Closing the Application Gap: Leveraging AI Coaching to Make Training Stick
The Post-Training Conundrum
Ideally to businesses, sending employees for training results in an increase in their engagement and productivity. Be it skills upgrading, mindset learning, or even leadership training, one reasonably expects employees to come away with something after a course or workshop. However, the Ministry of Manpower reports that some participants still struggle with real-world application once the classroom sessions end.
Cognitive learning is insufficient when participants do not have the opportunity to practise their skills at work. After learners return to their day-to-day routine, they fall back on old habits, re-adhering to their established workplace culture. Furthermore, packed work schedules leave little to no time for experimenting with unfamiliar workflows.
Without the right incentives to translate theory into practice, these newly acquired skills are quickly forgotten, rendering the initial investment ineffective.
This is where the learning-doing gap challenges organisations, and where post-training coaching steps in to bridge it. However, sustaining this through recurring human coaching is usually cost-prohibitive and operationally difficult to scale. AI-supported coaching can be leveraged to address these issues and make training stick.
The Powerful Possibilities of AI Coaching
This technology has the potential to turn learning into doing. By utilising highly scalable and relatively affordable chatbots, organisations can now support the learning and development of large groups of employees without sacrificing quality or personalisation.
Interactive digital coaching keeps employees actively engaged, maximising day-to-day application. As a result, staff perceive the original training as directly relevant to their daily tasks, significantly increasing their likelihood of adopting new habits.
Furthermore, interacting with an AI coach provides the motivation and psychological reinforcement needed to consciously expend effort on skill development.
A number of development tasks can arguably be delegated to AI chatbots:
(1) Goal Attainment
Possibilities: Digital coaches can assist users in setting and clarifying milestones. They collect updates, issue accountability reminders, and track commitments, helping individuals progress effectively on a day-to-day basis.
Limitations: While generic AI can adapt to user input, it lacks the organisational context to navigate complex personal roadblocks as effectively as a human mentor.
(2) Education and Psychological Support
Possibilities: Chatbots can provide relevant information, techniques and resources to support the coaching process. They can also offer real-time, practical recommendations and ask proper questions to guide the user along their learning journey, alleviating anxiety.
Moreover, AI chatbots communicate with positively framed vocabulary, summarising users’ input and offering validation. They can interpret emotions from users’ phrases and emotional words and express empathy.
Limitations: AI lacks the ability to truly understand and empathise with users’ emotions and experiences, which is one of the hallmarks of great coaching.
(3) Prompting Reflection
Possibilities: Automated systems can provide targeted questions to provoke thinking and problem solving in users.
Limitations: Standard AI chatbots often struggle with highly nuanced, organisation-specific issues that require deep, contextual exploration.
These limitations can be overcome by retaining the human touch in the coaching process. AI coaching should be complemented with human guidance to achieve an optimal learning experience and close the application gap.
Sageful AI
Rather than forcing organisations to choose between human coaching and detached automated tools, the partnership between aAdvantage and Sageful AI creates a powerful middle ground. Having successfully piloted this hybrid approach using our own internal training content, we have experienced firsthand how effectively it bridges the gap. This hybrid approach combines the deep empathy and strategic nuance of human-centric coaching with the infinite scalability and immediate accessibility of AI.
Targeted Learning and Application
Sagey, the AI coach, is designed according to proven coaching methodology, done back-end at Sageful AI. Sagey’s algorithm is tailored specifically to coach and close the post-training gap.
aAdvantage provides training material to Sagey. Sagey then calibrates its responses
according to the information provided, transforming AI coaching into something more targeted, specific and effective.
Convenient Implementation
Sagey’s interactive interface can be integrated directly into the organisation’s pre-existing workflow. Be it Slack, Microsoft Teams or text messages, Sagey blends in seamlessly, easing learners into practising new skills in the workplace.
Automated Impact Reporting
Sagey’s strength lies in measuring and visualising training effectiveness through LeaderView, a built-in dashboard for administrators to track coaching engagement throughout the project period.
These automated insights immensely benefit managers looking to monitor program velocity. Through LeaderView, leadership can audit which employees are conversing with Sagey, alongside the frequency and duration of their interactions. This data assists with tracking internal KPIs and highlights which team members are demonstrating a proactive willingness to improve.
Sagey captures both quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure success. At the close of a session, the AI prompts users to reflect on their growth, inviting them to craft personal success stories using the S-T-A-R framework (Situation, Task, Action, and Result). These qualitative wins are then populated into the dashboard, allowing management to visualise and contextualise the exact ROI of their training initiatives.
All in all, Sagey streamlines L&D efforts for managers and keeps learners engaged
long after training ends.
The Irreplaceable Human Element
In today’s digital world, AI has become an indispensable tool for organisational growth. aAdvantage, however, remains committed to a human-centric approach in developing resilient, adaptable leaders. We aim to augment human coaching and enhance training efforts with the assistance of AI.
Interested in closing the application gap with aAdvantage? Explore our Leadership & Team Development services and our partnership with Sagey AI.
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