2017-11-30
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In the future of work, the most important skill is to be able to learn how to learn. The amount of knowledge available and the skills needed to be successful in the workplace are constantly changing, and the best employees know how to find the information they need and continually be honing their skills to be at the top of their game.
The corporate training market, which is over $130 billion in size, is about to be disrupted. Companies are starting to move away from their Learning Management Systems (LMS), buy all sorts of new tools for digital learning, and rebuild a whole new infrastructure to help employees learn. Programs such as GSuite, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Workplace by Facebook are growing quickly. Axonify and Qstream can "space learning" based on your job and prescribe small nuggets just as needed. This is pushing vendors like Workday, Oracle, SuccessFactors, SumTotal and others are now reinventing the LMS — focusing on developing video-learning platforms that feel more like YouTube than an educational course catalog.
Deloitte Human Capital Trends' newest research shows that "reinventing careers and learning" is now the #2 issue in business (followed only by reorganizing the company for digital business), creating urgency and budget in this area.
Walmart is betting big on virtual reality to help improve its employee training techniques, and it’s turned to a new company to help. TechCrunch is reporting that Walmart plans to install VR training platforms at each of its 200 Academy training centers across the U.S. by the end of the year. Each will have an Oculus Rift and a VR-ready PC to run it on.
Within the contemporary organization, staff-coaching processes continue to evolve. This is achieved by migrating towards newer technologies and software systems that will adequately assist with a more dynamic mode of providing staff-training and development. Ari Kopoulos, writing for EmployeeConnect.com, says that “AI programs offer HR departments ways to train their staff, earn certifications, cross-train and learn new skills.” What is instinctive of AI-enriched software programs, is that they allow staff to engage in self-directed progress with their training, at their own comfortable pace.
ValeurHR.com points out AI-enriched learning systems are now beginning to offer “customizable employee-related training based on individual performance”. The impact of advancements like this will be numerous: can you imagine the gratification to be gained from knowing that each employee in your organization has access to their ‘own personal mentor?
John Seely Brown, former Chief Scientist at Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center argues “We must re-invent the workplace as a ‘learningscape.’” He goes on to say that we should build urban learning initiatives such as “Cities of Learning’’—a new movement in which employers, libraries, and museums are wired together to help kids find their interests outside school and pick up new skills—or networks of partners in the corporate world. A powerful example of this kind of learning is the use of GitHub and/or other open source communities. Or another: A rather conservative company, SAP, created an extended open source network that has a couple million participants who are learning with and from each other.
Paul Rosenbloom, professor of computer science at the University of Southern California is beginning to apply his AI platform, Sigma, to the ICT’s Virtual Humans program, which creates interactive, AI-driven 3D avatars. A virtual tutor with emotion, for instance, could show genuine enthusiasm when a student does well and unhappiness if a student is slacking off. “If you have a virtual human that doesn’t exhibit emotions, it’s creepy. It’s called uncanny valley, and it won’t have the impact it’s supposed to have,” Rosenbloom says.
Both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have an important place in the Artificial Intelligence revolution as it applies to education, training and development. The practical applicability of virtual reality and augmented reality in eLearning is a hotly discussed topic right now. A recent report produced by Horizon 2016, one of the most respected analytical groups, dedicates a number of pages to the question of using augmented and virtual reality in education. For now, potential applications in the fields of physics and medicine show the most promise. This being said, what good can these newfangled technologies do? First of all, virtual reality can transport students to the farthest corners of the observable universe in the blink of an eye and immerse them in a deep and engaging educational environment. Great motivational potential is another major benefit. Which is cooler? To read pages upon pages of text accompanied by black and white illustrations, or to find yourself on Mars and gather soil samples by hand? By the way, that was a rhetorical question.
In Summary: As you can see from the brief descriptions of the developments in Artificial Intelligence, they will have an enormous impact our personal and work lives. In the process, there will be much disruption, but it’s unlikely we will be able to stop this Fourth Industrial Revolution. But it does provide us with the opportunity to address ethical, moral, legal and social issues, including a proactive role of government in ensuring these developments are for the benefit of people.
Ray Williams
