Training needs assessment

Before you create a training programme or deliver any training, conduct a needs assessment to identify current knowledge and skill gaps. This process typically takes place at the organisational, occupational or individual level. For an organisational-needs assessment, determine what knowledge and skills your company needs to remain competitive.

At the occupational level, you’re looking for the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by employees in a particular job group. Individual assessment focuses on a single employee’s ability to learn new skills or take on additional tasks. No matter which type of assessment you perform, you may need to analyse a large volume of data – and AI can help.

One of the best ways to use artificial intelligence in learning and development is to find patterns hidden in your HR data. AI can make it easier to identify skills gaps and can help you determine the best way to address them. You can also use AI to separate employees into groups based on department, skill level or years of experience. This makes it much easier to assess your training needs.

AI training programme development

Once you identify your training needs, create training programmes to address them. It takes time to develop modules of instructor-led training and online/virtual training modules. If you have several modules to develop, it could take months of work to finish a single programme.

AI corporate training tools drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to complete certain tasks, speeding up the programme-development process.

Brainstorming

If you’re running low on ideas, use AI to brainstorm. This is especially helpful for L&D professionals tasked with creating training programmes on topics outside their areas of expertise. 

For example, if your training programme focuses on operating a new piece of manufacturing equipment, you may not have any direct experience. You can use AI to learn more about the equipment and come up with topic ideas.

Image creation

Many training programmes benefit from the use of images to convey emotions or show trainees what something should look like under certain conditions. For example, factory employees may benefit from seeing photos of how to handle materials safely.

Before AI became widely available, L&D professionals had to source images from stock photo websites or hire a photographer to take custom images. This is both time-consuming and expensive. 

Fortunately, AI allows you to create images based on your company’s unique needs, potentially reducing the cost of training development and helping make sure every image is appropriate for trainees.

Content outlines

AI corporate training tools also help you create content outlines in much less time. An outline helps you understand where trainees are now and where you want them to be by the end of the training. 

For example, if you need trainees to understand how to use book-keeping software to produce income statements, your outline might include all the steps involved in launching the software, entering financial data and generating the final statement.

Outlines also help you stay organised and create effective employee training programmes. Instead of creating modules and then going back and working out the best order to deliver them in, you can use an AI-created outline to identify the best sequence.

Analysis of participant feedback

At the end of a training session, it’s common to request feedback from participants. If you only have a few trainees in your group, it’s fairly easy to analyse the responses. The more trainees you have, though, the longer it takes to analyse their feedback. 

One of the many benefits of AI in learning and development is that AI tools automate routine tasks. Instead of reviewing every survey response yourself, you can have AI review them and look for patterns. 

For example, a good AI tool can quickly calculate the percentage of employees who found the training helpful. You can use this feedback to adjust your training programmes based on participants’ needs.

Transcript creation

In some cases, employees can’t attend scheduled training sessions due to other work commitments. Team members may also miss training due to illness or some other type of family emergency. You don’t want them to miss out on important information, but you may not be able to deliver the training a second time.

With AI, it’s easy to create transcripts of every training session you hold. Employees may not be able to attend a session in person, but they can use the transcript to catch up on what they missed. You can even assemble the transcripts into a training manual, making it easy for future employees to benefit from, maybe even during an onboarding process.

Assessment of AI training effectiveness

If you’re going to invest in training, you need to make sure it’s effective. That is, did your team members learn what you needed them to learn? For example, if you deliver a training session on your company’s new ethics policy, you need to make sure that participants know what the policy entails.

One of the best ways to evaluate training effectiveness is to administer pre-tests and post-tests. The pre-test assesses what participants know before they complete training, while the post-test assesses what they know after training.

AI corporate training tools make it much easier to assess training effectiveness without relying on manual processes. For example, many L&D professionals use AI to come up with test questions and answer choices. It’s also possible to have AI score the tests and determine whether the average score increased after the training.

Content translation

If you work for a multinational company, you may have to deliver training in multiple languages. While you could pay a translator to make it accessible to employees in different countries, using AI to translate the content may be a more cost-effective solution. 

Training customisation

When it comes to training, not all team members have the same needs. Some, such as new employees, may need in-depth training, while others need a quick refresher. People also have different learning preferences, such as a desire to listen to lectures vs participate in on-the-job training. Using AI in onboarding, learning and development makes it easier to cater to each team member’s unique needs.

One way to benefit from AI in the L&D department is to create custom learning paths for each employee. A learning path consists of several related courses, enabling participants to acquire a new skill or gain new knowledge on a work-related subject.

For example, if you work for a retail shop, you can create learning paths for cashiers, front-end supervisors and stock associates. Each learning path is highly relevant to a specific group of participants, which may increase motivation.

Training support

Many companies offer self-paced training, guaranteeing that each team member has enough time to understand and retain the material. Although self-paced training has many benefits, employees may need additional support. AI makes it possible to deploy chatbots within your training programmes, giving employees the support they need without giving your L&D staff more tasks to complete.

For example, if an employee doesn’t understand a concept, they can use the chatbot to ask a question. The chatbot searches through a database of pre-programmed scripts to find any answer. In many cases, a chatbot delivers an answer within just a few seconds, allowing the employee to move on to the next training module.

AI training recommendations

You can even use AI to analyse data and recommend relevant training and development activities for each employee. For example, if an AI tool notices that a team member’s health and safety certificate is about to expire, it can recommend relevant certification prep courses.