AI in learning
and development

Everything that can be automated without sacrificing quality or employee satisfaction should be automated. From the early stages of human history to our modernity, automation of routine tasks has been the primary driver of progress, improving labor performance and freeing time for other activities. That’s why we can feed our growing Earth's population and enjoy fast travel around the world. Sure, such transitions are often disruptive and can negatively affect certain people. They can lose their jobs, which can be done by machines much quicker and more efficiently. And the latest AI advancements promise even larger disruptions: according to the latest reports, up to 300 million full-time jobs around the world can be replaced during the next 7 years!

Today, we’ll focus on the corporate education industry. AI and learning and development have a lot to offer each other. From creating new content to managing access to the existing one, it makes education personalized and highly efficient.

Role of AI in learning and development​

Let’s start by defining roles and exploring opportunities. Then, we can delve into each opportunity and show how exactly it can be implemented. But what exactly is the artificial intelligence technology that is so widely discussed today?

It is algorithmic technology, based on the possibility for software algorithms to obtain information from various sources and proceed with it to complete some predefined tasks in the best way possible. It emerged from the early cybernetic studies of scientists like John von Neumann and Alan Turing about the nature of informational processing and the possibility of the intelligent machine.

There are different ways of using AI for learning and development​. When large amounts of information need to be processed, be it content or user data, it can speed up the work many times. According to the 2020 review by Lijia Chen et al., education AI mostly uses course materials, learning targets, student personality, and instructor data.

Before diving into the usage of AI, let’s look closer at what’s going on in the L&D industry.

Situation in modern learning and development

eLearning includes the usage of the Internet and various digital applications to facilitate all learning processes. They include content delivery, teacher-learner interactions, learner communication, motivation, and surveying to track learning efficiency. It may be delivered as fully online learning or hybrid learning with both online and offline activities. Different applications, including full-scale learning management systems (LMSs) and various supplemental online education apps, deliver solutions to people and power the global market. Its size is already huge and reaches more than $400 billion according to market research groups, such as Global Market Insights. By the 2030s, it’s predicted to reach about $1 trillion!

So, it’s a robust industry, crucial for making companies stronger and more competitive. It has many benefits compared to traditional offline, classroom-based learning. One can quickly see them below.
Advantages of e-learning
Let’s dive deeper into each of its compounds and see why eLearning is so powerful.
  • Cost efficiency
    follows from the reduced need to pay for classrooms and teachers.
  • Consistent
    means that it’s easier to manage learning materials in digital environments.
  • Quick-to-update
    using different digital tools and using device notifications.
  • Quick-to-deploy
    by installing these tools on computers and smartphones.
  • Cooperative
    as people from different locations can communicate.
  • Accessible
    for everyone who has Internet access, anywhere on Earth.
Now, we can see where AI can help here.

Applying AI for learning and development​

As we’ve seen, the global eLearning market is booming. What can we say about the educational artificial intelligence market?

Let’s look below. In 2021, it was $1.8 billion. The approximate CAGR is more than 35%, so today it’s probably much bigger, and the future is even brighter. As we’ll see below, artificial intelligence has the potential to increase the learning tools’ performance, mostly by decreasing the time needed for organizing educational activities.
Applying AI at business
Let’s overview the mentioned applications and see the most widely used AI applications.
  • Virtual learning platforms
    are learning management systems that use AI features for workflow automation, learning path personalization, and other capabilities we’ll cover below.
  • Intelligent tutoring systems
    are specific chatbot-like systems that provide learning content generation and delivery and respond to learner’s feedback.
  • Smart content creation
    includes different dynamic content, such as presentations and interactive quizzes, generated with the help of AI.
  • Fraud & risk management
    include administrative tasks that reduce the possibility of fraudulent actions.
Artificial intelligence provides numerous opportunities for every company on the market. However, to apply it most efficiently, it’s important to understand which specific aspects of your corporate routine can be handled with AI. To understand which learning and development AI tools​ you may need, use the quick algorithm below.
  • Overview your company’s workflows and indicate which parts of them can be automated.
  • Select which parts of your workflow require content generation, translation, or proceeding.
  • Lastly, explore communication aspects and see where communication can be automated.
  • Try to locate which applications can solve these tasks and which capabilities they have, including workflow management, generative AI, chatbots, and speech recognition.
  • Look for an LMS platform that can cover those aspects that cannot be covered by third-party apps or offer similar functionalities at lower prices.
Now we can focus on specific AI use cases and see how it can help learning platforms strive—and your company as well!

How to use AI in learning and development

Primarily, the learning and development AI automates everything that can be automated and ensures more stable and efficient workflows.
Ai in corporate learning
Let’s see several cases of using AI in learning and development​.
  • Personalization
    includes remembering individual learners’ needs and preferences and building learning paths based on them while selecting the content that meets their requirements.
  • Reskilling
    can be done much easier with AI, as it can analyze learners’ preferences and needs and suggest educational content that will serve this purpose best.
  • AI content creation
    is the primary destination of generative AI: creating various content, from text to images and videos.
  • Virtual assistants
    are chatbots based on generative AI that can support learners in many ways, from navigating the LMS interface to answering learning questions based on sources.
  • Advanced analytics
    are crucial for learning managers, enabling them to see and evaluate the performance of each student and make decisions on them.
  • Translation
    can also be done by the generative AI, usually with high precision, as it can catch the meaning of words in one language and then transmit this meaning to another.
With these examples of AI in learning and development​, we can see which benefits it can make and how, and then overview specific implementations in learning management tools.

Discover the Benefits of an AI-Powered LMS

Broadly speaking, an AI LMS​ is any platform that can automate data flows and provide calculations and insights based on these data. Any good platform needs it, as companies work with large amounts of data, and the better they can analyze them, the better for the company. Therefore, the company will more likely select the LMS that provides real-time data about its learners and shows how well they solve their tasks. All learning management companies that want to remain competitive must adopt such features, or they’ll be outcompeted and pushed away from the market.

We’ve already seen the current status of AI in the education market. To understand the transformative potential of the industry, look at how it’s predicted to rise, based on the current innovation pace.
Ai in Education Market Size
With that, learning managers can improve their work and lives substantially. According to the 2024 Carnegie Learning report, the most reported benefit of AI in L&D was reduced time needed for task management. The 2020 McKinsey research indicates that up to 40% of all teachers’ routines can be automated using AI, saving them almost half of all time. Due to the great problem of teachers' workloads and burnout, featured in Forbes, in both academic and corporate sectors, it also improves their work satisfaction and motivation. Therefore, AI benefits in education include making work done quicker while having employees more satisfied.

Let’s look at specific AI features in the table below and evaluate which benefits each can deliver.
That’s how AI and LMS​ can be connected. In addition to automating the work and providing concise data analytics, these features can also improve user experience, boost learners’ motivation, and help in content creation and adoption. Generative AI, either as the native LMS feature or the third-party API, makes content creation much quicker and can also help with translation.

Best AI tools for learning and development

Let’s now wrap the article up to see which specific AI learning and development tools can solve your problems and how to select the tool you need. First, we’ll overview the AI features once again to set up the topic. Then, we’ll focus on specific feature realizations and overview several LMS platforms with them.

Overview of AI tools for learning and development​

As mentioned, all good LMSs have some AI features for now. They’re mostly focused on data management and analysis, enabling managers to automate most of their work. For example, instead of guessing who performs best among employees, they can obtain and compare their scores in the leaderboard. By analyzing the completed tasks, managers can make decisions about how to increase learning efficiency.

Features of AI LMS platform​s

Based on the table in the previous section, we can set our expectations from a good learning management platform with AI features. Look at the infographics below to see which
Features of AI LMS platform​s
Let’s overview all these features of LMS with AI and then see how they’re usually implemented.
  • Content generation
    using generative AI, either via API or with native LMS features.
  • Content transformation
    enables the quick creation of presentations, infographics, and videos.
  • Personalized learning
    with AI recommendation systems and learning pathway builders.
  • Intelligent insights
    with the usage of automated data analytics.
  • Real-time assistance
    with the usage of AI chatbots and automated support.
  • Auto translation
    means that an LMS can be easily adapted for different languages.

Examples of AI LMS systems

Virtually all modern learning management systems use artificial intelligence for automation and optimization purposes. Learning analytics features are a mandatory must-have for any platform that wants to take a niche on the market. If it cannot proceed with data properly, it will be quickly pushed out by competitors. Most systems also use automated surveys and utilize AI to more or lesser extent when designing learning paths to increase personalization and optimize learning processes.

The usage of generative AI for learning and development isn’t so widespread as a separate feature in LMSs. It’s possible to use available tools, such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, to generate all necessary content and then upload it. All such tools also have APIs that can be seamlessly connected to the LMS.

At CleverLMS, we believe that simplicity is good for a learning management system, as it keeps software accessible and easy to deploy. However, as the new AI features develop and become more optimized, they should be applied to make learning more and more efficient.
Using AI in L&D requires an understanding of how to use these AI features. For example, personalized learning paths work best when you know the needs and roles of each employee and design learning paths to implement them. Content generation is very helpful, but it needs prompts: well-elaborated requests that show AI tools what exactly you need, so they can generate the answer. Still, automating administrative tasks and providing learning analytics reduces the time needed to complete teacher and manager tasks, making our overloaded routines much lighter and freer.

That’s why AI tools are so powerful—and truly future-oriented.

Sources

  • “AI in Education Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Component (Solutions, Services), by Deployment, by Technology, by Application, by End-use, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030.” n.d. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-ai-education-market-report.
  • “Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Review.” 2020. IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore. 2020. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9069875.
  • Bahoo, Salman, Marco Cucculelli, and Dawood Qamar. 2022. “Artificial Intelligence and Corporate Innovation: A Review and Research Agenda.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 188 (December): 122264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122264.
  • Bradley, Tony. 2024. “AI’s Role in Saving Teachers Time and Revolutionizing Education.” Forbes, September 19, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2024/09/18/ais-role-in-saving-teachers-time-and-revolutionizing-education/.
  • Bryant, Jake, Christine Heitz, Saurabh Sanghvi, and Dilip Wagle. 2020. “How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact K–12 Teachers.” McKinsey & Company. January 14, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/how-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-k-12-teachers.
  • Goldman Sachs. 2023. “Generative AI Could Raise Global GDP by 7%,” April 5, 2023. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html.
  • “These Are the Jobs Most Likely to Be Lost – and Created – Because of AI.” 2024. World Economic Forum. September 10, 2024. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/05/jobs-lost-created-ai-gpt/.
  • Wadhwani, Preeti. 2023. “E-learning Market Size - by Technology (Online E-learning, LMS, Mobile E-learning, Rapid E-learning, Virtual Classroom, Others), Provider (Service, Content), Application (Corporate, Academic, Government) & Forecast, 2023 – 2032.” Global Market Insights Inc. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/elearning-market-size.

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