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If there’s one thing nearly every business is discussing, it’s the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Computers that can learn and simulate human tasks have the potential to make many operational practices and processes more efficient and accurate.
One of the less-talked-about processes AI tools significantly impact is employee training. AI can transform how you offer corporate training and how effective it is for your employees by simplifying the process and tailoring it to each employee.
Before we offer tips on incorporating AI into your employee training initiatives, let’s explore how AI positively impacts corporate training.
AI’s Impact on Employee Training
When employees engage in effective training, their skillsets and abilities grow, increasing their productivity. And that, in turn, leads to a more profitable company that serves its clientele better.
That said, the hard part about training is how time-consuming it can be. It can also be a complex process to create because you have to accommodate various learning styles and development plans.
Fortunately, AI can help. Leaning on AI in your training program can result in reduced training costs, more efficient creation of training content and courses, personalized learning paths for employees, and meaningful insights into how to improve the training experience.
Let’s look at each in more detail below.
Reduced Training Costs
There’s a lot that goes into creating an effective corporate training program, from creating content for each course to assigning courses to every employee to following up on missed training, to continually improving the program.
If you tried to do all of this manually, it could be incredibly time-consuming. Training in this way also requires a team of people to get everything done to the highest quality. The expenses associated with forming a team and doing time-consuming tasks can add up.
AI can help you save money on training costs like these. You can delegate time-consuming tasks like assigning courses or creating content to AI tools. Because of this, there’s no need for a large team for managing your training program, saving you labor costs.
Intelligent Content Creation
For training programs to be impactful, they must be detailed and cover everything your employees need to know to get their jobs done well. This means you’ll need to create a lot of training content for your various modules.
Although creating content manually is a noble gesture, it can take a lot of time and brainpower. Thankfully, AI-generated content is an option. Of course, you’ll need to read over and edit what these tools produce to ensure it’s accurate and engaging. But it’s much less time-consuming and energy-intensive to edit content than it is to create it from scratch every time and edit it.
Rely on AI-powered content generation tools to produce content for your training modules quickly and efficiently.
Personalized Learning Pathways
The best part about AI is its ability to learn over time. The more someone interacts with an AI tool, the more that tool learns about a person’s behaviors. As a result, AI can offer an experience that’s tailored to the person.
In this case, it can personalize the training pathway for each employee. Based on the training an employee engages in and how they navigate the platform, AI can offer suggestions for what training to do next and what features to explore to better the education experience for that particular employee.
For example, let’s say you are training an employee on cybersecurity. Your new hire takes the first course on cybersecurity risks to gain awareness about why good cyber hygiene is important. Now that AI knows the employee completed a cybersecurity course, it will suggest the next best courses to take, like what phishing and other common cybersecurity threats are, and best practices for securing company devices.
AI can personalize this employee’s cybersecurity training even more by suggesting training on cybersecurity incidents specific to their department or role, or by recommending interactive games to help your new hire absorb the cybersecurity concepts they’re learning.
In addition to specificity, training in this way can have another distinct advantage. Employees are more likely to enjoy training and soak up what they learn when it feels like the process was made for them.
Tips for Using AI in Your Corporate Employee Training Program
The positive impact AI can have on employee training is evident. There’s no reason not to give it a try in your training initiatives. But how?
Incorporating AI into your corporate training program is a detailed task. However, it’s doable, so long as you’re organized and strategic in your approach. Start with an analysis of your current training program.
Identifying What Processes Could Benefit from AI
Incorporating AI into your training program because everyone is talking about it isn’t a wise decision. You need to be thoughtful about how to best use AI capabilities in your training program.
Instead, you need to identify what in your training program can benefit from AI. Where could you incorporate it to make training experiences better for employees?
For example, let’s look at the onboarding process for new hires. Before the first day, you send out welcome emails and ready the new employee’s workspace. On the first day, introductions, a workplace tour, and meetings with HR and management happen. And in the first week, they start to train, which needs to happen as quickly as possible so that they can start contributing to the team and achieving business goals. They also must be guided through that training to ensure they finish it.
If you find that your onboarding process doesn’t include quick distribution of training modules to new hires and a guide through that training, you’ve found a place where AI can help.
An AI-powered training platform can ensure every new employee is automatically assigned the proper training based on the role they’re filling. And as they move through each module, AI can provide them with the next one to complete to keep them on track and engaged in a personalized training experience.
Analyze your training program needs when it comes to how you create and deploy your training program, what’s in it, and how employees are currently navigating the process. Make notes about what’s working and what isn’t. Take what isn’t and see if AI can make it more efficient.
Choose the Right Training Platform
Some businesses build their training programs from scratch with developers and software designers. But a lot of companies use employee training software to launch their training programs.
These platforms already have the tools you need to build a corporate training program unique to your workforce, like course creation tools, content templates, knowledge repositories, and task-tracking features. These platforms also already have AI capabilities built into them.
For example, they can collect data on what courses your employees complete, what resources they visit, and how they navigate the platform to personalize the experience each time they log on.
Thorough research on the employee training programs available is crucial. Start with a Google search. Dive into the capabilities of platforms with good reviews. Look for specific information on how the platform uses AI to better the experience. Request a demo if you can.
Get deep into researching employee training platforms to ensure you’re choosing one that meets the needs of your team and relies on modern technology like AI.
By Indiana Lee, BOSS contributor
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