Podcast 61: AI in Learning Systems with Alessio Artuffo of Docebo

EPISODE 61: AI in Learning Systems

Alessio Artuffo, President and COO, Docebo

The global learning community is buzzing with all sorts of news about artificial intelligence. That’s why I’m excited to look closer at recent developments in AI in learning systems with LMS expert, Alessio Artuffo, President and COO at Docebo.

For over a decade, Docebo has been at the forefront of learning systems innovation. It is not only the world’s fastest-growing LMS company. It’s also one of the most widely recognized brands in this industry.

And that’s not just my opinion. That’s direct feedback I received in a survey of 150 top LMS vendors last year. In fact, 75% of respondents named Docebo as the competitor they most often face in competitive business situations.

There’s a good reason for Docebo’s dominance. This company is consistently ahead of the curve with technology advances of all types. And that’s why I invite you to join me as I interview Alessio about how AI is creating opportunities for Docebo, and for the learning community, at large.

AI IN LEARNING SYSTEMS – KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In only a few years, artificial intelligence has moved from a forward-looking concept to a software reality. No longer just smoke and mirrors, we’re seeing significant progress with AI across the digital business world, including the learning systems space.

• Some of the most innovative learning platform companies have been investing heavily in leading-edge AI functionality for years. We’re just beginning to see the early examples of AI as an enabling technology. Many more applications are in the pipeline.

• AI in learning systems is already paying off in tangible ways. Early applications focus on productivity gains, primarily from automation. But other solutions are targeting additional ways to create business value.

AI IN LEARNING SYSTEMS – Q&A HIGHLIGHTS

Welcome, Alessio. Your company’s vision and what you’ve achieved is fantastic. Could you share a brief overview?

Sure. We’ve come a long way since launching Docebo as an enterprise learning management system in 2012. Fast-forward to today and we have about $160 million in revenues with more than 3500 customers globally, and we’re continuing to grow in markets around the world, thanks to the power of our flagship platform in supporting learning at scale for internal and external enterprise use cases.

When did you start thinking about AI as part of your suite, and how does it fit into your strategy?

Our CEO, Claudio Erba, is an absolute technology fanatic and a true visionary in the space, in that he has an unparalleled ability to look ahead 5 years and see where the market is headed. And his foresight helped us invest much earlier.

While AI is a very hot, trendy, buzzy topic right now, we’re spent a ton of time on AI research over the past few years. We actually built a formal AI lab in 2017 and we have a group of engineers focused on R&D so we can apply AI to our platform. Our product is already filled with AI-powered capabilities.

Tell us more about this…

A little more than a year ago, we launched an AI-driven content creation technology called Shape. This lets companies create learning content and translation at scale. To be clear, Shape isn’t a direct competitor to authoring tools for advanced instructional design projects. Rather, it’s content creation technology to automate and produce fast content.

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So typical cases include product and marketing communications companies need to produce quickly in multiple languages. Shape can start with a link or a document, and thanks to its AI algorithm, it’s exceptionally good at summarizing content and applying a sort of microlearning approach, including video content.

Mmhmm…

And as we think about the future, we see immediate adjacency to other fields of learning such as coaching, virtual coaching simulations, reutilization and leverage for technologies like ChatGPT. So this journey we embarked on years ago with Shape will gain momentum because we already see the power of AI to improve the user experience.

But Shape isn’t the only instance where AI is present in our project. For example, AI is pervasive in our search capabilities. For example, our search works on the basis of transcript generation. So even with videos, the AI will transcode the text from a video, making it possible to allow for search within audio that is transcribed in the backend by AI algorithms.

That’s useful…

Also, to improve workflows, we’re automating content to skills mapping, as well as content tagging and categorization. That’s a very hefty, tedious task if you have hundreds or thousands of learning objects to categorize for specific skill sets and competencies.

But the AI engine removes 70% to 80% of the job, allowing you to curate the other 20%. So this brings a tremendous productivity gain.

Wow. Absolutely. So for content creation, say I give you a URL for a 60 minute webinar recording. What would the end content be like?

It would look for elements in the content that are critical to convey the fundamental message. Then it would summarize the content in a video format that is appealing from a look-and-feel standpoint. And within seconds, it would translate all that content into many languages. It would also let you distribute the content in trackable e-learning formats like xAPI.

So the content not only is quick to create and produce, but it’s easy to distribute across multiple platforms, whether that’s Docebo or other learning systems.

Impressive. So let’s look ahead. Where do you see things three years from now?

AI technology will continue to make learning-related content creation easier. And what I love about this is that it lets humans be at the center of qualitative work, not just quantitative work.

For sure, there will continue to be an enormous need for compliance content to support regulatory aspects of business life as we know it. But, there will also be a lot of demand for software capabilities that capture a need, or a workflow, or a skill, or a career plan and create the necessary content on the fly.

This will happen instead of relying on pre-authored content with highly expensive content development processes or content catalogs.

Great idea…

Also, I believe the learning management industry will eventually converge. It’s a reasonable expectation, even for an environment with a headless LMS. In my opinion, even the concept of enrolling somebody in a course, will be something that will make us chuckle in three to five years.

The idea of having to enroll an individual in a given course will become irrelevant because all the necessary information will be available. Say an individual wants to develop capabilities that will help them move from a career and mobility standpoint.

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Why should we need to make manual decisions about enrolling individuals in courses? It seems a little archaic. There’s enough intelligence available to understand learning styles, learning preferences, and learning needs based on skill sets and observation.

Along with that, I see a change in the job market for learning administrators. They’ll become more experienced learning curators for employees or customers, as opposed to doing strictly admin work.

So, do you think the best way to measure the impact of AI in learning systems right now is workflow time reduction?

The world we want to live in is a world where the tedious tasks are reduced. And AI technology will help remove this burden. It is already making a lot of LMS admins happy. We hear from our customers all the time that they benefit from less “clicking” work and more “thinking” work. 

Makes sense. So what steps should organizations take right now to prepare for a more effective, measurable impact of AI for their learning endeavors…?

…FOR COMPLETE ANSWERS TO THIS AND MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT AI IN LEARNING SYSTEMS, LISTEN TO THE FULL 30-MINUTE PODCAST!

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