We’ve all been hearing a lot about generative AI and its ability to create content at near-human-level quality in just a matter of seconds. This output can take the form of text, images, audio, video, and even computer code, opening up unprecedented possibilities for improving the impact and efficiency of Customer Education programs in any industry.
The responsible use of generative AI combined with Skilljar’s product offerings and vast dataset will give our customers the best opportunities to drive innovation and business impact through learning. We are committed to closely collaborating with our customers and community as we navigate and shape our product strategy in the rapidly evolving field of generative AI.
What’s different about generative AI?
AI, or artificial intelligence, refers to the broad field of developing computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. It encompasses various techniques and approaches, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. Many Skilljar customers already leverage AI solutions to power their industry-leading software. For example, revenue-intelligence solutions provider Gong uses AI models to surface personalized insights and guidance that help users of their software understand the context of customer interactions to aid in the sales process.
Generative AI is a specific subset of AI that focuses on generating new content or data that draws from patterns and structures that appear in existing data. This novel information is accessed in near-real-time through inputs in the form of prompts, or messages, that users enter into a tool. Generative AI models aim to create original outputs, such as images, text, software code, music, and videos – all of which learning professionals can use to create training content, so it’s no surprise that Customer Education leaders are looking to understand how to leverage these new technologies.
Here, we discuss some of the tools Skilljar customers are using to jumpstart their Customer Education programs with generative AI, and what could be on the horizon as learning professionals continue to explore this revolutionary new medium. While we don’t endorse these tools or companies outright, we are happy to share these crowd-sourced insights with you and welcome your own additions to include in a future iteration of this guide!
How to leverage generative AI for Customer Education
1. Plan and organize course content
By inputting course objectives and desired outcomes, AI can suggest relevant topics, resources, and assessment methods. Learning content creators can then refine these suggestions into a structured curriculum. By using AI to handle the early stages of planning out lesson organization, administrators can save their time for the high-level strategic thinking that moves programs from good to great.
Content creators can use Generative AI tools such as Easy Generator’s EasyAI tool to efficiently plan courses by generating curriculum outlines, reformatting content, and brainstorming ideas. Generative AI can also be used to draft lesson content from an outline, helping creators to quickly build a repository of materials.
2. Create course content
One of the most remarkable features of generative AI is its ability to produce unique, high-quality content that learning professionals can leverage in their courses and training materials.
Lesson content
Content creators can use Generative AI to auto-generate portions of course content, such as quizzes and knowledge checks, and expedite administrative processes to save time and resources. Tools such as Learn Expert AI (LEAi) help instructional designers by taking content built by subject matter experts and automatically converting it into lessons, according to educational best practices.
Slide content
Tools such as Beautiful.ai automatically create and format presentations to reduce time spent on editing slides. These tools include smart templates, collaboration tools, and branding guardrails to create consistent, engaging slide decks. ChatGPT can also be used to generate and improve speaker notes in PowerPoint presentations.
Video content
Tools for video content include Runway, which enables users to develop highly creative videos solely from text input, and Descript, which helps creators easily write, record, transcribe, edit, collaborate, and share videos and podcasts. Videate is a production platform that keeps how-to and training videos up to date with every software release.
AI-generated videos and images (Synthetic media)
Content creators are also creating lifelike and animated videos, photorealistic images, or voiceovers, all from natural language text prompts using the emerging category of AI video creation platforms, aka “synthetic media”.
The applications of synthetic media are extensive, from quickly creating course videos to generating course tile images without relying on stock photos to increasing accessibility by adding audio versions of documents. The easy customization and updating of content with synthetic media from tools such as Synthesia makes for efficient production of educational content in a world of ever-changing products, and also delivers a far more engaging learner experience.
3. Personalize content through tailored learning paths
Generative AI is capable of customizing content to match the unique learning needs and preferences of individual learners. Based on the data learning professionals provide about unique learner personas and their skills, knowledge, and learning preferences, AI tools can generate course outlines and lesson content, adapt instructional strategies, and suggest the most appropriate learning activities based on a learner’s role or their specific learning goals.
In Skilljar, a Learning Path is a collection of related courses in a training catalog. Our customers use this functionality to easily show users which courses are part of the same training bundle, topic, level of knowledge, and more.
Generative AI can be used to personalize Skilljar’s Learning Paths according to the diverse needs and preferences of learners. Inputting data on learner personas, such as skills and learning styles, into generative AI yields custom course outlines, lesson content, and instructional strategies. When these AI-curated materials are used to produce Learning Paths, learners receive a tailor-made educational experience. This personalization is especially advantageous for role-based learning, such as platform admins, who require a unique series of courses that align with their roles as administrators. It also holds promise for adding AI-powered assistance and clarification to learners if they are struggling with a concept or quiz question.
4. Improved transcription for global audiences
Learning professionals may be familiar with AI transcription tools such as Rev, Temi, and those built into webinar platforms that provide transcriptions of videos and webinars almost instantaneously. These tools have been invaluable for making content accessible to audiences.
Now, thanks to generative AI, video transcripts can work even harder by summarizing content so it can be used in different ways. Tools such as Notion can generate crisp summaries from a transcript almost instantly. This can help learning professionals organize videos or webinars (any content from which a transcript can be created) by including brief snippets of the content that are generated by the AI tool to help guide users to the content that’s right for them.
5. From transcription to translation
Many Skilljar customers serve a global audience, so offering training content in as many as 20 different languages is essential to creating an inclusive program. Our customers have the ability to create a comprehensive training platform that can be localized to allow international audiences to access training content in their preferred language through our language packs.
Generative AI tools such as Sonix can be used for machine translation, which involves automatically translating text and video from one language to another. By leveraging generative AI techniques, machine translation systems are improving their ability to generate accurate and fluent translation thus saving resources and time associated with manual translation. These tools are proving invaluable for overcoming language barriers and facilitating communication across different languages. This use of generative AI holds promise for Customer Education as more companies expand their operations to global audiences.
6. Coding, coding, and more coding!
For software solutions that require their customers to write code to get the most benefit from their platforms, content creators can use AI to generate coding lab exercises to use in training. Generative AI tools let content creators input specific programming concepts or objectives to produce coding challenges and scenarios that integrate into their courses. This enhances hands-on learning and enables students to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting.
Tools like GitHub Copilot are trained on billions of lines of code to turn natural language prompts into coding suggestions across dozens of languages. ChatGPT also helps training professionals create or refine code that they use in their courses by inputting the code that’s not working and asking the AI tool to correct the code.
Speaking of coding, Skilljar’s Developer Center contains an HTML Template Library and Useful Code Snippets to help nuance the look of lessons, catalog pages, course tiles, and more for an improved user experience.
Some words of caution when using generative AI
It is important to remember that these generative AI tools are new and rapidly advancing. Companies are only at the beginning of discovering and leveraging these innovations as they suit their unique purposes, therefore, using generative AI responsibly is paramount in ensuring the integrity and reliability of the content it generates. Please keep these tips in mind as you explore the opportunities for your company.
Human judgment is still essential
As discussed, AI generated video and images, when used for legitimate purposes, holds promise for the learning industry. However, synthetic media has been associated with “deep fakes,” in which celebrity likenesses are recreated on social media without their permission, so it’s important to be aware of this connotation when making a case for these types of tools at your company.
Another risk associated with generative AI is “hallucination,” where the AI tool might produce information that is plausible-sounding but factually incorrect or misleading. Additionally, biases present in the AI-training data can lead to the generation of content that is skewed or perpetuates harmful stereotypes.
To mitigate these risks, it is essential to adopt a “trust but verify” approach. It is imperative that content creators critically assess and validate the output for accuracy and impartiality, making necessary adjustments to ensure that the information is both factual and free of biases.
Privacy and security reign supreme
Always make sure to consult with your Information Security team prior to using any third-party tool to make sure they are up to your standards and protocol and respect ownership rights.
Know that Skilljar has been built to support stringent security requirements and a global user base. We have always had enterprise-grade security and privacy protections through our certifications for SOC 2, GDPR compliance, and Cloud Security Alliance Trusted Cloud Provider, ensuring user data is kept secure. Given the nascent nature of generative AI tools, we recommend ensuring that any tools you use along with our software have been thoroughly vetted by your company.
With the time saved through AI tools for content organization, creation, and customization, content creators can focus on enhancing the learning experience and driving strategic business impact in ways they never had the time to implement. This newfound attention to innovation can be used to increase learner engagement, improve discoverability of content, and provide more effective customer education.
Here at Skilljar, we believe that a core purpose of AI is to drive automation as well as augment human intelligence, creativity, and decision-making. This aligns with our goal to empower our customers to efficiently train their users and drive business impact, including those with small training teams and limited resources. Our product offers functionality for our administrators in automation of routine tasks (e.g. Learner Grouping and Course Actions), automated insights (e.g. Strategic Insights), and integration for downstream automation (e.g. through Salesforce, iPaaS, and API).
In addition, many generative AI-powered tools can create content that can be used in Skilljar, as discussed in the examples above. We continue to explore new opportunities for incorporating AI into the Skilljar product as well as monitor the progress of the available tools as they further evolve. As always, we look forward to partnering with our customers to uncover new ways to use emerging technologies to augment their education platforms and take the learner experience to a new dimension.
As part of our dedication to keeping our customers abreast of the emerging trends in Customer Education, we’d like to know how you are using generative AI tools (capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to prompts) in your training programs. Please take our brief survey to share your experiences
Hunter Trice is a Product Operations and Strategy Manager for Skilljar.
Read more blog posts
Ready to take Skilljar for a spin?
Take an interactive tour of Skilljar, or book your demo with our team.