Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Youtube Music | RSS
EPISODE 114: Improving Internal and External Learning With AI
Leslie Kelley, Chief Growth Officer, Absorb Software
For years, learning leaders have aimed to educate customers and employees in ways that move the business forward. But proving the impact of learning has been a struggle. Now, with help from AI, organizations are starting to crack the code. How?
That’s what I’m discussing today with Leslie Kelley, Chief Growth Officer at Absorb Software. Leslie’s charter is expansive, with cross-functional responsibilities that connect how the company brings products to market with strategies that drive lasting customer value. Her perspective is particularly helpful for anyone who cares about extended enterprise solutions.
So, join us as we talk about how your learning team can make AI a strategic ally on this episode of the Talented Learning Show…
IMPROVING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEARNING WITH AI — KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Learning professionals know it’s important to tie educational programs to business outcomes. But the process is tricky. And it becomes much more complex as multiple systems and data sources enter the mix. This is where AI can make a huge difference.
- Organizations can no longer afford to let learning systems function as static instructional content repositories. These systems should understand the roles, behaviors, and context surrounding diverse learning audiences, and adapt as needs change over time. This is another AI strength.
- Adoption may be strong, but AI isn’t free. This means vendors must think carefully about how to adjust pricing models as usage grows. Similarly, buying organizations need to weigh the cost of AI functionality against its overall value to individuals and the enterprise as a whole.
IMPROVING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEARNING WITH AI — Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome, Leslie. Before we talk shop, why don’t you tell us about Absorb and your role there?
Sounds good, John. Well, things are moving really fast, as we reinvent what it means to be a learning system and what it offers learners, regardless of whether they are employees, customers, partners, suppliers, whoever.
We’re rethinking how we build learning systems to capitalize on key challenges our industry has been talking about for years. With advances around AI, we have much more contextual information that makes learning much more engaging, and we can personalize the experience to meet people where they are.
This is a whole new opportunity. There’s never been a more exciting time to be working in this space. And my role as Chief Growth Officer at Absorb is unique and interesting.
I oversee product marketing and go-to-market strategies. So, I work closely with product teams, making sure we’re building products our customers need. Also, I oversee our technical sales team, our solution engineering team, and customer enablement, which is very much product enablement.
So, on a daily basis, I’m a customer of our products, as well as a learning practitioner for both internal and external use cases.
Don’t miss what’s happening at the leading edge of enterprise learning technology! Get our weekly email brief. SUBSCRIBE HERE →
Is that combination of responsibilities typical?
It may not be typical, but it makes sense. On the technical side, it’s about solutioning, right? Customers need us to figure out how to solve problems. It’s the art of the possible.
But none of that matters if customers don’t understand what to do to get value out of it.
So, with customer enablement, there is a through line. We need to pick the right products to develop and help customers see their value. What outcomes do these products drive? How do we talk about that? Do people understand? And are they getting what they need from it?
These things fit together. The way products come to life is an end-to-end journey.
How do you prioritize and decide what to build?
Our customers and prospects would love for us to build a million things. There’s always something that should work a different way for an individual’s particular workflow.
But for us, it’s about combing those needs and understanding what is most important to drive the outcomes they want to achieve.
2026 OFFICE HOURS: If you’re buying a learning system, why not choose with confidence? Join analyst John Leh for this free 6-part webinar series just for LMS buyers. SAVE YOUR SEAT →
Of course, some needs are more niche. They fit into a particular workflow.
Also, we need to consider what customers need that they don’t know they need.
AI brings a new lens to much of what we build. We always want to be ahead of our customers and build those things before they know they need them.
Definitely.
At the same time, we must keep investing in our core LMS functionality, because our customers need to serve their internal and external learning audiences. That’s not going away.
So, we still need to make improvements our customers want today. But 40-50% of our R&D investment goes towards things people aren’t asking for now.
We need to be just as smart about understanding what their future needs will be. And we’re always making trade-offs in deciding what’s most important.
Mmhmm…
For instance, with customer enablement use cases, when companies are empowering others to learn about their products, what do they expect to be new, different, or better?
Also, we need to think about administrators who run the system. That’s generally not an easy job. So, how should things work differently for administrators versus content creators?
But the beauty of new AI-driven technology is that it can do a lot of those things for you. You don’t have to rely on a human for tedious backend admin steps.
Want a better way to manage the business of learning? Find vendor profiles, reviews, case studies and more in our free Learning Systems Directory →
So, when making these product decisions, we do a ton of customer research to understand the best systems available today with capabilities that may be ahead of learning systems. This gives us ideas for different functionality we can bring into our system from elsewhere, like Salesforce or Claude, or whatever.
Smart move…
Now, people expect an Amazon-level digital experience. Amazon taught everyone a new way of shopping online that no one knew was possible. That changed expectations for us all.
And today, software is going through the same transformation.
The way we interact with systems is already entirely different. But the difference will be even more pronounced within the next 12 to 36 months. So, we have to get ahead of that and build things that make it easier and more efficient for anyone who engages with the system.
How are organizations succeeding at LMS consolidation and other learning systems initiatives? Get inspired by dozens of stories in our free LMS Case Study Directory. CHECK IT OUT →
It’s challenging to plan for what people need now as well as what they don’t yet know they need…
Yes. In some ways, people do provide insights about what they need without directly saying it.
Ultimately, everything you do has to tie back to some sort of business outcome. Otherwise, when budgets and resources are scrutinized, you won’t have a footing to make the case for why your learning investments matter.
Good tools are already available for this. For example, our Analyze Direct tool lets you put all your learning data into Snowflake or Power BI. This includes performance data, salesforce data, revenue data, quota attainment data, whatever.
You can bring it all together and tell a strong story about the correlations between customers who engage with your training and, say, the next five milestones they need to accomplish from an adoption standpoint.
You can do this today. It’s cool. But it is still really hard for people to do. This process needs to be easier. And that means we have to invest in ways to bring that data into the learning system.
Right. As a consultant, I always come back to measurable business results as a mantra…
It’s about starting with the desired outcome and then building programs to help solve that particular use case.
For instance, what if you find that customers are getting stuck in onboarding? Start with what the onboarding goal should be. And then build a program to deliver that particular outcome.
As vendors, we have to make it easier for customers to succeed in these scenarios. Because I just don’t see a future business world where people invest in technology that doesn’t help tell that kind of story.
Buying or selling a customer-focused learning system? Get independent insights you can trust, with our in-depth analysis of 16 top solutions. Learn about our Customer LMS Buyer’s Guide →
I’m with you on that. It’s tough because reflexively, nobody wants to give learning folks data. So, how do you get past that?
Well, in our organization, employees have access to a lot of new tools that open the aperture of possibility in multiple ways.
These tools help you analyze data that may not otherwise be available to you, personally. In other words, you can proxy into different types of data sources and run queries to understand what’s happening, even without direct access to the information.
They help you see possibilities opening, rather than closing. So, you no longer have to feel stuck.
Also, whenever someone in our company finds a new way of solving an old sticking point problem, we now share it with others. And in response, people often say they never thought the solution was possible.
Hmm…
This is why it is such an exciting time. Because what’s possible to do is changing on a daily basis. And the more people who start thinking this way in an organization, the better.
Now, when people realize there are new, better ways to solve old problems, it’s a big unlock for many organizations.
But obviously, this requires broader access to tooling. It also requires support from leadership, so you can make the environment safe for people to experiment and try new things.
2026 OFFICE HOURS: If you’re buying a learning system, why not choose with confidence? Join analyst John Leh for this free 6-part webinar series just for LMS buyers. SAVE YOUR SEAT →
That makes a lot of sense. So, would you say organizations are more interested now in internal or external learning, or a combination?
We serve both audiences, and neither is fading. In terms of sales leads we receive, the split may be 60/40 one month, then 40/60 the next. And obviously, some of our customers serve both internal and external audiences.
It’s probably more important to think about the kind of solution you need for whatever audiences you serve. And we believe it’s wise to choose one system that can handle both internal and external training.
This is a particularly important point. And it often leads to questions about data.
No doubt.
HR and CRM data live in different systems. And the problem compounds if data for customer education and employee education sits in two, three, four, or five different systems. Everything becomes much harder to manage.
But when you bring it all into one platform, you have much better insight into what types of training matter for your business.
Also, keep in mind that technology continually changes. Learning systems can no longer be static content repositories. They should dynamically know the roles of your learners and administrators. They should understand and adapt to your company’s context, including the training people are taking and the related outcomes.
That means your learning system should become smarter over time. It should become better at recommending the training people should take to drive the right outcomes.
Don’t miss what’s happening at the leading edge of enterprise learning technology! Get our weekly email brief. SUBSCRIBE HERE →
It also means one system can serve both audiences, learn from both audiences, and help your organization understand how to drive business as a whole. That’s a big differentiator.
This starts with better access to critical data, so you know what drives performance among customers, partners, and employees. It becomes a real game-changer for learning teams as well as the business. It means you can be much more agile and competitive.
And that’s how you win against competitors in the next 3-5 years.
Makes sense…
I talk with a lot of CEOs about what keeps them up at night. They’re wondering whether or not they’ll still be in business 5 years from now.
Obviously, I’m biased about the business value of learning. But I think it is one of the most important investments any organization can make now to ensure you’re still here in five years.
Agree. So, let’s talk about other aspects of AI. As usage grows, how are you factoring this into your platform pricing? …
… For complete answers to this and other questions about leading internal and external training, listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, on Amazon, or right here on our site.
Watch This Podcast on YouTube
Learn More About Absorb
Check my “Hot Take” LMS review on YouTube:
Need Guidance to Find an Enterprise LMS? Let’s Talk
For independent advice you can trust, schedule a free 30-minute consult below with me, John Leh…
*NOTE TO SALESPEOPLE: Want to sell us something? Please contact us via standard channels. Thanks!
About the Author: John Leh
