Fresh from the Learning Technologies show last week, I’ve got something on my mind (and it’s not just the sore feet from standing on the BentoBot stand for 2 days)!
One of the big themes buzzing around the event was, no surprise... AI.
Everywhere you turned, someone was asking: "What AI capabilities do you have?"
Especially when it came to designing and writing training content. And honestly? Some of the answers people were getting left me a bit stunned!
It seems there’s a belief out there that potential clients want to be told AI is a magic silver bullet, that it will instantly take away all the heavy lifting of content design.
"Just type a topic and… voilà, your perfect, fully customised, brand-ready, audience-focused, high-impact course appears in minutes!"
Apparently, some vendors were more than happy to tell people they had a tool that does exactly that…?
Here's the thing: AI can do a lot. But it can’t do everything.
And honestly? It shouldn’t.
When we spoke to visitors about BentoBot, we were really clear. Yes, we’re testing generative AI to support elements of content design, but we’re not pretending it can replace human expertise. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Good learning and development needs more than just the right topic and industry. It needs to reflect your brand, your people, your culture, your audience, the point of delivery... and right now, that still needs a human brain (or two).
I get why it happens. Put a bunch of salespeople on a stand and they’re under pressure to say "yes" to everything. But when the follow-up call comes and reality bites "oh actually, it doesn’t quite do that", it’s not just awkward. It damages trust.
Let me make it clear… I’m not anti-AI. Far from it!
In fact, BentoBot does already use AI to power its spaced repetition engine, to make sure learning sticks over time. And we’re excited about the potential it has to assist, guide and enhance learning design. Assist being the key word. Not do it all for you. It’s a partner, not a replacement.
Honestly, when I use tools like Microsoft Copilot, I find myself spending so long briefing, tweaking and correcting that I wonder if it wouldn’t have been quicker (and better) just to do it myself! Plus, there’s always that little niggle that I’m helping them test and refine a 2.0 version that’s what they probably should have launched in the first place...
All that said, and AI aside, here’s where I land: People don’t need to be told what they want to hear.
They need partners who tell them the truth. Who challenge their thinking. Who help them build something that actually works and gets results.
So two things I'd love to know, in case I’m missing the mark:
- If you’re looking for a learning technology supplier to partner with, do you want someone who challenges you, or someone who just nods along and says yes?
- If you have genuinely bought an AI-driven tool that designed you a full course based purely on a pdf, a video or just a topic title (yes apparently it’s that good), and it worked, got rolled out and delivered great results… PLEASE, please get in touch. I’m genuinely curious (and a little sceptical if you hadn’t gathered!).
I look forward to hearing from you on either [email protected] or via LinkedIn.