it as true form. You have to do use your own brain and thoughts and thinking and validating what is true, what you learned.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Definitely. Well, before we wrap up today, as we’ve established, navigating this technology space is extremely challenging, especially for L&D professionals who are not technology experts. What skills do learning leaders need to optimize learning technologies in their organizations that may help them feel a little more confident in navigating this technology space?
Elizabeth Greene:
It’s tough for L&D leaders now. We’ve got to be able to have a unique blend of skills that bridge the gap between human needs and technical capabilities. So on the basic level, I would say technical acumen to some extent broaden your understanding of learning technology, having that ability to evaluate select technology, staying up to date on emerging trends, secondary more for L&D leaders. But having that strategic vision, you have to be able to align the technology with your learning and business goals and connecting the dots between technology and overall learning strategy, ensuring you have a learning technology roadmap. I honestly didn’t start that until a few years ago. And now I have a technology learning roadmap that’s part of my overall strategy and vision as well. And then two skills that I’m stealing from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report. But one of the critical skills, I think it was number two, creative thinking and the ability to come up with unique solutions to problems. And then curiosity, which was number five. I think on the top skills and the impulse to explore new possibilities is really valuable to optimize learning technology.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I think pretty similar. I think adding onto the creative thinking, I would call it, I don’t know, convergence thinking. It’s the ability to integrate … or systems thinking. It’s another aspect that I think we often get caught up in our world or organizations that silo and you don’t get the real across, especially in L&D, sometimes we focus on what’s happening in L&D and we don’t talk to even across the organization. So to have that view, I think it’s important. And also to understand just despite implementing a learning tech or a suite of learning techs doesn’t even mean it always have a positive impact to the organization, or it doesn’t mean it is good for employee learning. You have to think about is this aligned to your business goals or also what problem are you solving or what opportunities are you bringing by introducing this new technology.
I also would say in terms of skill sets or mindset, be prepared to change your mind as technology evolves. I had to do that several times last year. As AI evolves, you can say, oh, well Chad, GPD doesn’t give you reference sources, so this is a problem. But then the next thing you know, they start giving you citations. But then the next thing you need to think about is, are the citations any good? Are they true? Right? So you have to kind of change your mind and evaluate different things about the same tech as it evolves. So I would say update assumptions regularly and cost reference technology beyond the L&D applications.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Perfect. So to conclude, are there any final takeaways that you’d like to leave our listeners with today?
Dr. Lee:
I feel like given all the takeaways already in our conversation.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
Yes, we’ve covered a lot of ground here.
Elizabeth Greene:
I think for me, and we said it in some of the skill sets, but being open-minded and curious, the technology shaping our world, impacting our learning habits and behaviors is not going away. It’s really unpredictable. It’s forever changing. So staying on top of the trends is important, but also experiment with the new technology yourself. Get a feel for how they work. So I’m personally testing outside of work. I’m testing Beautiful AI, which is a PowerPoint generator based on palms. Bard AI, that’s a nice one. Oh, you’re testing that too. Are you testing Bard AI just came out through Google, their [version of] ChatGPT. I’m testing that one more as like a research partner testing my assumptions.
I did test study fetch just for fun and then assemble they, I know Stella, you mentioned a lot of free tools. I went on to assemble and they let me build a sample course for free. This is all fun. Yeah, it’s just for fun learning outside of work. And then inside of work, your organization might have enabled Microsoft copilot. We just pilot. We’re piloting that now and it’s really an AI companion for all of our office products. So test, experiment, learn how to write good prompts, I think is key. And then just try not to get lost in a clutter. So as we mentioned, mapping out what you have, how does it align with business strategy, L&D strategy, be really thoughtful about what the right learning technology is for your organization and for your learners to have the biggest impact. Those are my key takeaways.
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I think my takeaway is don’t get caught up in the hype of AI. I personally do not like the term AI because by calling it intelligent, it gives people unrealistic expectations of what the tool can do. It is at the end of the day, a tool that can help us do our jobs. So don’t get too caught up and recognizing that we are still the one that need to evaluate, the one that needs to figure out what makes sense, what context is appropriate, and we are the one that also need to push back when it’s used inappropriately. So I think go in when your eyes wide open. Yeah, experiments, but don’t think it’s going to be this magic that I’ve heard people say that when testing out tools, they were like, oh my God, this is magical. This is amazing. But stay grounded in understanding everything has risk. We have to think about that. And also everything has opportunity cost, so stay grounded as you keep experimenting with these tools.
Sarah Gallo:
Yeah, so many great takeaways and tips, really throughout this whole episode. So on that note, thank you both so much for speaking with us today on the podcast. How can our listeners get in touch with you if they’d like to reach out after the episode?
Dr. Lee:
Yeah, I’m sorry, Elizabeth, do you want to go?
Elizabeth Greene:
Oh, I just on LinkedIn, you couldn’t find me. Elizabeth Greene on LinkedIn.
Dr. Lee:
I was going to say the same. I’m most active on LinkedIn. Also paradoxlearning.com is my company. Also, I post a lot of my resources out there. So feel free to reach out to me, either to their website or LinkedIn to have continued conversation.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz:
To learn more about learning technologies, visit the shownotes for this episode at TrainingIndustry.com/TrainingIndustryPodcast.
Sarah Gallo:
And if you enjoyed this episode, let us know. Rate or review us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Until next time!
Speaker:
If you have feedback about this episode or would like to suggest a topic for a future program, email us at TrainingIndustry.com or use the Contact Us page at TrainingIndustry.com. Thanks for listening to the Training Industry podcast.
