AI Can Build Training. But It Can’t Do This.
- Cain Prentice
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
AI can now build training courses, write content and generate learning assets in seconds.
So, it’s fair to ask: what does that mean for those of us working in learning and development?
For a long time, much of the focus in L&D has been on content, courses and learning design. But now that AI can do many of those things faster than ever, the greatest value of L&D sits somewhere else.
Sure, AI can help you build faster. But it doesn’t know whether you’re building the right thing.
If you’re solving the wrong problem, the training won’t land. If the goal isn’t clear, success becomes difficult to measure.
And if stakeholders aren’t aligned, even a well-designed solution can fall apart.
That means the most valuable L&D skills aren’t only about building learning. They’re about deciding what should be built in the first place.
Earlier in my career, I built an introductory eLearning module for a very specific group of workers.
A few senior stakeholders saw it, liked it and suggested rolling it out more broadly across the entire workforce. This wasn’t a small audience. It would have reached tens of thousands of people.
At the time, it felt like a huge opportunity. It could’ve become a very high-visibility project for me- the kind of work you add to your CV and talk about for years.
I could’ve simply said “yes”.
But something didn’t sit right.
So, I started asking more questions like:
What are we actually trying to change?
What problem is this solving?
What would success look like?
Pretty quickly, it became clear that we didn’t yet have a clearly defined problem. The module I’d built wasn’t designed for this broader audience or context.
So, I had to go back and say something difficult:
“If we roll this out as it is, it probably won’t have the impact we want. It may just end up being a waste of time for a lot of people.”
That’s not an easy message to deliver when everyone’s excited about moving forward.
But that’s the work.
It’s the part of L&D we don’t talk about enough. It’s messy, unclear and requires judgement.
And crucially, AI doesn’t sit in those conversations.
Good L&D work often involves reading the room. It involves understanding what’s really going on beneath the surface, knowing when to push back and when to listen, building trust over time and asking better questions.
These are often the skills we refer to as business partnering.
They’re not just about delivering training. They’re about shaping the solution.
And they’re not simply technical skills. They’re human judgements.
That’s what makes them so hard to replace.
So, what does this mean for people involved in training design?
If your role is focused mainly on building content, there’s a higher risk that AI will be able to replicate parts of what you do.
But if your role involves shaping problems, influencing decisions and aligning learning to business needs, your value is likely to increase.
AI doesn’t remove the need for L&D.
It raises the bar for what good L&D needs to be.
So yes, learn the AI tools. They can help you work faster, improve your outputs and create more efficient design processes.
But staying relevant isn’t only about becoming better at using AI.
It’s about understanding the business. Asking sharper questions. Building real relationships. Helping stakeholders make better decisions before anything is built.
Because that’s the part of L&D that drives real impact.
