Is AI our next silver bullet?

Is AI our next silver bullet? That’s the question Laura and Michelle explore this week. Not just whether it will fix everything, but something closer to the opposite: are we firing it straight through the heart of the things we’re trying to build? What they uncover is that the real risk isn’t that AI will fail us, it’s that we’ll use it to do the same things faster without ever asking what we needed in the first place. Drawing on Laura’s research into L&D silver bullets, a Sydney Trains case study, and Simon Brown’s approach at Ernst and Young, they explore what it looks like to harness AI through the TRI principles rather than reach for it as a fix. They don’t agree on everything, and that’s rather the point. It’s an episode about the difference between a tool and a strategy, and why staying with the uncomfortable question a little longer is more valuable than landing on the answer.

Resources

The L&D Leader – Principles and practice for delivering business value by Laura Overton and Michelle Ockers (book)
learningchangemakers.com/resources/the-ld-leader/

Steve Hearsum called “No Silver Bullet.”
hearsum.com/no-silver-bullet

Life cycle of a silver bullet
whatsthepont.blog/2017/05/29/the-life-cycle-of-a-silver-bullet/

Learning Uncut episode 181 Beyond Role Play: Using AI to Build Real Skills – Ryan Byrne and Dr Nathan Moore
learninguncut.global/podcast/181/

The L&D Podcast: Moving Beyond Hype: Leading AI Strategy and Skills-Based Growth with Simon Brown
youtube.com/watch?v=TPCaShLvIc0

Ericsson’s Learning NEXT Community
learninguncut.global/podcast/152/

Stella Collins Neuroscience for Learning and Development
amzn.eu/d/04pPo8d0

Stella Collins – The Learning Organization: Using Self-Directed Learning to Drive Workforce Engagement and Performance
amzn.eu/d/07UupSew

Rubin Hassid – AI is a slot machine (mapping our engagement to Kübler-Ross’s 5 stages)
open.substack.com/pub/ruben/p/ai-is-a-slot-machine
Note to reader: whilst many question the science behind Kübler-Ross’s cycle, the cycle is used as an interesting metaphor for our relationship with AI.