Whether you are developing eLearning or in-person training, a truly effective training program requires selecting the correct approach that will ensure that the training meets its goals.
AI in Workforce Development
When it comes to teaching on-the-job skills, Artificial Intelligence can provide opportunities to simulate work tasks and provide learning experiences that resemble real-life conditions and challenges employees face on a daily basis. A major obstacle in creating effective learning programs is being able to align real-life experiences with eLearning interactions that occur on the computer screen. This is especially true for those jobs and skills that focus on communications tasks and human interactions. Some examples of these challenging jobs include call center employees, sales reps, retail staff, customer service agents, etc.
The Problem We Faced
So when we were tasked with creating an effective call center eLearning program that customer service reps can use to practice conversations with unhappy customers, we knew that we needed to build a complex eLearning product that would resemble the actual conversations occurring between the call center reps and their customers.
The Solution We Offered
Currently, eLearning Company, Inc. is a leading provider of the AI-powered eLearning products. And as we were exploring different ways to address this project, naturally we considered Artificial Intelligence as one of the possible solutions. We were already familiar with the capability of IBM Watson to enrich learning interactions and deliver custom learning experiences across a variety of industries. Our previous projects involving IBM Watson were able to greatly enhance the training process and deliver excellent learning outcomes. After performing the task analysis, we quickly concluded that the best solution for the call center training we had at hand was to use Watson. This service works across multiple domains and is capable to provide solutions to virtually any training challenge. Some examples of what IBM Watson can do include:
Conversation – Provides the ability to integrate diverse conversation technology into an eLearning application.
Knowledge – Ensures the availability of learning insights through accelerated data optimization capabilities.
Vision – Allows to identify and tag content then analyze and extract detailed information found in an image.
Speech – Allows converting text and speech with the ability to customize models.
Language – Enables the analysis of text and extraction of meta-data from unstructured content.
Empathy – Delivers the understanding of tone, personality, and emotional state.
The Approach We Took
Using IBM Watson services, we created a cloud-based “customer” who could interact with the learners, respond to questions, and provide information about the training situation. Then, we gave the chatbot the ability to speak its answers instead of providing only text responses. And finally, we enabled the bot to understand the spoken instructions that the learners can provide using a computer microphone, thus eliminating the need to type. All this allowed us to bring the training situation as close as possible to resemble a real-life scenario: a customer contacts the call center, is greeted by the customer service rep, and has her problem resolved while on the phone.
To emphasize the training aspect, we augmented the bot-learner interaction with dynamic prompts that ensure that the learner takes the right actions at the right times throughout the conversation. While the learner is free to lead the conversation in any way she desires, the prompts on the screen provide constant coaching on the correct dialogue flow. Finally, the learner is able to receive feedback from the AI engine on the conversation flow. The feedback will highlight the parts of the conversation that were in line with the company’s best practices, and those that needed improvement. After receiving the feedback, the learner is able to try going through the conversation one more time to gain more practical experience. You can click on the screenshot below to see the demo module we created for this project. Feel free to interact with the bot, as well as check the feedback that the program will give you after you complete the conversation.
eLearning Company is an IBM-approved provider of eLearning programs that utilize natural language processing and that are SCORM- and xAPI-compliant and is listed on the IBM Marketplace. We work with companies large and small to find the best training solutions for their learning populations and produce training programs that move the clients’ businesses forward. We encourage all companies interested in exploring using AI in their training programs but unsure where to start to contact us and let us figure out a way for their training to match the 21st-century demands.
Whether you are developing eLearning or in-person training, a truly effective training program requires selecting the correct approach that will ensure that the training meets its goals.
It can be quite challenging to align real-life experiences with eLearning interactions that occur on the computer screen, especially for those jobs and skills that focus on physical tasks and human interactions. Some examples of these challenging jobs include call center employees, sales reps, manual workers, customer service agents, etc.
– Conversation – Provides the ability to integrate diverse conversation technology into an eLearning application.
– Knowledge – Ensures the availability of learning insights through accelerated data optimization capabilities.
– Vision – Allows to identify and tag content then analyze and extract detailed information found in an image.
– Speech – Allows converting text and speech with the ability to customize models.
– Language – Enables the analysis of text and extraction of meta-data from unstructured content.
– Empathy – Delivers the understanding of tone, personality, and emotional state.
eLearning Company is an IBM-approved provider of eLearning programs that utilize natural language processing and that are SCORM- and xAPI-compliant. eLearning Company is listed on the IBM Marketplace.
