AI is changing eLearning. Just not the way you think.

It’s impossible to scroll through LinkedIn or open a learning industry newsletter without seeing a headline about AI 'revolutionising' education.

Apparently, AI is going to design our courses, write our scripts, generate our graphics, track every learner’s heartbeat, and deliver the perfect, personalised experience, all while we sip coffee and nod approvingly.

Sounds amazing. Also, not quite true.

The hype

AI in eLearning can do incredible things. It can:

• Generate first drafts of course content in seconds.

• Translate learning materials into dozens of languages instantly.

• Analyse learner behaviour and recommend next steps.

• Create realistic simulations and role-plays without human actors.

But here’s the catch: the tools themselves aren’t magic. AI is only as smart as the data and prompts you feed it. If your learning objectives are fuzzy, your source content is outdated, or your course strategy is weak, AI will happily turn that into a beautiful, useless mess; faster than any human could.

The hope

The real promise of AI isn’t replacing instructional designers. It’s freeing them.

Instead of spending hours building multiple-choice questions or rewriting text for tone, designers can focus on the big-ticket items, like:

• aligning learning to business goals.

• creating experiences that change behaviour, not just tick boxes.

• understanding the human side of learning: motivation, trust, and context.

AI can handle the repetitive, the data-heavy, and the technically complex. Humans can focus on the meaningful, the strategic, and the creative. That’s the partnership worth talking about.

The hard truths

There’s a danger in treating AI like a cheap, always-on junior designer. Without oversight, it will introduce errors, bias, and blandness into your learning content. It will cut corners in ways you may not see until the feedback surveys roll in.

It’s also worth remembering: personalisation isn’t always the holy grail. Sometimes, the most effective learning comes from shared experience, discussion, and working through the same challenging problem together. These are things AI can’t fully replicate.

So where do we go from here?

If you work in learning and development, here’s the smarter way to approach AI:

• Start with strategy, not tools. Decide what success looks like before touching the tech.

• Use AI for acceleration, not substitution. Let it make you faster, but don’t let it make decisions for you.

• Keep humans in the loop. Always review, refine, and sense-check.

• Invest in skills, not just software. Prompt writing, critical thinking, and ethical awareness will matter more than which platform you pick.

The question isn’t “Will AI replace learning designers?” The better question is: “Which learning designers will thrive because they know how to use AI well?” Those are the people, and organisations, will lead the next chapter of eLearning.

Read on Medium.