Empower, Educate, Excel: How AI Can Transform Your Customer Education Program

In an era where possibilities seem endless, Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t a choice—it’s the compass guiding us into uncharted territories of innovation. 

There’s no need to fear this new technology. Instead, we must learn to use it to benefit our organizations, teams, and customers.

AI offers real opportunity in customer education, not only to automate administrative tasks but also to make learning more effective and analyze program data faster than ever before.

“By leveraging AI, organizations can create customer education programs that are not just informative, but engaging, personalized, and proactive,” says Tara Furiani, who leads Not the HR Lady. “It’s about empowering customers with knowledge, enhancing their experience, and fostering a deeper relationship between them and the organization.”

Today, AI is already outperforming humans at providing instant customer support and guiding customers in how to get the most from costly training programs.

Understanding AI in customer education

AI is making its way into our lives quickly. When we ask Siri or Alexa to play our favorite song or when Netflix recommends a movie based on our viewing habits, we interact with AI. 

The AI market is expected to grow 20-fold by 2030, up to $2 trillion, according to recent data from Next Move Strategy Consulting. 

That supports IBM’s latest report, which shows that more than one in three (35 percent) organizations used AI tech in 2022.

All eyes are on AI in healthcare, finance, and other consumer-related industries. Yet, an equally exciting area where AI is showing its true colors is customer education. 

From automated support systems to sophisticated learning programs, AI is shaping how you engage with customers on a fundamental level. 

Defining Artificial Intelligence

Before we dive in, what even is AI? Sure, we know it means Artificial Intelligence. That’s only a surface-level explanation. 

AI refers to developed computer systems that perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Think learning, reasoning, problem-solving, understanding language and perception—AI can do all of those things. 

AI technologies can support humans in many tasks.

For example, AI can:

• Sort through enormous volumes of data in seconds
• Learn from previous interactions to improve future performance (Machine Learning)
• Interact with humans in a natural, intuitive way (Natural Language Processing)
• Recognize images and patterns (Computer Vision) 
• Operate 24/7 without breaks 

But AI also has limitations. It lacks true consciousness or emotions and can’t understand context like humans do. And it’s dependent on the quality of data it’s trained on. 

How AI is changing the customer education landscape

In short, AI is making customer education more personalized, accessible, and effective. 

• Personalized: With a learning management system (LMS) with AI features, you can develop personalized, engaging content. The Learning Cloud from WorkRamp offers AI Assist, which enables content creation, generative AI, natural language processing, and a discovery and recommendations engine. 
• Accessible: Virtual assistants are available around the clock. Learners can take courses at their own time and pace. If a learner based in Singapore (GMT+8) has a question about course material, they don’t have to wait until regular business hours for help.  
• Effective: Predictive analytics can anticipate customer needs and proactively provide relevant information. AI systems can also interact with unlimited customers at once, providing consistent quality education to all. 

“Picture a tireless educator, always ready to engage, explain, and assist,” says Furiani-Boggs, “AI can automate administrative tasks related to the education program.”

She explains that, “from enrolling customers into courses and tracking their progress to generating reports and sending reminders, AI can streamline the process, allowing the organization to focus on enhancing the quality of the educational content.”

Overall, AI is a powerful tool for continuously improving customer education. To do these things, AI needs a good operator—which is you. 

Using AI tools in customer education

Let’s explore some tools you can use to leverage AI in your customer education programs:

• Chatbots
• Recommendation systems
• Feedback analysis 
• Learning Management Systems (LMS)
• Predictive analytics
• Course creation
• Onboarding 

Chatbots

“AI chatbots can also play a pivotal role in customer education. Available 24/7, these virtual assistants can answer queries, provide guidance, and even offer interactive learning experiences,” says Furiani-Boggs. 

Say you’re educating customers on how to use different software products. They can navigate through courses covering a variety of basic and advanced topics. They can ask the chatbot a question if they get stuck on a topic. 

Chatbots can also remind customers about incomplete courses, upcoming webinars, and new content additions. 

💡Action: Identify what your customers need help with. It could be course navigation, tech support, or clarification on course content. Train the chatbot and encourage customers to use the chatbot and provide feedback. 

Recommendation systems

“AI can facilitate the creation of personalized learning environments for consumers,” says Andy Flynn, Vice President SpryLyfe. “By analyzing customer data, AI algorithms can recommend learning resources tailored to the specific requirements and preferences of each customer.”

For example, you could use a recommendation system to suggest relevant content or resources to customers based on their usage patterns. It’s an easy way to make learning engaging and boost learners’ motivation. 

💡Action: Understand what kind of data you can use for sending recommendations. This could be interaction data (courses, tests taken, forum interactions), usage data, or demographics. Then determine what kind of content you want the recommendation system to suggest—courses, webinars, tutorials, articles, or other learning resources.  

Feedback analysis

Since AI tools can analyze hoards of data at once, you can use it to streamline feedback analysis in your customer education program.

“By analyzing customer behavior, feedback, and learning patterns,” says Furiani-Boggs. “AI can generate invaluable insights into what customers need to know, how they prefer to learn, and where the gaps in understanding lie.”

For instance, if customers frequently comment that a specific training video is too complicated, an AI feedback analysis tool could identify this trend and alert your team to make the necessary adjustments.

💡Action: Determine where you will collect customer feedback. This could be surveys after a course completion, comment sections in the learning platform, direct emails, or social media platforms. Look for a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool to analyze feedback, categorize sentiment, and identify common themes. 

Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems (LMS) with AI can enable content creation, generative AI, coaching and feedback, natural language processing, and a discovery and recommendations engine for users to find relevant content.

With AI Assist in WorkRamp, you can use generative AI in the WorkRamp Guide Editor to natively edit and create content from scratch directly within the LMS. 

Predictive analytics 

“AI-powered predictive analytics can help anticipate future customer learning needs based on trends, product usage data, and customer feedback,” says Furiani-Boggs. “It’s like a compass pointing towards what your customers will need to know next.”

Suppose you offer various levels of certification courses for your customers. These courses are critical for users to get the most out of the software.

Here, you can use predictive analytics to anticipate which customers are likely to complete the certification courses and which ones are at risk of dropping out. You can base predictions off of various factors like engagement, quiz performance, product usage, and historical data from other customers. 

💡Action: Determine what data you will use to predict course completion. This may include engagement data (such as login frequency and duration), performance data (like quiz scores), software usage data, and any other relevant historical data. Launch and monitor your model based on performance, changing behaviors, and evolving course offerings. 

Content creation

This AI use case is interesting. We know you’re the expert, so it’s unlikely an AI tool will create an amazing course from scratch. But it can give you ideas for building out course content. 

For example, your AI tool could analyze customer queries and suggest new course topics that address FAQs. You can also use Generative AI  to create course outlines based on topic or title. 

In the Learning Cloud, you can use the AI Assist content block which allows for full dialog between the user and ChatGPT. This can help you create content from scratch or brainstorm ideas. 

Onboarding

AI can make the customer onboarding process more efficient and personalized. For instance, AI-powered platforms can analyze a customer’s behavior during the sign-up process and tailor the subsequent onboarding tutorial based on their responses.

If a learner seems tech-savvy, the onboarding might focus on advanced features, while if a user seems less confident, the tutorial might start with the basics.

Benefits of AI in customer education

There are many examples where AI in customer education can benefit both the organization and its customers, whether it’s offering better support or scaling training in a personalized way. 

Data also shows that:

• 61% of employees say AI helps improve work productivity
• 62% of customers are willing to give data to use AI to improve their experience
• 54% of firms using AI reported seeing cost savings and efficiencies

Challenges and solutions in implementing AI in customer education

It’s clear AI has a role to play in customer education. 

Regardless, it’s important to look at the potential challenges around AI as you explore it deeper. 

• Addressing roadblocks. Many employees and even IT departments may not understand how AI works, yet. To overcome this, you want to provide education and training sessions about AI, its uses, and its limitations. 
• Data privacy concerns. AI collects, stores, and processes a lot of customer data. Guarantee that the AI systems you’re using comply with data protection laws and regulations, like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California. 
• Manage the change to using AI. Chances are, AI will work in the background for employees. You’ll want to address any concerns they have beforehand, and roll out the implementation in phases. Start with pilot projects to show the benefits of AI and iron out any issues before full implementation. 

The future of AI in customer education

New applications of AI are cropping up every day. In fact, 9 in 10 leading businesses have ongoing investments in AI. The truth is, if used correctly, AI has the potential to greatly enhance learners’ ability to think critically and expand their skills. 

From an organizational perspective, AI can provide cost-effective one-to-one support for learners, and help customers better understand your products and services faster. 

Create a best-in-class customer education progam with the Learning Cloud

AI Assist is just one of many features the Learning Cloud offers to help you build an effective, engaging customer education program. With the Customer Learning Cloud, you can uplevel the customer experience by providing the educational tools your users need to thrive.

Ready to learn more? Contact us to schedule a free, personalized demo.