Can AI Take Care of All Your Corporate Training Needs?

Can AI be used for corporate training?

The Reality of AI Corporate Training

I recently attended an AI conference hosted by Cisco (thank you, Cisco). If you listened carefully, the message was clear:

• Everything is becoming automated.
• Everything is becoming agentic.
• The systems will run themselves.
• We’ll simply guide.

From the top down, the future sounds autonomous. And that raises a real question for anyone responsible for corporate training.

What does sensible, strategic use of AI actually look like?

In Australia, at least in the organisations I work with, we’re not there yet. I’m not seeing many clients rolling out fully autonomous AI agents to design, build and deliver their corporate training programs.

But we are using AI to help. And that’s where the real conversation sits.

You May Be Feeling the Pressure

I’m seeing this tension in almost every discovery call I take lately. You might be feeling one of two things right now:

• Pressure to automate everything.
• Concern that AI is about to replace your L&D function entirely.

Let me offer a calmer middle ground. AI can absolutely support your corporate training needs. It just can’t (yet) take care of all of them on its own.

What AI Corporate Training Does Well (When Used Properly)

With the right guidance and context, AI can dramatically speed up development. But here’s the key: everything it produces should be treated as a draft. Not a final product. Not something to copy and paste blindly. A draft.

I think of AI as a very enthusiastic junior assistant. If I asked a junior team member to draft learning objectives, create a quiz or summarise a policy, I wouldn’t publish it without reviewing it. I would refine it. Adjust tone. Align it to the organisation. Make sure it actually meets the brief.

AI is excellent at:

• Drafting learning objectives
• Producing first-pass session plans
• Generating quiz questions
• Summarising policies and procedures
• Turning existing documents into learning materials
• Repurposing content into different formats

But it needs direction. It needs context. It needs oversight.

AI works best when it isn’t asked to start from nothing. Instead, create the initial structure, provide organisational context and feed it source material. That’s where experience still matters.

Why I’ve Grown to Love NotebookLM

One tool I’ve genuinely come to appreciate is NotebookLM. I even wrote a blog post about how its Podcast Studio initially scared me: NotebookLM Podcast Studio Scares Me.

What makes NotebookLM powerful, particularly in a corporate training context, is that you upload your own sources of truth. It generates assets based only on those documents, which significantly reduces hallucination risk.

From your materials, you can generate:

• Interactive audio overviews (the “podcast” mode)
• Visual infographics to break down complex data
• Slide decks to kickstart presentation design
• Videos to engage visual learners
• Customised reports tailored to specific audiences (executives, managers, trainers or compliance teams)

The first time I used the interactive audio mode, it felt a little surreal. Recently, I was driving while listening to an audio version of my own training material. I missed a point because I was concentrating on the road, switched into interactive mode and asked the host to clarify.

It worked.

That moment made me realise AI can enhance learning without replacing the facilitator behind it. Am I ready to let NotebookLM facilitate an entire training session without me? No. But is it an incredibly useful tool for learners who prefer audio or visual formats over dense documents? Yes.

Where AI Falls Short (For Now)

AI does not understand your organisational culture. It does not read the room. It cannot measure fatigue levels. It does not sense resistance. It cannot navigate the politics of change.

Corporate training is not just content production. It’s behaviour change. It’s adoption. It’s engagement. It’s trust. And trust is built by people, not platforms.

Before You Ask “Can AI Do It All?” – Ask This First

If you’re wondering whether AI can take care of all your corporate training needs, the first thing you need isn’t another tool – it’s a clear AI policy to manage risk.

Before you hand content, assessments or learner data to an AI system, you need clarity around:

• Data privacy and intellectual property
• Accountability and acceptable use
• Compliance requirements

Key resources:

• AI Policy vs IT Policy
• Questions to Ask When Developing an AI Policy

Governance comes before automation. Always.

So, Can AI Take Care of All Your Corporate Training Needs?

Not yet. And perhaps not in the way some headlines suggest.

But can AI help you develop faster, repurpose smarter and support different learning preferences? Absolutely.

AI is a powerful co-designer, especially for those building programs independently.

But judgement, culture and facilitation are still human responsibilities.

About the Author

Nat Bell is the founder of Bell Training Solutions, providing consulting and training services that help organisations build practical, effective learning and development strategies. She supports leaders and teams with clear frameworks, policy guidance and capability development, ensuring training initiatives drive real behaviour change. Nat works closely with clients to design solutions that are commercially sensible, risk-aware and aligned to organisational goals.

If you’re working out where AI fits in your training strategy – and where it doesn’t – let’s have that conversation.

To contact, click Nat Bell here.