While AI gives course developers superpowers, always remember that it’s humans who make the magic happen. It’s mission-critical to understand what AI can do but also what it can’t. Here’s what you need to know about AI’s limitations—and why an expert instructional designer must (and will) remain in the driver’s seat.

Accuracy

Don’t be fooled by the word “intelligence.” AI is a people-pleaser at its core, and it tends to lie or tell half-truths in order to give you something. You must validate AI output—or you’ll risk publishing fabrications that may be dangerous or costly to your organization and your employees.

Efficacy

AI offers tempting shortcuts, but only a trained professional can craft robust, effective learning material. Instructionally sound, goal-aligned, and richly engaging training remains firmly in the human wheelhouse.

Bias

AI is only as good as the data it learns from, and that’s not always in your control. AI may reproduce clearly harmful content, but also output that works more subtly against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Moreover, human errors can produce unintended consequences, such as AI misinterpreting positive language as negative. So it’s imperative to check results to ensure AI performs as intended.

Having said that ...

AI does push us past human limits – we are simply not capable of processing the entire internet simultaneously. Think of it as moving from manual long division to calculators. AI will help humans do more, better and faster.

So, let us together challenge AI and its many uses, to see where learning leaders excel and where AI can offer a level-up.