Close Skill Gaps Faster: 3 Ways to Use AI for Employee Training

Employees lose 4.3 hours of productivity every week because of skill gaps. Not only do skill gaps add up to countless hours of lost productivity and profits, they also disempower your team. Employee training is the antidote to these gaps, but from booking classrooms and courses to finding facilitators, the process is far from simple —  or affordable — for most companies. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game-changer that makes employee training more affordable, effective, and personalized. Leveraging AI-powered learning management systems (LMS) allows businesses of all sizes to deliver customized training at scale, offering better learning experiences for employees. 

From adaptive learning paths to real-time performance tracking, AI technology is transforming how businesses approach the learning process. In this guide, we’ll explore actionable ways to integrate AI for employee training that will help you save money, build up engagement, and ultimately drive retention. 

Why Use AI for Employee Training?

Organizations invested less in employee training in 2024. This trend is likely an attempt to trim expenses, but it can come with long-term opportunity costs. Fortunately, effective training doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.

The use of AI for employee training allows you to invest in training programs without the sky-high expenses of in-person classroom training. In such a competitive landscape, this could be the much-needed differentiator that puts your company ahead of the pack. 

ChatGPT revolutionized the business world after its release in 2022, but the chatbot shows that humans still need to play an active role in managing AI applications. While machine learning models and AI help employees learn new skills in less time, HR still needs to play a role in designing AI training.

While organizations need to steer AI in the right direction, there are so many benefits to implementing AI for employee training, including: 

• Simplified execution: HR leaders are busy and typically don’t have extra time to invest in e-learning content creation. Fortunately, AI tools like RapidBee use automated workflows, multimedia resources, and tracking tools to make it easier than ever to deliver training programs that actually work. 
• Personalization: Every employee has a different learning style, not to mention different skill development needs for their role. Some might appreciate on-demand videos, while others prefer to read text. Instead of shoehorning learners into one specific approach, AI for employee training empowers your team to learn how they want in a personalized learning platform.
• Increased employee retention: No one wants to feel stagnant at work. Many HR teams know how important it is to offer training but lack the time and resources to make it happen. With AI, you can set up the learning initiatives that employees crave, fostering a culture of continuous learning while helping you retain your valuable workers. 
• Improved engagement: If you’ve invested in learning and development in the past and received a lukewarm response from employees, your learning programs might not have been engaging enough. The great thing about AI for employee training is that it can use adaptive learning to make its training methods more interactive and responsive to each learner’s specific needs. For example, AI can chop up larger lessons into microlearning formats, using shorter modules and quizzes that boost engagement while working around your team’s busy schedules. 
• Data-driven approach: Bored employees are disengaged employees. Fortunately, AI is capable of parsing through employee engagement and training data to optimize your team members’ learning journeys in real time. AI can analyze metrics and adapt training modules based on performance, ensuring that each employee's learning journey is optimized. This data-driven approach not only improves employee performance but also leads to significant cost savings by reducing manual effort.

It might sound like a sci-fi daydream, but AI-powered training isn’t the future — it’s the here and now. Integrating AI with your learning initiatives is the key to transforming your corporate training into a powerful tool for productivity, retention, and, ultimately, profitability. 

3 Ways to Start Using AI for Employee Training

Some businesses are hesitant to use AI, but it’s important to realize that this tool won’t replace you. HR professionals still need to play an active role in using AI for employee training, ensuring the content and format make sense for your learning programs. 

But how do you roll out AI for employee training? Do you need a team of developers to use AI? 

Fortunately, that’s not the case. All you need is the right approach and a proven platform to leverage AI in your training program. Here are three practical ways to invest in employee upskilling through the power of AI-driven learning. 

1. Set Up Adaptive Learning Paths

Instead of forcing everyone to take an identical course, AI allows you to effortlessly customize employee training programs. While your team might start out with the same course, AI can gather information to personalize each learning path. 

By analyzing data from assessments and interactions, AI identifies skill gaps and adjusts the training materials accordingly. This approach ensures that learners focus on areas where they need the most improvement, enhancing the learning experience without overwhelming them.

You don’t have to use a separate learning tool, either. RapidBee’s LMS brings performance management, engagement surveys, document management, and employee support together on one platform. It automates multistep learning journeys with options for additional documents, videos, quizzes, and other multimedia to keep your team engaged. 

RapidBee can even use event-driven AI actions to automatically assign learning to your team, allowing you to hold everyone accountable for their individual training. For example, the platform can automatically assign annual compliance training tasks based on date triggers, keeping your team compliant with less manual action from HR. Best of all, you’re free to assign journey reviewers who can address training gaps ASAP, ensuring your team gets more value out of the learning experience. 

2. Personalize Content to Match Employee Needs

AI-powered content recommendation engines use advanced algorithms to figure out learner preferences. Based on past performance data, completion rates, and overall engagement, the AI delivers personalized training modules with content aligned to each employee’s needs. 

If your learners prefer text, that’s fine, but RapidBee also comes with full multimedia support for interactive experiences. The system leverages automation to assign training modules as well as additional videos, quizzes, FAQs, and supplementary materials to support employees during training. 

3. Track Performance in Real Time

How do you know if your employee training initiatives are working? Monitoring engagement and performance metrics is key, but this is challenging for time-strapped HR teams. More HR pros use AI for employee training as a way to quickly parse through this data. By leveraging AI-powered analytics, organizations can gain data-driven insights into how well learners are absorbing training materials and which areas need improvement.

RapidBee makes it a breeze to track and report on your people’s progress. Customize report fields to see only the data that matters most to you. RapidBee also includes data visualization tools in different chart formats so you can get a general idea of your team’s progress — without a degree in data science.

Don’t wait until the end of a training to assess its success. Use real-time tracking to ensure your team members stay engaged and on track. Not only does this approach ensure you get value out of training, but it also helps you address any potential issues right away. 

Data: The Key to Better Development Programs

AI is a time-saving tool that can help HR design effective learning experiences that employees will actually find valuable. Best of all, solutions like RapidBee bring multiple functions into a single view, helping HR leaders and managers make data-driven decisions in record time. 

Employee training can be a helpful differentiator, but only if you offer customized training at scale. AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, but you still need to feed it timely data about employee performance and engagement. Check out RapidBee’s guide on employee engagement surveys to learn how to collect and mobilize engagement data to improve your business.