It’s not a question of whether Gen-AI can change your L&D department. It will. And your department must substantially change it if you want it to play a critical role in your company.
It’s a bold assertion, and a key theme to emerge from The Shift Community’s summer blockbuster webinar A Closer Look at Skills in an AI-Driven World. We expect a proper summer blockbuster to provide scintillating content, star power, and a jam-packed audience, and this event certainly checked all the boxes.
The webinar focused on not just one, but the two big disruptors in the world of work right now: skills and AI. And the stars were there to light the way: CEO and market analyst Josh Bersin, Global Head of Learning and Capgemini University Estelle Maione, and Co-CEO of Degreed Max Wessel.
The idea was to mix analysts and daily practitioners and see what happens. Surprisingly, and despite each presenter coming from different perspectives, they aligned on several key points about the marketplace, skills, and more. One of those points of consensus was the blockbuster takeaway that Gen-AI will reshape L&D.
L&D must shift and upskill to remain relevant and critical in a Gen-AI world. How? Let’s take a closer look:
It’s not just AI–it’s Gen AI.
To start off, please take note that this wasn’t an event about any old AI—it was about Gen-AI. As Max, host of the webinar pointed out, the industry has used the buzzword AI as clickbait for years. But the difference between the AI of a few years ago and the Gen-AI of today is quite stark.
While AI is a 50-year-old concept, “today’s Gen-AI systems teach themselves based on data,” Bersin said. “It’s a totally different idea.” And the differences have consequences for everyone—including L&D.
The takeaway? As learning pros create new Gen-AI awareness and literacy programs, they need to take a hard look at what they’ve done in the past versus what they need to do going forward. “These are two different things that don’t come with the same level of complexity or impact,” Maione said. And with the level of complexity with Gen-AI, people will need to learn more than just how to use tools.
Employee Learning & Gen-AI: A Soft & Hard Skilling Approach
So what does L&D need to do differently to help employees prepare for the Gen-AI future? Because Gen-AI is, as Maione noted, more complex and disruptive, L&D needs to embrace a deeper and more holistic learning approach that combines soft and hard upskilling.
Of course, learning to use Gen-AI tools requires technical upskilling. But finding effective ways to leverage these tools into work also requires more honed and developed skills like critical thinking and problem-solving. This is why Gen-AI requires a two-pronged approach of hard and soft skills.
At Capgemini, Maione works hard to strike that hard skill and soft skill balance. “I’m trying to balance the focus,” she said. “It’s not either-or. [Employees] must have both to remain relevant.”
Upskilling Learning Pros for Gen-AI: Embracing Disruption
It’s not just building more comprehensive hard and soft skilling programs for employees that will change your job. Some of the core everyday tasks you perform as a learning and talent professional will be disrupted. After all, the mantra, “upskill or become obsolete” applies to everyone—and that includes learning professionals.
For example, a core task for many instructional designers, technologists, trainers, and L&D professionals is content development. Bersin shared how his company now puts together courses for a client academy in which 80 to 90% of the content is generated by Gen-AI. If you do the same, it means you’ll be spending a lot less time building content in the future—and that’s a huge shift.
What are the other ways that Gen-AI will disrupt your work as a learning and talent professional? You’d be wise to prepare for:
- Using AI to help you do the bulk of content development.
- Building a Gen-AI literacy program.
- Focusing less on formally assigned instructional design work.
- Incorporating more knowledge management capabilities into learning platforms.
- Getting your hands dirty and running Gen-AI experiments.
This article isn’t just clickbait. Gen-AI will reshape your L&D department. And to stay ahead, you’ll have to address it head-on, which requires significant changes and upskilling.
Watch the full webinar.
The insights don’t end here. Watch the webinar A Closer Look at Skills in an AI-Driven World on demand to learn more about the bullet points above the impact of Gen-AI on learning and HR professionals, skills and skills-based organizations, and market trends and predictions.
We’ve got a real summer blockbuster on our hands. So before you put on your sunscreen and head out for some summer fun, make sure to watch one of the L&D events of the summer.
And if you have a particular interest in all things skills, be sure to join The Shift Community.
