A Human-Centered Approach to AI

Apr 09, 2024 by Tim Sarchet

Like most organizations, Nomadic is trying to figure out how GenAI will reshape our business and our industry. While it’s going to take a long time before the dust really settles and we know for sure how things are going to change, it’s still important that we figure out how we want to approach, adopt and sometimes resist AI in our corner of the world.

In our initial adoption of AI we have started to practice what we’re calling a human-centered approach to AI. To us, that means putting our learners at the center of an AI enhanced experience, not letting AI take over the experience. It means remembering that human-to-human connections and learning from the lived experience of other humans is where the most effective learning happens, and that AI can augment that experience but not replace it. It means focusing on the skills that matter most to humans in an AI world, identifying what those skills are, and using our collaborative approach to learning to teach those skills. And it means helping L&D professionals adapt to a world where more and more routine tasks are carried out by AI.

As the disruptive forces of AI continue, a human-centered approach to AI helps us stay grounded in what we do best and in what we believe in as educators. But hopefully it also points us in the right direction to make the best use of this incredible technology that’s set to change the world as we know it.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be sharing more details on how we’re putting a human-centered approach to AI into practice. We’re going to start with some thoughts on how AI is reshaping the L&D profession and how L&D professionals (and those involved in learning but outside the L&D function) can adopt AI while keeping the needs and experience of their people at the center of what they do.