The new wave: the impact of AI on elearning by Mario Planas
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, companies are increasingly adopting this technology to transform their training and development processes, making them more personalized, efficient and effective. In this context, Mario Planas, founder and director of Actua, shared his thoughts on how AI is impacting training within organizations and what the future holds in this area.
Generative AI has marked a before and after in training departments. Its ability to automate tasks and create content tailored to individual needs is redefining the way organizations approach learning. Mario tells how, at Actua, we have been integrating these technologies to offer innovative solutions that not only improve the quality of training, but also optimize resources and development times.
In addition, Mario takes the opportunity to talk about the imminent launch of Articulate AI, Articulate’s virtual assistant that promises to revolutionize the world of elearning content creators. This new tool is designed to facilitate the creation of training content, enabling professionals to develop high-quality materials more quickly and efficiently.
We leave you the complete interview so you don’t miss anything!
E-learning is a learning methodology that is still booming in companies. For which types of training is it being used the most?
In Actua we had the opportunity to gather information on the current situation of the Training and Development departments in Spanish companies and from this we have produced the “Report on the current situation of Training and Development teams in organizations”.Report on the current situation of Training and Development teams in organizations.“with a clear purpose: to understand and analyze the current situation.
Although the use of learning technologies has become more widespread, the maturity of technology use for the most innovative learning approaches remains low. LMS platforms and authoring tools are the only technologies where adoption is advanced across the board.
In all other areas, including social and collaborative learning, tailored and personalized training, as well as coaching and feedback, usage is not very advanced.
Boosting professional development, improving onboarding processes and Regulatory Compliance continue to be strategic priorities in Training for this year.
How are technological advances, especially AI, currently impacting corporate elearning?
Although AI has been present in learning systems in various forms for many years, the advent of generative AI has caused a sea change in the interest of the most innovative L&D departments. Their expectation is that AI will either already be embedded in their solutions or will be on their vendor’s roadmap in the near term.
There are enormous opportunities to automate and personalize many processes for everyone involved in learning: learners, managers, tutors and administrators.
But most learning technology vendors are still trying to determine their approach to AI, often with significant concerns about AI ethics and trust.
What has changed in your company due to the incorporation of AI in your projects?
The Digital Learning department has been using AI for several years. Its use has evolved as the tools have evolved. While a few years ago we used it for translations or to generate voiceovers, it is now being used to create better scripts, unique images for courses, write summaries, create music and generate virtual avatars: a world of possibilities for creating unique content.
Tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, HeyGen, DeepL or Uppbeat allow us to be more agile in the production of courses for our clients.
Our commitment to this technology allows us to offer more attractive, efficient and personalized courses, which translates into a better learning experience for students.
At the product level, Articulate since its inception over 20 years ago has transformed the way companies design their training content by empowering hundreds of thousands of training professionals around the world to create impactful elearning content in an effective and collaborative way.
Articulate AI is designed to empower content creators to deliver high-quality training faster than ever before.
Generative AI is going to revolutionize the way we generate training content and Articulate, thanks to its innovation capacity, will once again lead this new stage of transformation by integrating spectacular AI functionalities into its products.
As a partner of Articulate and Vyond, which also incorporates generative AI capabilities, our role will be to provide the necessary support to our customers to create high quality elearning training faster than ever before.
What challenges have you set yourselves in this area for 2024? In what aspects do you want to improve the projects you make available to your customers?
On the one hand, our challenge is to help L&D departments acquire the necessary skills to seamlessly integrate AI into learning strategies, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
To help them gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of AI, discover innovative approaches to leading AI initiatives within their organizations, and develop strategic frameworks for improving the use of AI in L&D.
On the other hand, offer our customers generic AI functionalities and customized AI developments in our Articulate and Totara Talent Experience Platform products to enhance user experiences, personalize learning paths, automate content creation and improve analytics, among other applications.
We want to attract customers who are tired of using the training module of their HCM system with all the limitations it entails, to integrate our elearning solutions into their training ecosystem to jointly devise a modern and integrated environment that facilitates a truly personalized, motivating and collaborative learning experience, and at the same time facilitates effective and flexible management of the environment by all users.
