The single most defining innovation in our Fourth Industrial Revolution is the explosive launch of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s left everyone scrambling to learn more about how to harness all its mighty power to give them an advantage in the workplace. When it comes to measuring the effectiveness and impact of training programs, AI will intersect and influence three major aspects of our industry:

1. Increasing training impact with AI – How can we use AI to increase the impact and effectiveness of the training that is designed, developed and delivered to participants?
2. Measuring training impact with AI – How can we use AI to improve the assessments, tools and data-driven methods we use to measure training impact?
3. Measuring the impact of AI training – How can we actually measure the impact and return on investment (ROI) of AI training when employees take the plunge and really start applying it on their jobs?

Increasing Training Impact with AI

As training professionals, when we think of leveraging the breadth and strength of AI, our first and most obvious use is the creation of effective content. Gone are the days of starting from scratch, manually pulling together the world’s most relevant research studies and architecting every last component of a learning experience.  AI now finds and curates the most globally applicable, consensus-based content that will be most effective at upskilling and influencing training participants.

AI usage can:

• Cull and develop training content that boils all the information and learning in the world down to the most recent and relevant.
• Tap into the most engaging media, tools, and delivery modes to increase training effectiveness.
• Use predictive analytics and algorithms to target and push customized content to specific learners based on their current and most urgent development needs.

As far as measuring training impact, we know that participants are more engaged at Level 1, learn more at Level 2 and apply more training behaviors on the job at Level 3, if they feel the training is specially customized for their personal growth needs.

Measuring Training Impact With AI

For those who have taken on the daunting, but extremely rewarding task of measuring and reporting the impact of training to stakeholders, the big question is – how can we use AI to help us with the very process of measurement? That is, how can we better measure the effectiveness of each program, as well as measure more programs. The answer so far is it can provide great help designing more effective assessments, gathering data more efficiently and analyzing the correlation between data at various levels of impact.

In this process, AI can:

• Help design the right questions and use the right scaling when you are asking participants about their learning experience.
• Help you use creative ways of embedding the feedback tools and data collecting methods right into the training (e.g. chatbots that pop up in real time as opposed to old survey methods that manually launch feedback tools post training).
• Use predictive analytics to crunch vast amounts of data into meaningful “stories of impact.” For example: Is there a correlation between how participants react to training at Level 1, how they apply it with new, on the job behaviors at Level 3 and how those behaviors predict increases in the most important performance metrics at Level 4?

AI can help with some of the more daunting tasks that have discouraged L&D groups in the past. These challenges have long included things like knowing which questions to ask to get the right data, and then what to do with all the performance data that they may already have at their fingertips. Most importantly, it might help them find and collect the most relevant published case studies that show them exactly how other companies have measured impact successfully in the past.

Measuring the Impact of AI Training

As someone who measures training every day for a robust portfolio of clients and organizations, the biggest question I get so far around AI is: “If we have to train our employees in AI, how do we know if it worked and made them more effective at their jobs?” For this, you can measure the effectiveness and impact of AI training using a simple 6-level approach that I’ve been using for all my training impact case studies.

Essentially, it asks 6 simple questions:

• Did the training get them engaged and more excited about using AI?
• Did they learn new and valuable ways of using AI in their specific roles?
• Are they going to be able to apply what they learned in the weeks and months after their AI training to help them improve key behaviors on the job?
• Will these new and improved behaviors on the job help increase the core and crucial health metrics of the business (e.g., revenue, profit, cost saves and efficiencies)?
• If they do increase these crucial metrics on the job and reap quantifiable benefits, do those benefit outweigh the costs of AI training?
• What are some things happening back on the job that are either helping or hindering them from applying all their new AI skills and behaviors in their roles?

As AI builds momentum as an incredible tool to measuring training effectiveness, all stakeholders investing in AI will want to know whether or not it was a good investment. If we are really going to say that AI increases productivity and performance, then we need to show it with real data. Our 6-level approach will allow us to quantify the value of these benefits and compare them to the costs.

Conclusion

While we all aspire, in every industry, to be on the leading edge of AI, we may at the same time feel a natural apprehension that comes with any powerful innovation that could change the way the world works. I can certainly say this is true when it comes to measuring training impact. As with any change, if you see it as a monster that you should run away from and avoid as long as possible, you’ll spend all your future days in a panic looking over your shoulder for that scary monster. However, if you see it as opportunity to make your life easier and more productive, you may soon find yourself running toward it with open arms.

In the present article, we demonstrated how AI can increase training impact and help you measure training impact and reap measurable impact and ROI for all types of employees in any industry. These are just a few of the great intersects we’ve seen so far and I’m excited to learn many more. My recommendation to anyone would be to run toward this huge opportunity no matter what industry you’re in. It’s certainly better than running from a monster.

Ready to optimize the way you evaluate your training programs and prove the impact of your training initiatives? You can learn more from the author, Dr. Paul Leone, by participating in Training Industry’s Measuring the Impact of L&D Certificate program, or you can start proving your impact today by accessing the evaluation template below.