I’ll Take ‘Your Training is Obsolete’ for $200

On the television show Jeopardy!, another contestant sensation is winning game after game, with earnings north of $600,000: As of our publication date, Jamie Ding had won 23 games in a row (and counting), putting him among the top five best Jeopardy! players of all time.

The 42-year-old New Jersey law student hasn’t said if he used AI to train for the competition, but experts say the technology is clearly changing contestants’ preparation for game shows, be it Jeopardy! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Where contestants once endured the long, slow process of studying encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, and flashcards, now they can program gen AI to create practice quizzes on typical Jeopardy! topics. Creating the study tools takes as little as five minutes.

Today’s employees have the same learning tools at their fingertips. Whether preparing for an interview or a client meeting, employees can ask gen AI both to correct them and to repeat incorrectly answered questions, tracking their progress over time. “Learning is now available 24 hours a day, with expertise, exactly when you need it,” says workplace-learning expert Kam Malik, senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Dubai office.

But skeptics ask: Are workers (and contestants) really learning anything using this new tech aid? To be sure, spending fifteen minutes rather than fifteen hours does not mean that people aren’t properly boning up on, say, geography. Many experts say they’re simply learning differently. “It’s not inherently good or bad, or better or worse,” says Amelia Haynes, manager of research and partner development at the Korn Ferry Institute. Much of the AI learning that is currently happening in the workplace, she notes, involves memorizing rote facts—but knowing a subject is different, and requires nuanced recall of subject matter. Currently, few employees are engaging with AI in ways that promote deep knowledge.

AI learning also tends to falter when it comes to learning through emotional connection. While the technology can readily offer strategies for conflict resolution and negotiation, it falls flat when watching these scenarios unfold in real time. “Hearing an engaging story from someone, and the emotion with which they tell it—there’s no one-to-one replacement with AI,” says business transformation specialist Laura Manson-Smith, a global leader in Korn Ferry’s Organization Strategy Consulting practice.

The open question for workplace-learning experts is how to train workers who will no longer acquire their knowledge as previous generations did—by years of slogging through entry-level jobs. For example, entry-level workers in law, finance, and consulting used to spend years researching and drafting briefs, building financial models, or making presentation decks: How are mid-career employees supposed to evaluate those briefs and financial models and decks if they’ve never built them themselves?

The answer, says Manson-Smith, is to “create experiences in which workers learn those skills that they’re no longer getting through their jobs.” This involves not only developing new training strategies, but also fundamentally redesigning career paths and the experiences they entail. For example, a model that emphasizes lateral shifts (as opposed to the traditional corporate ladder) might be called for, to provide the sorts of exposures that once came naturally in lower-level positions.

Experts advise making sure that workplace learning means teaching not only rote or technical skills—as most of it currently does—but also aspects of problem-solving and critical thinking. “Interventions need to look at both the tech side and the behavioral side at the same time,” says Malik. As for workers, proactivity is the name of the game. Employees who sit back and wait for companies to educate them will find their usefulness to be limited, says Malik: “What’s going to drive those who thrive is learning agility.”

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Organizational Strategy capabilities. 

Read more This Week in Leadership articles