Set during World War II, the film “The Imitation Game” portrays mathematician Alan Turing’s creation of a machine capable of deciphering the German encryption device, “enigma.” Turing faces resistance from colleagues who deem the machine unnecessary. However, he emphasizes its potential to shorten the war and save lives, highlighting his responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) for a greater purpose.
Much like Turing’s intent to leverage AI responsibly, learning practitioners today face a dilemma amidst an unstable economy coupled with the power of generative AI (GAI) to automate 60-70% of the work activities that consume human’s time. Striking a balance between investing in GAI and human labor is poised to revolutionize learning experiences and demonstrate return on investment (ROI) more effectively and efficiently. The Turing test of evaluating a machine’s ability to exhibit human-like intelligence is more relevant than ever in the context of a growing learning and development (L&D) market.
While today content design, development and delivery are predominantly generated by humans, with little to no ROI realized, GAI can perform similar roles, if not better, including but not limited to curating personalized learning, providing real-time feedback, creating adaptive career and learning pathways, and calculating business value, all in a fraction of the time. For learning leaders, this presents the ultimate imitation game dilemma: navigating how to responsibly leverage AI while reimagining the role of humans.
To strike a balance, five emerging landmarks can guide learning practitioners:
1. Follow the money. Understand where your company is investing capital. This lends insight into where they are willing to take risks and focus on financial value creation. Understanding your company’s business model, risks, and opportunities will help you maximize human efforts and GAI capabilities to drive better alignment and advancement of company goals.
2. Establish human-centered design principles. Adapt IDEO’s design thinking, empathy-driven approach to understand user behavior and create learning products that cater to adult learner needs. More than ever, we need to index on the non-computable dimensions of the human. Adult learning is based on fundamental psychological needs. Human-centered design promotes focus on real human needs, fostering social existence and measurable learning.
3. Earmark innovation funds. GAI is reshaping the marketplace, workplace, and now, more than ever, the future workforce. Bill Gates’ revelation that AI could be the biggest advancement in computing since 1980 is playing out in every facet of our daily lives. GAI is writing and creating content, music, art, videos and more. It is no longer threatening to disrupt L&D; it is disrupting L&D. To keep pace, allocate and protect budget to accelerate adopting GAI to drive learning innovations, enhanced user experiences, substantive individual development plans, and business-relevant outcomes.
4. Form an AI learning squad. Assemble an agile team of internal and external experts, like “Skunk Works” projects, to develop human-centered learning solutions within 180 days, benefiting users and driving business success. This will untether the team from organizational red tape and allow a higher degree of autonomy in the interest of yielding viable solutions and prototypes in a shorter period of time.
5. Assess GAI versus L&D capability. Recognize the disruptive potential of generative AI in skills gap analysis, content development, personalized learning, real-time feedback, adaptive pathways, inclusivity and ROI analysis. Assess existing L&D function skills gaps. GAI can gather data and insights on a human’s skills, performance history and career path, along with business goals to benchmark and advance knowledge and skills that are complementary to GAI. By identifying and addressing both sets of capabilities, you revolutionize the way learning is delivered and experienced and can maximize workforce readiness.
These five landmarks are essential to aligning with and propelling business-critical goals. Maximizing human non-computable capabilities coupled with the highest best use of GAI has the potential to revolutionize the user experience and transcend the perennial challenge of L&D functions to demonstrate measurable business impact. That said, as exciting as the GAI possibilities are, “The Imitation Game” serves as a thought-provoking reminder of the need for responsible AI implementation even in the learning and development space. It emphasizes the importance of using technology for the greater good, benefiting both humans and company goals.
By responsibly leveraging AI and reimagining the role of humans, learning practitioners will be well-equipped to navigate the imitation game dilemma successfully.
