Generative AI Marks A New Era For The £250B Corporate L&D Industry

The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries globally, including the $250 billion learning and development (L&D) sector. Despite its potential, there has been limited public data on the measurable impacts of using generative AI for instructional design tasks. L&D leaders and executives require this information to plan initiatives and allocate resources effectively.

Soffos and Navigant Learning collaborated to measure AI's impact on instructional design tasks. Their goal was to help teams use AI to accelerate and expand learning programs, enhance creativity, address the global skills gap, and solve challenges in meeting organizational learning needs. The first part of their experiment results is now available.

"AI is not a replacement for humans in L&D, but rather a powerful tool that can augment human capabilities and enhance creativity," says Ken Hubbell, CEO of Soffos. "Our experiment with Navigant Learning demonstrates the potential of AI to change how organizations approach learning and development."

The experiment utilized Soffos’ advanced generative AI platform, which includes modules for micro-lesson creation, Q&A generation, and AI Assistants creation (referred to as "Force Multipliers" on the platform). The focus was on a 36:1 ILT Course.

Against baseline metrics, there was a total time-saving acceleration of 41%. This acceleration was mainly observed in the Design and Development phases, with some Level 2 steps speeding up by more than 80%. The most significant time reduction occurred during the High-Level Design Document creation, achieving a 90% acceleration.

"We believe that leveraging AI throughout the learning lifecycle will allow L&D professionals to address evolving needs comprehensively, building better training experiences at speed and scale with better price points to ultimately close skills gaps," says Ric Garner, a Partner at Navigant Learning. "To do this effectively, AI tools should be viewed with the goal of augmenting human capability, not replacing."

AI serves as a powerful complement to human L&D efforts, accelerating most steps in the learning development lifecycle and better equipping organizations to meet the demand for learning solutions. While these are early days, further integrations and automation, particularly in production steps, will continue to unlock new possibilities.

For more insights into Soffos' generative AI platform and additional AI-driven experiments in L&D, visit www.soffos.ai.