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EPISODE 112: LMS AI Hype vs Reality
Scott Burgess, CEO, Continu
Customer and partner education has come a long way since generative AI burst on the scene in late 2022. But despite ongoing progress, the learning systems market is drowning in a sea of overinflated expectations.
With LMS AI hype coming from all corners of the space, how can organizations separate the wheat from the chaff?
It’s not easy. That’s why I invited Scott Burgess to share his point of view. As Founder and CEO of enterprise enablement platform, Continu, Scott is a successful innovator who understands the dynamics behind today’s rapidly changing landscape.
So, join us for this episode of the Talented Learning Show, as Scott and I talk about what makes sense in today’s buzz-filled LMS world…
LMS AI HYPE vs REALITY — KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Modern customer and partner enablement requires a frictionless front-end learning experience. But that doesn’t happen without first defining measurable business objectives, along with a backend systems integration strategy that pulls all the pieces together.
- Lately, “AI” seems like the answer to every learning challenge. But too often, it falls short in the real world. So, how does AI truly add value to enterprise enablement? It frees people from being trapped inside an LMS, so they can learn whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them. Many vendors talk about this simple vision, but only a few are delivering.
- Data silos are another serious obstacle when enablement programs need to demonstrate business impact. This is why pioneers like Continue provide powerful tools that combine training intelligence with data from across the broader enterprise ecosystem, so learning teams can measure and analyze business outcomes.
LMS AI HYPE vs REALITY — Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome, Scott. For those who aren’t familiar with Continu, could you share a quick overview?
Absolutely. Continu is an enterprise enablement platform predominantly focused on customer and partner use cases. So, organizations rely on us to scale and automate their customer and partner training efforts.
We’ve been in business since 2012. And because we’ve been around for a while, we’ve seen all sorts of training modes over the years.
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No doubt. Let’s briefly go back to the beginning. What business problem inspired you to start a learning tech company 13 years ago?
Well, my background was in consulting. So, my aim in building Continu came from the pain of trying to implement LMSs when I couldn’t find strong solutions for clients. These were Fortune 500 organizations that wanted to scale training, not just within one department, but across business functions.
I see…
Also, we realized that enterprise learning wasn’t particularly effective. At that time, it looked much more like Moodle. It was similar to educational experiences at universities and colleges.
However, according to the 70-20-10 principle of learning, 70% of learning happens more informally. So, that was our original impetus.
We wanted to provide a solution that felt more like an easy-to-use consumer product but was scalable and secure for the enterprise. And since then, we’ve continued to build on that concept.
Of course, over time, we’ve brought in formal training methods as well. But we still lean into informal, just-in-time learning as our ethos.
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You and I agree that the best solutions emphasize business outcomes over features. So, what outcomes are critical for enterprise learning leaders right now?
The bottom line now for every business is revenue. It’s not just about winning new business or retaining customers. Organizations need to ensure they focus on the right customer profile types, as well.
And with customer and partner enablement, in particular, organizations are moving away from engagement metrics. It’s not enough to know if people looked at something, watched something, completed something, or even got certified.
Instead, organizations are leaning into bottom-line metrics like revenue, retaining customers, even creating upsell or expansion opportunities. For many learning leaders, their North Star is, “How do we correlate training with business revenue?”
I’m having this discussion a lot lately. Why now? In your view, what’s changing?
Well, for years, everyone knew enabling customers and partners would lead to downstream revenue and upsells. In other words, if we train them, revenue will come. So, the correlation has always been there, but more so now, with better mechanisms to measure those outcomes.
AI plays a part, too. The way systems are now integrated and connected with AI is much more robust. So, our buyers can much more effectively deliver outcome-driven training experiences.
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Mmhmm…
There’s also a political dimension to this, because increasingly, organizations see customer and partner enablement as a way to improve business outcomes. In the past, learning teams focused on engagement — which was considered fluffier — because we talked about clicks and things. Obviously, engagement is important. But it’s not the end all and be all.
Now, many buyers want to prove to their leadership team the correlation between training and revenue. Or they want to integrate tools that readily pull insights from data, in the same way popular AI chatbots can answer questions.
You’ve mentioned AI a couple of times. But LMS AI hype is rampant now. So, how do you leverage AI in a practical, realistic way?
You used the perfect keyword, John — practical.
There’s so much LMS AI hype from vendors today. We’re constantly reading about it, hearing about it, using it. Everyone is saturated with AI noise.
Of course, no one wants to use AI just for AI’s sake. So, from a practical perspective, learning leaders need to step back and focus on the outcomes they want.
Our buyers are actually very discerning about what they’re looking for. So, normally we start by determining how AI can enhance the experience for customer and partner enablement participants.
For example, how can the system create just-in-time moments for end users? How can it generate readily available answers, so people can get the information and guidance they need? This means they can get whatever they want as quickly as possible, and then get on with their day.
That’s a popular challenge: What can AI do to help the platform enrich the learner experience?
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Yes…
The other side of this is, “How does AI save time and energy for folks who are administrating the system?”
Generally, that involves automation. So, how do we make sure the system does the right things in the right way, so organizations can essentially set it and forget it? AI enables that in a powerful way.
Right…
But the most important capability is measurement. We’re deeply focused on ensuring that the system easily adapts to an organization’s particular measurement needs. That’s because every company is a bit different.
And as you said, companies are now connecting their LMS with their CRM, business intelligence tools, and other systems. But these tools are still kind of siloed. So, how do we make it possible to measure performance in a way that is truly meaningful and easy for organizations to understand and interpret?
On the learner side, our customers are focused on how to create better learning experiences. On the administration side, they want to utilize systems more fully. And above all, they’re focused on measuring relevant results, so they can use that intelligence to continue improving their training programs for better business outcomes.
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Makes sense.
But there’s also a lot of vendor-led AI hype right now. For example, many LMS companies are focusing on capabilities like skill development and authoring. But these are less important for our buyers.
Authoring is obviously critical for every learning system. Everyone wants to create great experiences. But most teams we work with don’t want to automate authoring, because that can be a bit tone deaf.
It’s more practical to use these AI tools as drafting agents to help you get 80% of the way toward your content goal. Then, you can directly shape the last 20% of training. That’s critical. And most companies we work with prefer that approach.
So, in today’s LMS platforms, how does AI manifest itself in terms of learner experience?
We believe people shouldn’t be trapped inside a central system.
Back in the day, people had to go to an LMS for access to learning. But now, advanced technology lets us embed education wherever people need it. That may be inside another system, or on a support site, or within a work collaboration tool like Slack or Teams, or even in an SMS context.
So, we’re building solutions that go where the market is going. I think that’s how we can give people a true just-in-time learning experience.
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I understand…
In the past, just-in-time learning was about more automation. Now, we want people to actually pull from the LMS. In other words, it’s about asking questions so they can get specific answers tailored to their needs — whether that’s based on their location, their partnership level, their customer tier, or a combination of factors.
AI lets us redefine the learner experience, so we no longer need to trap people inside of an LMS. Instead, we bring learning to wherever people are, in a friction-free way. This means they’ll benefit from training that is much more accessible and robust.
So, do you think formal learning paths are going away?
No, I don’t think they’ll go away. Formal paths are still necessary in some situations.
Let’s say you want certify people. You need to make sure they have deep, relevant knowledge. But beyond certification, you’ll also want to offer just-in-time moments to reinforce that in-depth learning. So, formal and informal training complement each other.
It goes back to the multimodal learning concept we’ve all spoken about for many years. If people wish, they can still participate in long-form training. But no one wants a customer or partner to spend more time on enablement than necessary.
The goal is to make learning and enablement as quick and easy as possible, so people can understand what they need to do and move forward. For us, that’s the biggest shift with AI.
And when customers or partners ask questions, where do AI-generated responses come from? How do you get the right answers to the right people?
That’s a great question, John …
… For complete answers to this and other questions about enterprise LMS AI hype vs. reality, listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, on Amazon, or right here on our site.
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