Photography by Birzer Photo, Inc
Buffeted by the constantly shifting winds of change and technologies that seem to evolve by the nano-second, what should today’s Learning and Development (L&D) professionals do?
“Remember to panic responsibly,” advised Skillable CLO in Residence Karie Willyerd only somewhat facetiously at Training’s Learning Leaders Summit (LLS), appropriately held at tech giant Oracle’s Waterfront Campus September 17 in Austin, TX.
“Then spend 10 hours getting to know artificial intelligence (AI). And think about constantly unlearning and relearning what we think AI can doand how it can play many roles in the workplace,” she continued. “I think of this like going into space exploration. There’s no map.”
That’s one reason a recurring theme at the summit attended by nearly 50 Learning and Development (L&D) professionals was the need for effective change management and measurement strategies to spark employee behavior change—including adoption of AI—and leverage learning to achieve business outcomes.
“It’s alluring to get enchanted with everything AI can offer,” cautioned Indeed’s Jaimie Krause, director of Learning & Development, and Jackie Clifford, manager of the Go To Market Acceleration L&D team. “But it’s like redecorating the house when the foundation is crumbling.”
Instead, Krause said, “we need to recast our role and adopt a business-first mindset. At Indeed, we wanted to build a chain between what we enable and how that connects to outcomes. We don’t want L&D to be seen as a cost center, but as an investment.”
What is Indeed’s global measurement strategy? “We compare apples to apples instead of apples to fruit roll-ups,” Krause said simply. “That’s why we are invested in everyone having data fluency skills so they can identify gaps and red flags. Associates need to be able explain the OKRs (objectives and key results) to the business.”
SHARING BEST PRACTICES
For many organizations, upskilling the workforce to use AI and personalizing learning with AI are some of their key objectives. Lisa O’Donnell, senior director of AI and Learning Innovation at KPMG, explained how the firm is using bots that can suggest a course schedule based on an employee’s role, profile, goals, etc. And AI-driven simulations allow learners to give feedback using their own tone of voice and their own words. “We also are using large language models (LLMs) to gather the data and analyze it behind firewalls,” O’Donnell said.
Chuck Sigmund, manager of Learning Strategy at Oracle NetSuite, shared how he spearheaded an initiative to help end-users utilize Oracle-approved generative AI products, including starter prompt libraries for specific roles and business challenges.
PwC likewise created a prompt library, but one that is specifically for L&D. The firm also hosts “prompt parties” to help teams brainstorm prompts. “In addition, we co-created low-code apps to do L&D-specific features,” PwC Director of Learning Architecture Lance Brown noted. “And we just launched a content generator and generative AI content review tool to develop first drafts that our people will refine.”
Pfizer Director of Learning Strategy Kristy Singletary leads the company’s AI Academy, an inclusive AI ecosystem launched in February that aims to provide a learning hub of diverse experiences where colleagues develop AI fluency to support their learning agility. Levels include exploring AI, understanding AI (bronze knowledge certification), practicing AI (silver fluency certification), and mastering AI (gold AI mastery certification).
ENGAGING HEARTS AND MINDS
While much of the day revolved around technology, KBR Vice President of People & Talent Bob Newhouse rounded out the summit with a story about his organization told in the form of a fairy tale complete with a kingdom under siege by dragons and a reminder about keeping “human in the loop” when it comes to engaging employees’ hearts and minds in learning. “What are the dragons that could be circling your business?” he asked. “Those are the things L&D needs to be cognizant of.”
