In many companies, all the most important data and technologies sit inside high-security locations that most employees can’t ever access. But the data and equipment represent a direct link to the customer experience, and it’s important for employees to understand what is inside these centers and what it means for their services. How can you give employees a realistic and immersive view inside what is typically unseen?

Artificial intelligence technologies are transforming homes and workplaces. The World Economic Forum has started to talk about what is happening as the fourth industrial revolution. When you start to think about AI and L&D, it raises many questions: What do AI technologies mean for L&D? What is the impact on the capabilities that organizations need to be developing in people now and into the near future? How can you use AI technologies to enhance and automate L&D work? What is the reality of what you can do now? What is really happening with AI in workplaces now? AI can be a confusing area with jargon like decision trees, k-clusters, and regressions. Even most technically focused L&D people are not math and data experts.

Alexa is one of the most widely used smart devices in the US today. It’s a disruptive game­changer in the learning and development space, but its integration into the learning ecosystem is drastically low. The number-one barrier today for learning professionals in using Alexa for learning and performance support is fear of the technology. The second barrier, and the one that’s easier to solve, is understanding how to even start developing learning content in this new platform. You cannot leverage what you do not understand, but it may be easier than you assume to learn to create experiences for Alexa.

Onboarding new employees is a critical step in preparing them for their new job. It also can be key to retaining talent, as a recent report by SHRM notes that half of all hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months. Many organizations solve the onboarding challenge by relying on eLearning for policy, procedures, and other topics, but this approach often is not effective and does not truly prepare new employees. What about familiarizing new employees with an organization that has multiple buildings? Or showing them how to navigate a large warehouse, hospital setting, or manufacturing facility?

When you’re faced with the difficult task of engaging learners, one of the best ways to drive that engagement is interactivity. Chatbots offer a way to easily create and deploy interactivity and adaptive learning sequences in learning engagements. While new technologies like chatbots may seem daunting and inaccessible at first, they don’t have to be.

In the 2018 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, employers reported leadership, communication, and collaboration as the most crucial skills to learn from L&D programs. Yet when it comes to developing these complex skills, many current offerings may teach what to do but lack opportunities to practice and apply them. Learners may try games, role-plays, or pre-recorded simulations, but are you truly moving the needle on performance? In light of shrinking budgets, limited time, and lack of effectiveness, how can you demonstrate impactful gains at scale?

Augmented, virtual, and other emerging “realities” provide opportunities, and challenges, for assessment of human performance at individual and team levels. These tools introduce endless possibilities for observing learning behaviors, but it can be tricky to align those behaviors with precise learning objectives for clean assessment and data collection.

Artificial intelligence is gradually taking over significant aspects of many people’s lives. From virtual assistants to self-driving cars, from chatbots to the Internet of Things, AI seems to be spreading its wings. The eLearning domain is no exception. In theory, today’s machines can create eLearning content with the help of artificial intelligence. What does this mean for eLearning professionals? If AI will create eLearning courses at the click of a button, what will instructional designers do? Will they be out of jobs? Such a fear is understandable, but this session will explore whether or not it is reasonable.

You can’t be available to provide coaching and feedback 24/7, but an intelligent chatbot can! All over the world, people are using artificial intelligence to manage their bank accounts, book travel, and find great products, so why not use this same technology to help people learn new skills and advance their careers? You might have already considered using artificial intelligence to bring the “wow factor” to your next project, but it can sound like a complicated and expensive endeavor—especially for your first time.

Apple announced its new ARKit in 2017, enabling iOS devices to view and interact with augmented reality. In 2018 they took it a step further by coming out with ARKit 2, enabling 3-D object recognition, persistent experiences, and even shared experiences between two devices. So how do you get started with Apple ARKit, and what application does it have to learning and performance support?