An L&D Manager’s Guide To Becoming AI-Powered
AI is the hot trend of L&D right now. It has got the industry on hold, with everyone trying their best to find ways to effectively utilize AI as the magic wand it is promised to be. But introducing any change to an organization that has its set ways of doing things brings reactions ranging from outright denial of its need to barely disguised concerns about the motives.
When we consider AI as a changing force for organizations specifically, we need to recognize that this wave will come to you. AI’s penetration across functions is a question of when, not if. The only thing that you can control is how it happens.
If we assume that you will not do anything about AI at work, does that mean that things will forever remain the same? Absolutely not! Some of your employees will start using the latest AI tool to cut down on effort. Another might even share some data that shouldn’t have been shared with an external party. And so goes the tale of ungoverned behavior with a new piece of tech that makes exciting promises, gives your competition new highs, and is about to disrupt everything.
So, the core question is: can you afford not to have an AI adoption strategy? Not really. That’s where we need to plug in the principles of change management. Effectively managing change is all about setting the vision and building its roadmap. Briefly, a leader’s job in any change process is to visualize the outcomes, define how to reach them within practical constraints, and sell these plans to other stakeholders. This would include extensively communicating to understand the expectations and preferences of others and taking an active role in taking the initial steps on behalf of the team.
So, keeping this perspective about change management in mind, the adoption of AI for L&D goes in three steps:
- Understand what AI is and why you should use it.
- Understand how to use AI in L&D.
- Convince everyone else about the above two.
In this article, we break down the troubles that the third and last stage brings.
Effectively Managing Change With A Comprehensive AI Adoption Strategy
Adopting AI in your L&D processes is imperative, given the industry’s rapid movements in that direction. Yet, there’s often resistance on the way. People in your organization could resist adopting AI for several reasons, depending on where and who they are.
For instance:
- Individual contributors on your team could harbor anxiety about being replaced by AI since their roles involve repetitive tasks that can be easily automated.
- The learners who participate in L&D programs might lack AI literacy to interact with it effectively and harness its power, thus assuming it to be a redundant tool or a lousy assistant at best.
- The middle managers in your L&D function could be too overworked to consider another area for upskilling. Some might think of AI as another fad that will die a few months later.
- Senior folks, including the C-suite, could have entirely different reasons, like a skeptical view toward tech itself. (Remember that they started their careers at a time when classroom learning was as luxurious as it got.)
- Decision makers can also question the costs and benefits of any new method of Learning and Development you propose.
And so on. One thing is clear: the resistance to AI adoption is a multipronged challenge. The different challengers have separate reasons, ranging from anxiety, illiteracy, skepticism, and overwhelm. The field of change management offers lessons for L&D professionals on how to work with these people and get them on board with adopting AI in L&D processes.
Step-By-Step Guide To AI Adoption For L&D
Let’s examine these change management strategies and how they can help AI adoption for L&D in detail below:
1. Bring Method Into Madness
When you are unsure how exactly you will add AI into your L&D workflows, there is a good likelihood that your people won’t be either. If there’s one kryptonite to team cohesion, it’s chaos. That’s when most changes fail—there’s no clear plan, and things are done on an ad hoc basis, signaling the immaturity of the leadership.
What should you do?
- Create an AI policy and strategy document for your team
It sets the baseline, defines how decisions are to be made, and gives the team something to fall back on when they are confused. - Become a role model for your team when it comes to adopting AI in workflows regularly
To begin with, you can start with small examples, talk about your experience with your team, and gather their ideas. - Strategically work on enhancing AI literacy for your entire team
It could involve taking up structured learning in the form of courses or training modules, which is fundamental to understanding how AI applications work and implementing them in your work. - Explore AI products and vendors right from the start
At the beginning of this process, you may not be clear on the precise needs of your team. But by exploring what different vendors offer, you can pick the right areas where AI helps your L&D function.
2. Create A Vision For An AI-Powered Future
Identify what your leadership would love to have: is it a more accessible Learning and Development style? Is it targeted L&D that hits the business metrics? Is it a competitive advantage? Build the business case for AI adoption in L&D by making numbers your best friends and understanding what makes the needle move at a high level. Changes are sold based on changes in outcomes.
What should you do?
- Clearly articulate why adopting AI is the need of the hour
Supplement your arguments with specific examples, research across the industry, and case studies from similar organizations. - A reasonable cost-benefit analysis always helps the push for change
Consider the ROI and build projections to demonstrate your contribution. - Be prepared for the concerns that will come your way, such as the ethical aspects and data privacy
Do your research and select vendors that have used appropriate safeguards to mitigate the risks associated with AI applications to assuage the C-suite.
3. Use Stakeholder Management Practices
Any change process involves multiple stakeholders, and each has its perspectives and problems, which are a lot to handle for the L&D head. As we saw above, in the case of AI in L&D, the stakeholders don’t hold the same concerns. Thus, making a case for them means focusing on different points and optimizing for different goals. You should borrow a leaf from the manager’s stakeholder balancing playbook.
What should you do? First, understand the needs and contexts of different stakeholders. For example, you start by identifying the key players in your organization. Next up, learn what matters to them, like:
- L&D team: Job security, skill obsolescence
- SMEs: Content quality, expertise validation
- IT: Integration, security
- Legal: Compliance, IP rights
- Management: Cost, ROI
- Learners: Privacy, learning effectiveness
Develop a way to highlight the right value proposition to the right group. Your AI in L&D strategy should have something for everything!
4. Use Phased Rollouts And Pilots To Test Waters
Don’t go all in at once. Shock therapy is not advisable when it comes to creating lasting changes. Instead, we want to go slow and steady on a curve that allows for incremental growth in the usage of AI for L&D. You might begin by getting the C-suite on board for a one-training program consisting of 20 participants only and then move further based on the results.
What should you do?
- Run pilots and prototypes of your ideas to show how they will work. This helps answer questions, provides more clarity about the practical aspects of the process, and also creates proof of impact for skeptical parties.
- If you are partnering with an external service provider or vendor, generously use free trials and have calls with the team to create custom solutions that match your team’s needs. This will help you get more out of the AI implementation for L&D.
- Keep an eye on the feedback you are receiving and the results you see. These are going to be your stepping stones toward bigger and better things.
- Build a network of “AI champions,” essentially the people who are enthusiastic about AI and new tech in your organization. The more influential they are in roles (like managers and team leaders), the easier the path to adoption becomes for you.
5. Overcommunicate And Educate Others
As the change maker, the burden of the first move is on you. If you feel the industry and your competitors are moving ahead, you will have to start chasing them and ensuring that your organization is joining you for the ride. The right information about what you are doing and how you are going to do it goes a long way in winning support. Just think how invested we get in the growth of someone who posts consistently about it on social media.
What can you do?
- Enhance your knowledge about AI and use it to create a dialogue with your team about the possibilities of adding AI into L&D workflows. The more people become confident about their actions, the higher their openness and risk appetite. It is particularly effective with a group that is not adverse to AI but unaware of its potential.
- Apart from general conversations about AI, talk about the AI-based L&D initiatives you are creating. Answer common questions like who will be involved, the objectives, and so on to create interest and engagement before the rollouts.
- Provide resources to support the above two activities. Build a pan-organization system for anyone to understand and apply AI to their work at small levels and share it with others.
Conclusion
Managing change is one of the true tests of any manager or leader. Plenty fail in the holy grail, but the successful ones forever leave their mark. With the magnitude of developments that AI brings to the L&D landscape, it would be fit to apply the knowledge of managing change that leaders have used to date to this function. Common ideas like using phased rollouts, turning people into change champions, and enabling change by adapting goals to different perspectives can help you out in this journey. The change itself, AI’s addition to everything around us, is inevitable. The question is, when do you join the trail?
