Developing a future-ready workforce means embracing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, but these systems aren’t without risk. In this blog post, learn how you can leverage AI in your learning software while mitigating potential security risks.

AI implementation is a hot topic in HR and L&D, and most organizations are already seeking ways to include these modern tools in their workforce development and talent management strategies. An overwhelming majority of companies—85%—plan to increase their adoption of frontier technologies between now and 2028. Now that AI-powered tools are more widely accessible, organizations are eagerly exploring their potential benefits, such as:

• Reducing business costs
• Increasing productivity
• Optimizing workflows and processes

AI chatbots and similar tools can drastically improve efficiency across your organization, but these technologies aren’t without risk. Depending on the AI tools you select and how you choose to train them, AI responses can potentially contain sensitive proprietary information about your organization’s strategies and personnel. It’s therefore crucial to be aware of the risks and to have safeguards in place to protect your company and employees.

Knowing you want to leverage modern technology is just the tip of the iceberg. Your technology needs to align with your skills development strategy and organizational goals. It’s crucial to choose AI tools suited to your unique goals so you can achieve optimum results. The problem is that AI has seemingly endless capabilities, which can make it difficult to decide on the best course of action for your L&D strategy.

While there are many ways to implement AI, the following examples demonstrate how some organizations leverage the technology to support their training and development plans.

READ MORE ON SKILLS DEVELOPMENT | ‘8 Essential Components of a Skills-Based Talent Development Strategy’

How Companies Leverage AI Tools in L&D

Every skills development plan needs to include training content. Some organizations have in-house learning designers to create courses and supplemental materials, while other companies rely on third-party providers for custom or off-the-shelf training modules. Both methods cost organizations significant resources, be it a designer’s time creating content or a company’s L&D budget to vet and purchase courses. Some companies are turning to AI-driven tools to create or supplement their existing content libraries. Generative AI tools are helping organizations design training content and other essential course materials like:

• Lesson plans and structures
• Prompts for written responses
• Multiple-choice questions
• Skills proficiency assessments

Organizations implementing generative AI in this way can redeploy their learning designers’ skills to complete other critical tasks. Another AI benefit is that these companies don’t have to purchase training content from third-party vendors, freeing up funds in their skills development budget to be used on other aspects of their L&D strategy.

Companies also leverage AI-powered recommendation systems to guide employees through personalized learner journeys that promote a culture of continuous learning. The AI system analyzes data from your LMS or skills development platform to recommend relevant courses and resources aligned with that employee’s unique training needs. Data points can include an employee’s:

• Current skills
• Job role
• Career aspirations
• Learning preferences
• Performance information
• Behavior patterns

Organizations use recommendation systems to save employees time so they can more quickly bridge any skills gaps. AI-powered recommendation systems identify gaps in an employee’s skill set and suggest a relevant training program to help close those gaps. These personalized training programs can also be automatically connected to the organization’s strategic goals, ensuring that the employee training programs support both the individual and the company’s overall skills needs.

KEEP READING | ‘The Impact of Your L&D Investment: Unlocking the Metrics That Matter’

Leverage AI in Your LMS or Skills Development Platform

In addition to content creation and course recommendations, an AI-enabled LMS or skills development platform can further personalize employee training (and support your overall L&D strategy) with skills mapping. The AI tool automatically links relevant skills to training content in an employee’s learning journey, and the content can come from both the LMS and connected third-party content like LinkedIn Learning courses. This gives the employee a holistic view of their professional development plan so they can quickly see how their training content relates to the skills they’re working to develop.

You can also use AI chatbots in your LMS or skills platform to create more interactive experiences for your employees and administrators. With an AI chatbot, an employee could write a prompt saying which skills they want to improve and ask for course recommendations based on their employee performance data. If your HRIS is integrated with your LMS, the AI could use both available data sources to suggest content relevant to that employee’s current skills and future career aspirations. Similarly, an administrator could ask the chatbot how many employees are progressing toward specific goals or desired competencies. The AI chat tool could quickly analyze the available data in the LMS and its integrated systems to give you a snapshot of your workforce’s progress toward specific skills goals.

Mitigate AI Security Concerns

While AI-powered systems offer many benefits, they can pose security risks to your organization, especially if your systems are the target of a prompt injection or data poisoning attack. Prompt injection attacks happen when someone feeds your AI tool information that makes the program behave in an unintended manner. Someone with ill intent could input a prompt that forces your AI tool to generate offensive content or reveal confidential information about employees or your business operations.

Data poisoning attacks cause AI models to create undesirable outcomes that can cause widespread damage to your business. Data poisoning attacks happen when someone tampers with the information sources that train your AI model. When this occurs, anything the model produces will be inaccurate since it’s based on unreliable data. Making business decisions based on faulty AI content could cause you to implement ineffective programs and strategies that harm your business growth and damage your workforce culture.

Being mindful of these possibilities before implementing AI-powered tools can help you mitigate the risks associated with these technologies. Before you launch a new tool, start embedding the importance of AI security into your workforce culture. Be transparent about how your organization intends to use the technology and why it’s essential that all employees remain vigilant when interacting with AI-powered tools. Take time to educate your workforce about the ramifications of improperly using AI. Make it clear from the start that data security requires a commitment from everyone to use the technology ethically and appropriately.

READ MORE ABOUT AI | ‘AI in Learning & Development: Emerging Trends & Tips for Success’

It’s also crucial that humans validate anything created using AI. While these tools are effective at saving time and optimizing workflows, they aren’t infallible. Establish appropriate processes that ensure an actual human is checking AI outputs for accuracy each time these tools are used. Additionally, AI tools should never be making decisions, especially those that impact your employees or stakeholders. Information derived from AI tools can be validated and used to inform decision making, but you should never allow the technology to make decisions on your behalf.

Ensure everyone using AI takes a “human first” approach to the technology. The following guiding principles for AI use can inform your workforce development strategy:

• Maintain privacy and security
• Ensure safety and wellbeing
• Embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Remain accountable
• Be transparent
• Promote fair and equitable access to technology

Choose Software Vendors That Value Security

In addition to incorporating AI security into your culture, it’s important to partner with a software vendor that values data security and has a track record for keeping their clients’ information safe. Look for LMS and talent management vendors with security certifications from industry-recognized associations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or System and Organization Controls (SOC). Vendors with security certifications have demonstrated their ability to protect sensitive information while staying compliant with industry and government regulations.

Look for vendors that meet the following standards:

• SOC 2 Type 2: Developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), this assessment determines how well a vendor’s internal controls and systems protect customer data. This designation assesses vendors on security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
• ISO 27001: Published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), this standard is used to manage data security and defines the requirements an information security management system must meet to be compliant.
• EU-US Data Privacy Framework: A multi-national initiative that ensures US-based organizations provide secure data transfers and protection consistent with legislation in the European Union.